CARSON, Calif. - Sacha Kljestan scored his first career goal and helped set up another in Chivas USA's 2-0 win against Toronto FC at The Home Depot Center on Saturday.
But when asked about his role in the win, he pointed the finger at the player a few spots down in the club's locker room.
"Brad (Guzan) was great tonight," Kljestan said. "Without him, we're nowhere near a 2-0 game."
Guzan made four saves in a 17-minute span in the first half that kept the expansion club from scoring their first-ever MLS goal. After his last save, off a 12-yard blast from Alecko Eskandarian, Chivas USA's offense took care of the rest.
Ante Razov scored in the 35th minute and Kljestan added an 88th-minute insurance goal to give Chivas USA a comfortable victory.
"As a goalkeeper you're called upon in certain situations. Four chances and that's all I had to do the whole night," said Guzan, who finished with four saves. "In the second half, we were as solid as can be. As a goalkeeper you need to be able to come up with that big save. My third year, I feel a lot more comfortable and composed and I did well tonight."
Chivas USA coach Preki debuted with a victory and gave credit to Guzan for the achievement.
"Brad Guzan was the player of the game for me," Preki said. "He makes two big saves when we needed it and he kept us afloat at that point. After that we picked up and scored a nice goal."
That Razov's goal was the eventual match-winner and not an equalizer was credit to Guzan's play. Toronto FC's Edson Buddle rose for a free kick and put a glancing header on goal in the 13th minute. Guzan was positioned well and went down to stop the ball from crossing over the goal line.
"As a goalkeeper, it's good to be good but it's better to be lucky. That's kind of what they say," Guzan said. "In that instance, I had luck on my side. Nine out of 10 times he hits that, that's going in. Obviously, good positioning and being able to stay calm and relaxed I think has really benefited myself and being able to understand the game more."
Three minutes later, Guzan made a pair of stellar saves. Former Galaxy midfielder Paulo Nagamura cracked a shot from outside the penalty area at Guzan, who parried it away. But the ball bounced right to Buddle who despite not having a defender near him fired a shot that was turned away by Guzan.
"When Nagamura hit, it he crushed it," Guzan said. "It started coming at me, then it went to my left and it came back to my right and at that point I was just trying to keep it out of the net and do whatever I could. Catching it wasn't an option any more. I look up and I see Edson running full steam. Obviously I didn't have too much time to get my thoughts together so that was just a reaction save."
Guzan's final save of the night was another exceptional effort. Alecko Eskandarian capitalized on a Lawson Vaughn turnover, carried the ball inside the area and ripped a shot on frame.
"(Vaughn was) a little unlucky with the back pass and just being able to help my teammates out in that situation," Guzan said.
After the saves, the Chivas attack got on track. Kljestan beat Toronto's defense with a pass over the backline into Maykel Galindo's path. Galindo slipped the ball over to Razov who coolly finished for his 99th career goal.
"Sacha played Maykel the ball there and he made the whole play," Razov said of Kljestan. "It's an easy tap-in. If I would have missed that, I probably would have just ran home."
Kljestan then took his turn in the spotlight. In the 88th minute, Kljestan ripped a long-range cannon into the back of the net and went over to celebrate the goal with a celebration he coined "Make it Rain."
"We've been wanting one of us to score for a long time so it was built up but we got it out of us," Kljestan said. "It takes a little bit of a load off my back. I wanted to score pretty badly last year."
Still, Chivas USA's Jesse Marsch said that by having a poised Guzan leading the way, the club was able to feed off their goalkeeper.
"Brad is playing with so much confidence that it gives the rest of us confidence too," Marsch said.
Luis Bueno is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
