In what was hardly a beautiful game, Chivas USA nevertheless did almost everything right on Saturday.
Playing a man down for the final 50 minutes, Chivas USA scratched and clawed their way to a scoreless draw against Houston. With the point earned against their conference foe, Chivas USA laid claim to their first Western Conference regular season title.
After dousing coach Preki with champagne in the locker room, players congratulated each other on the accomplishment and began focusing on the playoffs.
"Right now, this feels great," said goalkeeper Brad Guzan, one of three remaining members of the inaugural 2005 squad. "From all the troubles we've come from, from all the guys who have come through this locker room, it's an unbelievable feeling right now."
Chivas USA will play one of three clubs in the Western Conference Semifinal Series: the Kansas City Wizards (should the Chicago Fire beat the Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday afternoon), Chicago (if the Fire and Galaxy draw) or Los Angeles (if the Galaxy beat the Fire).
For the moment, Preki was not concerned with his club's playoff rival.
"We'll go home tonight, we'll put the game behind us and we'll get ready for whoever we play," he said. "It's as simple as that."
Needing just a point to clinch the west, Chivas USA was left with little option but to play for a draw after referee Baldomero Toledo sent off Lawson Vaughn in the 40th minute. Vaughn tackled Richard Mulrooney in the middle of the field. Toledo wasted little time in pulling out his red card.
Neither Preki nor Vaughn felt the call should have been made.
"The referee makes a call I don't agree with," Preki said. "In hard games like this, I always want the players to decide the games, not referees. Let the players play. It's a hard game. Houston is a good team but he makes it difficult for us."
The call was particularly difficult, Vaughn said, because he hadn't been called for a foul prior to the play.
"I thought it was a 50-50. Mulrooney got there and he hit it and I was just trying to get there to get the ball," Vaughn said. "I had no intent to touch the player and I felt like I didn't even really hit him. I felt like the ball touched my toe and I kind of went underneath him but I didn't take him out. He kind of jumped out of the tackle."
At first, Vaughn said he was expecting perhaps as little as a talking-to from Toledo.
"I thought that at most it would be a yellow card. I thought maybe he should come and talk to me, give me a warning, maybe a yellow," Vaughn said. "For the first foul, for him to just give me a straight red, I felt that it was the wrong decision."
Nonetheless, Vaughn walked to the locker room. After his club finished the first half even goalless, his teammates consoled him.
"The guys at halftime, they came in and saw I was pretty down, pretty upset about the play because I really wanted to win," Vaughn said. "I want to do everything I can to help this team. They all said 'I got your back. We're not going to lose this game. We're going to be champions.' I had all the confidence in those guys. ... I was a little nervous on some of the plays but the guys did well and hung on to the tie."
Chivas USA had just the 15-minute intermission to regroup. With their eyes set on a conference title, Houston attacked ferociously in the second half. But none of the defending champions' standout players could put much on Guzan. In fact, the only shot Houston placed on goal in the second half was a 66th-minute attempt Brian Ching took that sailed right into Guzan's hands.
Late in the game, Chivas USA had a chance to win it as Sacha Kljestan had space inside the penalty area to shoot but was turned away by Houston's Pat Onstad.
Despite not winning for the third consecutive match, the Chivas players felt the match will send the club into the postseason on a positive note.
"The way the game actually turned out, it turned out in our favor," Jonathan Bornstein said. "We knew all we needed was a tie especially going a man down, you almost prepare for the worst. You just grit your teeth and you battle."
Now, Chivas USA need only replicate the effort to find success in the postseason.
"It showed a lot of class in our team," Bornstein said. "It showed how hard we could battle as a group of 10. Imagine what you could do with 11 guys if everyone works that hard. That's the mentality we have to approach the first playoff game with."
Luis Bueno is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
