MVN - Most Valuable Network

Saturday night soccer — Both LA teams lead now lead the West [UPDATED]

While so many have been focused on the Western Conference leaders LA Galaxy for most of this season - while they have led the West for most of the past two months, the other tenant of the Home Depot Center was busy building and improving its performance after a very poor start in the spring. Now, as of late Saturday night, both teams share the lead of the Western Conference table with identical 6-6-3 records, each with 21 points…

Saturday night at the HDC, Chivas USA eeked out a 1-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes, thanks to a magnificent, perfectly placed kick in the 88th minute by Ante Razov. Razov is the second all-time leading MLS goal scorer - now with 112 - and chasing still-active Jaime Moreno of DC United, but this was only his third goal this season, after a difficult few months plagued with injuries going back to late last year, when they ended the regular season on top of the Western Conference.

The interesting coincidence now is that these two teams will meet each other in their very next match, which will be the second in the three-match SuperClasico LA derby series. That match will be ESPN’s featured contest for their “Primetime Thursday” telecast on July 10…

If they don’t end in a draw that night, one will surge ahead of the pack in the West, but if they do tie, the conference will be as close as ever this season, as several teams are within two or three points of these two now. Only the 2008 expansion Earthquakes are far behind the rest of the field in the West, and Razov’s great goal Saturday night simply added more strife to their struggles, giving them no real time to regroup and come back.

from MLSNet,

“Ante Razov scored a stunning late goal to give Chivas USA a 1-0 victory against the San Jose Earthquakes at The Home Depot Center on Saturday night.”

“With the game scoreless in the 88th minute, Razov sent a 27-yard free kick over the wall and past the despairing dive of Joe Cannon, inside the right-hand post and into the back of the net for the game-winner…”

Read the complete MLSnet.com Match Report here

VIDEOS -

Razov’s goal (from Fox Soccer Channel)

Post-match reaction (from ChivasUSAGameday)

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 6th, 2008 at 8:18 pm and is filed under Soccer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.