CARSON, Calif -- Chivas USA defeated the LA Galaxy for the first time since August 23, 2007, with the first score 1-0, at the Home Depot Center Saturday night. The Goat victory snapped a six match winning streak for the Galaxy, and an 11 match unbeaten streak. It took a penalty kick from Jose Corea in the 72' to finally break the match open. 18,800 fans showed up at the Home Depot Center, a sellout by Chivas USA's tarped up standards.
"I was pleased with the way we started the game," said Chivas USA coach Robin Fraser. "We were able to make ourselves pretty dangerous pretty early....the mindset was very aggressive from the beginning. As the game worn on when things didn't go our way we didn't crumble...a very satisfying win for the team in a number of ways."
The match finally came alive in the 70' when David Junior Lopes was shown a red card. Brian Perk punched a cross into the box, but the ball bounced came right after. This shot was saved by Lopes, who isn't the goalkeeper. Lopes was shown a red card for his volleyball dig of a save, and Perk now had to stop Jose Correa's penalty attempt.
He failed to save the penalty the first time, but Chivas came off the line too early, so the penalty had to be taken again. Correa was once again successful with a shot to the bottom right corner, putting the Galaxy down 1-0. This was just the second goal scored at home on the season for Chivas in six matches, and both of them have been penalties.
"We had a couple of good goalscoring opportunities," said Galaxy manager Bruce Arena, "but we weren't able to convert them...you have to take your chance. That game was pretty much a wash up until the penalty kick, which was warranted."
For the Galaxy, the problem was that the offense didn't figure out a way to get onto the goal until too late in the match. In the first half, the only attempt to try Adam Kennedy was a throwaway shot from Landon Donovan about 30 yards out on a non-developing play.
For Chivas, they got great play from new addition Danny Califf. This, combined with some superb goalkeeping on the part of Dan Kennedy kept the Galaxy out of sorts for most of the match. Not having David Beckham or Robbie Keane out there for most of the match didn't help things either.
Over the past three years, Chivas had only scored one goal against the Galaxy, and one goal was all that they needed tonight.