Since their inception, Chivas USA has taken beating after beating from the Los Angeles Galaxy. Even last season, after the club revamped its roster and reached the playoffs, the Galaxy still beat Chivas twice.
But the opposite happened on Thursday. Instead of the Galaxy dominating the match much like the club has dominated the Super Clasico series, Chivas was the side who landed blow after blow against their rivals and came away with a 3-0 victory.
For three players in particular, the victory was memorable: goalkeeper Brad Guzan picked up his first win against the Galaxy; Francisco "Panchito" Mendoza scored his first goal in the rivalry and his first goal this year; and Orlando Perez had a solid effort on the left and helped the Chivas backline.
The three players are the only remaining holdovers from 2005, when the Galaxy went 5-0 against Chivas USA.
"Me, Brad and Panchito have been together now for three years with this team. I'm fairly close with both of them. Panchito getting the goal today, of course I'm happy for him," Perez said. "We're very happy about this win. I think it gives us a little bit of bragging rights."
While Chivas beat the Galaxy for the first time last season, the trio played varying roles in that match, a 2-1 win on June 8, 2006. Mendoza assisted on a thundering volley from Ante Razov and played the entire match. Perez came on in the 77th minute to help protect the lead while Guzan did not play at all.
Guzan had taken a brunt of the damage against the Galaxy. He was in goal for four of the five losses in 2005 and both losses in 2006 as well as the 3-1 Galaxy win in April of this season. In all, he'd given up 19 goals before his first result, a 1-1 draw on May 20.
Still, Guzan was not too concerned about first-year results.
"We've been through a lot -- Orlando, Pancho and myself from that first year," Guzan said. "It's a little sweeter but we're not comparing teams from two years ago or whatever. Anytime you beat them -- and obviously that hasn't happened too much for us -- it feels good."
Not even the rise in attention and the presence of an international superstar was enough to deter Chivas. David Beckham played his second 90-minute match in two days on two continents. A day after playing for England in London, he took the field against Chivas USA.
In the attention department, the Galaxy is apparently still ahead of Chivas as the world's eyes might still be focused on the Galaxy. But that's fine with Guzan.
"We'll let them worry about all the hype and all that stuff over there and we'll go on with our business over here and continue to get some Ws and work our way towards the playoffs and then obviously once you get in there anything can happen," he said.
Mendoza punctuated the victory with his first Clasico goal. Mendoza had not scored any goals in 2007 before Thursday but took advantage of a late opportunity to put an exclamation mark on the victory.
Afterward, he walked over toward the L.A. Riot Squad, the boisterous Galaxy supporters group, to celebrate. Riot Squad members donned sombreros and even had a mariachi band out there, a gesture that Mendoza said was offensive to him.
"I didn't say anything to them. I just went over there and kissed my jersey," Mendoza said. "More than anything, though, I went over there because of how they ridicule us by wearing those charro sombreros, kind of trying to make fun of Mexicans. I want to tell them if they want to clown around, they should go to the circus."
Mendoza, though, had the support of Maykel Galindo, who also ran over to the Riot Squad after the first of his two goals.
"I celebrated in front of them because at the beginning of the game I saw that Claudio (Suárez) and 'Pancho' were upset at the Galaxy fan club mocking us by wearing sombreros," Galindo said. "Pancho and Claudio felt it was a lack of respect. After all, they are Mexican and I defend these Mexican colors. That's why I went over there and now they are feeling the pain with our win."
While the Galaxy still hold an 8-2-2 record over Chivas, it was the Red-and-White who owned Thursday's match.
"I think (the series) is starting to turn around," Perez said. "This game, I think we outplayed them not just for moments in the game but the whole game."
