Bob Bradley made his return to Giants Stadium for the first time since being let go by then-MetroStars president and general manager Alexi Lalas last October. But the coach who spent three years coaching the home side here didn't want to speak about his homecoming.
His concern these days is Chivas USA and the small mistakes that led to their 5-4 loss to the New York Red Bulls on Saturday night.
"It's a strange game," he said. "Regardless of what the stat sheet says, I think they had five goals off five real chances and those chances came from weird situations. It's frustrating to feel like, for the most part again we played pretty well, but we paid the price on every chance."
Jean Philippe Peguero scored a hat trick and Seth Stammler added two goals to give the Red Bulls their first win of the 2006 season. But Bradley believes the Red Bulls five goals -- which matched their season total in the six previous games combined -- came on only that many chances.
"Soccer is something amazing and that is one of the amazing things, five goals and five opportunities," Chivas USA midfielder Juan Pablo Garcia said through a translator.
Added Francisco Mendoza: "I think it's lack of concentration. We need to learn because we don't have any excuses at this point and honestly we have to learn from these mistakes and not commit these mistakes."
Chivas leave Giants Stadium after losing for the fourth time this season frustrated because they feel they opened the door for the Red Bulls with minor mistakes, like failing to mark up and fouling in a bad position.
Veteran defender Carlos Llamosa was beat to a header by Peguero off a Chris Henderson corner for the Red Bulls first goal, Peguero slipped behind the Chivas defense on a long ball by Carlos Mendes on the second and Stammler was given acres of space and took two touches before beating Brad Guzan from 36 yards on a low, hard shot for the Red Bulls third goal. Stammler then flicked an open header in from the penalty spot for the fourth goal and Peguero put the ball off the far post and in for the final Red Bull goal.
"I think when you make mistakes on the field you're going to pay at the end and tonight was the perfect example for that," said Juan Francisco Palencia, who scored his first two goals of the year. "I think we took the ball for a lot of time during the game and I think we played better than they played, but at the end they scored the goals. We played good, we kept the ball, made chances but at the end we have nothing."
But there are positives Chivas can bring with them to The Home Depot Center for next Saturday's game against the Chicago Fire. With a pair of goals by Ante Razov, including the 89th of his career, placing him alone third all-time on the MLS scoring list, they rallied from a pair of three-goal deficits to get within a goal twice and had the better of possession for chunks of the match.
The attitude in the Chivas locker room is positive, but it's not enough.
"You can't win just with attitude," Garcia said. "You need to win with intelligence and hopefully we'll start to play with a little more intelligence."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
