E. RUTHERFORD, N.J. - When he was a standout at Seton Hall University, Sacha Kljestan would take the short drive to Giants Stadium to watch former college teammate Jason Hernandez and the MetroStars.
On Thursday night, the two had about 60 family and friends in the stands to witness a historic win for Chivas USA. The Red-and-White beat the Red Bulls 2-0 in an MLS Primetime Thursday meeting for their first-ever win against the New York-based MLS team.
A year ago, Kljestan and Hernandez also had a large contingent in the crowd. But they watched a wild 5-4 win for the home side, which makes this return to New Jersey even sweeter for Kljestan.
"It's always exciting to come back and play at Giants Stadium because this is a place when I was in college," Kljestan said. "I watched Jason play here and I watched the MetroStars play and supported them while I was out here, so it's always a big deal for me to come back and play here."
Making it especially sweet was a goal three minutes from full time that helped secure the rare road win. It was Chivas' fifth ever win away from home and one came against the Galaxy at The Home Depot Center.
"We've been having a tough time on the road," Chivas coach Preki said. "Is it because we're such a young team and we're growing into the whole thing or is it that we don't really feel comfortable playing on the road? I don't know what it is, but I think tonight we played good. We came here and did a professional job, like I expect us to do every time we go on the road."
It was also a special homecoming of sorts for Ante Razov, who played for New York in 2005. He scored what proved to be the game-winner in the 38th minute, the 104th goal of his career, inching him closer to the all-time lead in MLS history. He now sits four goals behind co-leaders Jason Kreis and Jaime Moreno.
"It's nice and it's something that I'll add up when I'm all said and done," Razov said. "Most importantly, it's three points."
Razov's goal was the result of a quality cross from Maykel Galindo, who dribbled on Seth Stammler into the right side of the box. Razov leaped over Chris Leitch to nod the ball past Jon Conway.
"He got out wide and just kind of drifted in the box and I got myself in between two defenders and was able to get a good head on it," Razov said. "I've actually missed a few headers in the past few weeks and it's something that I've worked on the past couple days in training, and this time, it paid off."
Razov also set up Kljestan's insurance goal three minutes from full time when he turned after a turnover in midfield and led Kljestan to goal with a long return pass on a one-two.
"Alex Zotinca came up to me with about 20, 25 minutes to go and said, 'If you're smart this half, you'll get a goal,'" Kljestan said. "He said just wait for your chances and go at them hard."
Razov said there was no extra motivation to beat the Red Bulls after playing here for just one season. Three road points, which moved Chivas three points behind second-place FC Dallas in the Western Conference standings, was all he cared about. Now it's on to Kansas City on Sunday night.
"We wanted to start the second half of the season on a positive," Razov said. "A two-game road trip in two very difficult places, to get a win here is big for us. It's well-documented, our struggles on the road. We've won a couple of games on the road now, so it's a good start."
Chivas didn't have many scoring opportunities, but they capitalized on the ones they did get, which couldn't be said of the Red Bulls, which twice hit the woodwork.
"I'm not so sure if they had that many chances," Preki said. "If you're talking about long balls and crosses, yeah they had a few of those. They had one good chance in the second half when [Jozy] Altidore got away from us and obviously he hit the crossbar."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
