The scoreboard might say they lost 2-1 to FC Dallas, but Chivas USA left Pizza Hut Park on Sunday evening knowing they gave the best team in the MLS Western Conference all they could handle and then some.
Head coach Bob Bradley liked the toughness his team showed the entire game.
"I thought we fought all night," Bradley said. "I thought when it was 1-0, we had really good chances to tie the game. I thought we were unlucky to give up the second goal, but we weren't done. We were able to quickly make it 2-1 and try to still see if we could equalize. I thought our effort was quite good."
Carlos Ruiz gave FC Dallas a 28th-minute lead when he scored for the seventh consecutive game, matching the MLS record.
In the second half, Ante Razov came alive as he had all four of Chivas USA's shots. His first, which came in the 48th minute after a great pass from rookie teammate Sacha Kljestan, hit the near post and bounced safely away from the goal. Then in the 74th minute, he had another golden opportunity, this time at an open net, but his effort went wide right.
The Hoops added another goal in the 82nd minute when Roberto Mina got his second of the year, sending a curving ball past Burpo into the far side of the net to make it 2-0. Razov finally struck just a minute later after Matt Taylor laid the ball back to him outside the Dallas penalty area, and he hit home inside Dario Sala's left-hand post.
Bradley took notice of how many chances the league's leading scorer had.
"Ante (Razov) had some good chances," he said. "I know he probably wishes that he had put one away when it was 1-0. But that's the way the game works some nights. He still kept us in it and gave us a chance to still push until the end."
At game time, the thermometer read 96 degrees and the heat was clearly a factor in the second half as the two teams combined for only seven shots in the second 45 minutes of play.
"Sure (heat was a factor)," Bradley said. "We shouldn't be playing games at 5 o'clock down here (in Texas), end of discussion. It's not fair for the players. We're talking about trying to produce quality soccer but we shouldn't be playing 5 o'clock games here."
Razov agreed with his coach about the difficult playing conditions.
"These conditions are tough," he said. "It's not even fun to play. I don't understand how the stadium and field could be so perfect yet the conditions are so ridiculous. It's impossible to have an entertaining game because both teams just walk around."
Despite the loss, Bradley and his players were pleased with their effort.
"We came into their home stadium and played a solid game," Bradley said. "We made a mistake in the first half and they punished us. We responded quite well. We created some very good chances. Tonight, we just couldn't get it to go our way."
Added Razov: "It was a tough game. We knew that they were going to be tough to play against. We played well. For the most part, we took care of them. We gave Carlos (Ruiz) one chance and he capitalized on it."
The Chivas club-record three-game winning streak might have ended with the loss, but Razov thinks they earned something equally important against FCD: respect.
"Give them credit, they made one more play than we did," Razov said. "We know we're a good team but I think they'll walk away from this game knowing that also."
After 10 games, Chivas sit at 4-5-1, a big improvement from where they were at the same point last season, when they were 1-8-1.
"We're definitely better than last year," said forward and captain Juan Francisco Palencia. "You can see that. We're not happy because we lost. I think that we can be happy about the effort and the plays that we made."
Steve Hunt is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
