Mexican Showdown Ends In Draw by - T.J. Boyce September 30, 2007 |
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A rare sellout crowd turned out to watch Cuauhtemoc Blanco and the Chicago Fire fight to a 1-1 draw with Claudio Suarez and Chivas USA in an entertaining, physical match at the Home Depot Center on Saturday night. |
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It was the first Chivas sellout in history outside of the Honda SuperClasico, with support of the 27,000-strong evenly split between the two clubs. Donning Club America jerseys, cheers from Blanco supporters reached a crescendo when his first-half free kick found the back of the net. Blanco’s old nemesis Claudio Suarez would convert a late penalty kick to level the game and earn Chivas a share of the points.
The home side threatened first, when Sacha Kljestan slipped a through ball to Ante Razov behind the Chicago defense in the third minute. Looking for career goal #110, Razov readied a shot, but Fire keeper Matt Pickens was quickly off his line, sliding through the ball to break up the attack.
It was Razov doing the supplying in the 21st minute as his quick left-footed pass threaded two Chicago defenders en route to Maykel Galindo. Pickens again took several steps away from his goal to cut down the attempt, but the Cuban international easily deked around a slipping Pickens at the penalty spot and finished into the open net. As the crowd celebrated an early Chivas lead, the goal was pulled back by the assistant referee’s claim that Galindo was offsides when he received the pass.
In the 23rd minute, Blanco was brought down from behind by Paulo Nagamura, one of his eight fouls suffered, earning the Mexican star a free kick from the middle of the field, 25-yards out. Taking his trademark lengthy run-up to the ball, El Cuauh bent the ball beautifully around the four-man wall and into the net at the near post, leaving Brad Guzan looking stunned with no chance to make the save.
Eight minutes from halftime, Galindo sprinted past and then was pulled down by Wilman Conde as he was racing toward goal. Claiming Conde was the last man back, Galindo immediately began protesting when referee Tim Weyland only served the Colombian defender with a caution.
"I thought Conde should have been red-carded," asserted Chivas coach Preki, "because Maykel goes straight to goal, one-on-one with the keeper, and the referee doesn’t call it, and we’ve gotta live with that."
Chivas would come close to equalizing in the 40th minute as Razov’s shot from the top of the box got deflected by a Fire defender in traffic, scraping the top the top of the crossbar on its way over and out of play.
Though Chicago would only get one shot on goal in the first half, they would make it count, as Blanco’s strike stood as the difference between the teams at the break. In between scoring chances, the capacity crowd got many chances to take in some fancy footwork.
"I don’t think anyone has ever ole’d for a team that I’ve been on before," said Chicago midfielder Chris Rolfe.
"The support for Cuauhtemoc was great and he feeds off of that."
The second 45 minutes got underway slowly as the physical tone of the match took over. Though there were no goal-scoring opportunities in the opening 10 minutes of half #2, a shoving match broke out in the 54th minute after Blanco was taken down extremely hard by his attacking counterpart Galindo, producing a yellow on the play. Diego Gutierrez took exception to the challenge and confronted Galindo, causing several teammates to get involved, exchanging shoves before being separated. The caution was especially costly for the Chivas forward, as he will miss next Saturday’s road match against Real Salt Lake due to yellow-card accumulation.
Continuing their hunt for a tying goal, Chivas pushed forward in the 72nd minute. Kljestan’s cross from the corner of the box bent into the back post for Francisco Mendoza, but Panchito’s volley attempt struck the crossbar and came back into play briefly before being cleared away.
Eight minutes from full-time, Galindo went shoulder-to-shoulder with Chicago’s C.J. Brown in the box, earning a penalty kick as the Fire defender clipped Galindo from behind. Chosen to take the kick was Claudio Suarez, the most-capped player in Mexican history and former foe of Blanco when he played for Chivas de Guadalajara against Cuauhtemoc’s Club America in Mexico.
Though Pickens correctly guessed to his left, Suarez buried the spot-kick anyway, rattling the top corner with the equalizing goal.
Chicago tried to respond four minutes later as Blanco had another free kick opportunity. Though the attempt was turned away by a defender in the box, the ball came loose to Chris Rolfe, whose bending shot nearly dipped under the crossbar before missing just high.
The save of the match came 90 seconds from full-time when Brad Guzan got airborne to get a hand to a Diego Gutierrez rocket for his only save on the night, using his left hand to parry the ball over the crossbar to keep the game deadlocked.
Blanco would create one last burst of excitement when he got past second-half substitute Alex Zotinca in the third minute of stoppage time but was promptly tripped up from behind in the box. Referee Weyland did not call for a penalty kick, however, provoking no less than a full minute of theatrics from Blanco as he walked over to take the corner kick, dodging bottles and other garbage thrown by the fed-up Chivas supporters.
Blanco wasn’t the only person surprised by the call as Fire head coach Juan Carlos Osorio was ejected from the field for giving the fourth official an earful as the subsequent corner kick was defended, leaving both teams to split the points on the night. For Chicago, every point is important as they find themselves in the eighth and final playoff spot in the league. Heading into a tough matchup against New England on Saturday, the Fire stand two points clear of the Columbus Crew, with the Colorado Rapids also lurking four points back.
Chivas USA remains unbeaten at home this year at 10-0-3. The draw boosts their Western Conference lead to three full points over the Houston Dynamo with four games left for both teams. A two-game road trip begins next Saturday against Real Salt Lake and concludes with a Thursday night game in Dallas on October 11th before Preki’s squad returns to the Home Depot Center for two games to conclude the regular season.
"A hard-fought game," assessed Preki after the match. "We dominated the play; we had the chances to put them away. I felt we were very unfortunate not to score a couple of goals."
Preki was also critical of the officiating following the game, commenting, “They had four or five really hard fouls in the first 7-8 minutes of the game and the referee doesn’t give them one yellow card. Then we made our first foul of the game and he gives us a yellow card.
Chivas USA midfielder Jesse Marsch was amused by Blanco’s antics on the field, telling American Soccer Daily post-game, “I know he’s shifty and I know he’s faster than you think. I know he likes to draw contact and I know he likes to fall – and he did all of that tonight.
"Blanco’s a big draw and he’s a polarizing figure,” he continued. "It’s good for this league, I just wish he’d stay on his feet a little more."
Scoring
Lineups
CHI – Matt Pickens, C.J. Brown, Logan Pause, Diego Gutierrez, Chad Barrett (Floyd Franks 63’), Cuauhtemoc Blanco, Paulo Wanchope (Dasan Robinson 79’), Chris Armas, Chris Rolfe, Wilman Conde, Gonzalo Segares |
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