with two goals. Last year, Marsch scored in a 1-1 draw against New England in a match played at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. His latest goal, his first of the 2007 season, opened the scoring in a match where Chivas coach Preki felt his club played the better of the two teams.
"From the first moment, I thought we were pretty good," Preki said. "We had many opportunities in the first half that we couldn't really connect ... on the final pass. That's something we talked about at halftime and I thought we came out in the second half and played just as well."
Chivas had just one shot on goal in the first half and generated few scoring chances. The club had only two shots on goal in the second half but converted both.
"The first half I thought wasn't so bad other than the fact that we weren't able to make a play in the final third to lead to us being really dangerous," Marsch said. "All in all, it was a pretty good, complete game."
Forward Ante Razov was a bit off in the match. He had an open header early in the second half but pushed the ball well wide of the goal. Nevertheless, on the hour mark Razov made his presence felt.
Razov dribbled the ball inside the penalty area, had three Revolution defenders around him and fed Marsch. His longtime teammate rifled a shot off the left post and into the back of the net.
"I felt like I played quite poorly this evening," Razov said. "I was fortunate to contribute something to the team tonight. I was able to run at a guy and draw three guys and buy some time and someone had to be open. Jesse made a great run and so it was just up to get it to the proper foot in stride and Jesse hit a good shot."
Marsch said he saw the play develop and moved into a spot where he could create.
"(Razov) did well to hold on to it," Marsch said. "Sometimes there is some random timing and I knew at halftime that I wanted to push forward a little bit and make some good plays and the timing worked out perfectly."
With New England pushing forward, though, Chivas inadvertently helped the visitors' cause when captain Claudio Suarez was sent off after elbowing Revs forward Adam Cristman. Suarez, though, was adamant that he did not do much wrong.
"I extended my arms but I grazed him with my elbow," Suarez said. "He completely exaggerated."
Preki said the play was unfortunate but did not complain too much about it otherwise.
"The tussling and wrestling, it always happens in this game that the referee sees the last one. Claudio was probably the last one and the referee sees that one and that's the end of it," Preki said. "I don't think it was an elbow. I think it was a forearm and the player made a little bit more of a meal of it than he should have but at the end of the day the referee made the call and you can't complain about that."
The defense was a bit different to begin with. Shavar Thomas was suspended after he was sent off in a 4-0 loss at Houston on June 21. Jason Hernandez started for the second time this season, in central defense, and Lawson Vaughn returned from an injury to play in his customary right back role. Alex Zotinca moved from right defense to right midfield.
"Around like the 50th minute I started getting tight in my muscles and I pushed through it but in the 70th minute when I went into a tackle with Khano [Smith] my left calf tightened up," Vaughn said. "I didn't want to push through it and be a liability and hurt my team so I told Preki and it was his choice and he took me out."
With Chivas USA minus starters Jonathan Bornstein, Sacha Kljestan and Brad Guzan due to international duty, players stepped up in the their absence.
"I always tell my guys if we go out there and play hard and play for each other, we'll surprise people," Preki said. "I thought tonight the mentality of the team was right from the first moment. I was really proud of the way they stuck for each other and played given that we were missing four players."
Luis Bueno is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
