Jonathan Bornstein and Ante Razov scored first-half goals as Chivas USA beat 10-man Houston Dynamo 3-2 at The Home Depot Center on Saturday.
The victory put Chivas (8-6-10, 34 points) within one point of Houston (9-7-8, 35 points) and ahead of the Colorado Rapids (9-9-5, 32 points), who lost 1-0 to the Chicago Fire earlier in the day.
Both teams played a physical match as players from both sides stood their ground. The physicality of the match cost Houston a player as Ricardo Clark was sent off in the 31st minute after shoving both Sacha Kljestan and Orlando Perez within moments of each other.
The match marked the debut of Chivas forward Jesus Morales. A day earlier, Chivas signed Morales, a 20-year-old forward who played in Chivas de Guadalajara's Apertura 2006 opening match. Morales was quickly inserted into the starting lineup in place of Francisco Palencia as the veteran forward missed his third consecutive match due to a hamstring injury.
Bornstein scored in the seventh minute to give Chivas an early lead. Bornstein trapped a cross from Morales and darted at Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad. Bornstein knocked the ball toward Onstad, who slid and could only grab a piece of the ball. Bornstein knocked the ball over the goal line.
Houston was awarded a penalty kick on a questionable call. Chivas 'keeper Preston Burpo dived and tried to knock the ball away from Houston forward Chris Wondolowski. Instead, the ball went sailing toward the end line as Burpo slid toward the Dynamo striker, who hit the turf. Referee Alex Prus ruled that Burpo had clipped Wondolowski and awarded Dynamo a penalty kick.
Dwayne DeRosario calmly slotted the spot kick into the back of the net in the 28th minute to level the match.
In the 31st minute, however, Chivas gained an advantage. Clark and Kljestan collided with each other during play. Clark shoved Kljestan and Prus whistled the play dead. Players gathered and Clark shoved Chivas defender Orlando Perez to the ground. Prus sent Clark off with a straight red card but did not hand out any more cards to any other players.
Houston countered the move by taking Wondolowski off and inserting midfielder Adrian Serioux in his place.
Razov fired a shot from 30 yards out in the 40th minute that nearly fooled Onstad, who barely pushed Razov's swerving long-range effort over the crossbar.
Five minutes later, Razov broke through, scoring his 13th goal of the season in the 45th minute.
Chivas put the game out of reach in the 52nd minute with a clever combination. Kljestan won a ball deep in Chivas' third. Kljestan sent a ball across the middle of the field toward Morales, who was quickly surrounded by a pair of Dynamo defenders. Morales pulled his run back and dumped the ball back toward Razov, who slotted a pass to Kljestan. With a gaping hole on the right side of the field, Brent Whitfield ran into yards of open space. Kljestan spotted his teammate and laid a pass off to the first-year player. Whitfield hit a sharp cross to Razov, who calmly slotted a left-footed shot into the left corner of the net.
It was Razov's 14th goal of the season and moved him into a tie with Real Salt Lake's Jeff Cunningham atop the goal-scoring table.
DeRosario scored another goal in the 67th minute to slice Chivas' lead in half and nearly won a penalty kick in stoppage time after he was taken down by Chivas defender Jason Hernandez. Prus, though, did not give Houston the call.
Luis Bueno is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
