facing his own goal -- he quickly turned and set off on a 50-yard run through the Chivas defense, ripping a low shot inside Burpo's right-hand post from the edge of the area for his team-leading 10th goal on the campaign.
United head coach Peter Nowak made two changes to the team that lost 5-2 to the Los Angeles Galaxy the Saturday before at home. Gomez and Freddy Adu both returned from niggling injuries as Clyde Simms and Jamil Walker both returned to the substitutes' bench.
Here's Nowak's team (3-4-1-2): Troy Perkins - Bryan Namoff, Bobby Boswell, Facundo Erpen - Joshua Gros, Brian Carroll, Ben Olsen, Freddy Adu (Matias Donnet 46) - Christian Gomez (Clyde Simms 69) - Alecko Eskandarian, Jaime Moreno (Jamil Walker 56). [Substitutes Not Used: Rod Dyachenko, Brandon Prideaux, Nick Rimando, David Stokes]
"It was an important win for us," said Nowak. "The whole team was sick and tired to be stuck on 13 wins and now we're moving forward."TEAM NEWS
It was an key rebound after the 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy at home the previous weekend. "I think in that game we gave a lot space to the Galaxy. I think today Chivas didn't create too many chances, or dangerous situations - we prevent all of them and we scored a couple of goals," Nowak said. "I don't know about the PK, we'll have to see the tape again. We played very good defense and we scored two beautiful goals. An important win for us."
Gomez did not start against the Galaxy, still bothered by a strained knee ligament, and had scored just one goal since mid-July. "He is a very important part of our team, that's for sure. He's had a very good season, that's also the reason he's considered for the league MVP," Nowak said. "I think it is important to have a performance like that today. He is an important part of our team, and scored two beautiful goals. ... On the second goal he made a great run, the space was open and he took it all the way."
Gomez was taken out of the match in the 69th minute after suffering from cramps. He will be forced to miss the RSL match due to yellow card accumulation after getting booked in the Chivas game. "I thought we played a great game, especially tactically," Gomez said. "We had been allowing space between the midfield and the forwards, and between the midfield and the defense."
"Christian is a dangerous player. You can see today what he means to our team," said forward Jaime Moreno. Moreno also came out early in the second half after aggravating an injury to his right knee. "We've struggled for a little while, especially last game, and we got back to work," Moreno said. "I think every team goes through that during a season and we're lucky it happened before the playoffs. We needed to get ourselves going again."
Still, the important thing was a first league victory since a July 15 win against Columbus. "It was a hard-fought game," said Carroll. "It certainly wasn't the prettiest as far as our play but being able to win felt good no matter how we did it; I'd rather win playing ugly than lose playing pretty. ... We can always improve defensively with our communication and our pressure and how we win the ball. This will help us going forward and keeping possession so if we can keep improving defensively, that will allow us to play better offensively. We've been in a rut lately and it was important for us confidence-wise to get a win today and get something going again."
On Wednesday, the Chicago Fire advanced to a record fifth U.S. Open Cup Final, once again defeating D.C. United, this time 3-0 at Toyota Park. The Fire have never lost to United in a knockout competition, now with five victories and a draw in six matches in the MLS Cup Playoffs and U.S. Open Cup.
After a tame first half, Justin Mapp put the Fire into the lead in the 58th minute, chipping United 'keeper Troy Perkins on the run after latching onto a long pass from Chris Armas.
The game then exploded into life. The Fire first doubled their lead in the 76th minute. A long ball was headed on by Nate Jaqua, and rookie Calen Carr reached around United defender Facundo Erpen and surprised Perkins with a looping shot inside the far post.
Not a minute later, Erpen brought down Thiago with a hard tackle, which earned him an immediate red card from Richard Heron. In a fracas that ensued, Armas shoved Erpen, which saw him receive his marching orders.
But the Fire had the last laugh. Carr took a pass from Ivan Guerrero and cut inside the penalty area before slotting home his third goal of the tournament to send the Fire into the final, where they will play the Los Angeles Galaxy on Sept. 27 at Toyota Park.
Here's Nowak's team: Troy Perkins, Bryan Namoff, Bobby Boswell, Facundo Erpen, Joshua Gros, Brian Carroll (Stephen deRoux 80), Christian Gomez, Clyde Simms (Ben Olsen 70), Brandon Prideaux (Matias Donnet 64), Jamil Walker (Rod Dyachenko 46), Freddy Adu. [Substitutes Not Used: Alecko Eskandarian, Nick Rimando, David Stokes]
"I hope the final is going to be someplace else. The officials today won the game for the Fire," Nowak said. "Instead of having won this game, we lost 3-0. And all the work and the points go in the trash. That's not supposed to happen in the semifinal."
REAL SALT LAKE
Real Salt Lake has followed a club record with two losses in their last three games after a bitterly fought 1-0 loss to the Colorado Rapids on Saturday evening. Real fell back into a tie for fifth place in the Western Conference, level on 35 points with the Los Angeles Galaxy, both teams having played 26 matches. They trail fourth-place Chivas USA by two points, and third-place Houston by three.
LAST MATCH
The Rocky Mountain Cup was to be decided after the teams had evenly split their first three league meetings, each winning once in Denver while the first meeting in Utah ended in a draw. The Rapids had also dumped Real out of the U.S. Open Cup in the fourth round, and a victory would give the winner the leg up for the time being in the battle for a place in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
The rivalry has grown more heated as the year has gone on, and three minutes into the second half Colorado took the lead. Dan Gargan swung in a cross from the right flank and Nicolas Hernandez rose up to head home just under the crossbar for the game's only goal.
After the victory and before presentation of the cup -- awarded by the supporters' clubs of the two teams -- there were wild celebrations by the Rapids players which drew a stiff rebuke from Real investor/operator Dave Checketts, who confronters Colorado's Pablo Mastroeni on the field in the midst of the histrionics.
RSL head coach John Ellinger made two changes to the team that defeated the Los Angeles Galaxy 1-0 at home the Wednesday before. Jack Stewart returned from suspension, coming back into central defense in place of Nelson Akwari. Jason Kreis was a late scratch from the lineup, meaning Jafet Soto was given his first start in MLS.
Here's Ellinger's team (4-4-2): Scott Garlick - Kevin Novak, Eddie Pope, Jack Stewart (Chris Brown 93+), Willis Forko (Atiba Harris 61) - Chris Klein, Mehdi Ballouchy, Carey Talley, Andy Williams - Jeff Cunningham, Jafet Soto (Jamie Watson 75). [Substitutes Not Used: Nelson Akwari, Kenny Cutler, Jay Nolly]
"I don't think we deserved to win, but on the other hand I don't think we deserved to lose," Ellinger said. "Colorado did finish their chance, we had chances that we just didn't finish. They came in here and to their credit they got their points."TEAM NEWS
At midweek, Real moved ahead of the Los Angeles Galaxy with the 1-0 win that left them tied with the Rapids. Instead of taking the opportunity to pull ahead of Colorado with another win, they instead fell back into a tie with the defending MLS Cup champion.
"Obviously we dropped back into fifth place, that's the disappointing result for us. Just too many giveaways," Ellinger said. "You know the little things we've been doing right the past six or seven weeks, personally I don't think we were doing them tonight. We didn't show any patience on attack. Too many balls went through the seams to their goalkeeper. I don't know what the offsides count was, but last time we played them we went from 12 to 2. We had half a dozen or more tonight."
Kreis failed a late fitness test after suffering a bone bruise earlier in the week in training. In fact, he was removed after Ellinger had already included him in the gameday squad, meaning Real had just six available substitutes.
"When he got injured on Wednesday, it was just a bone bruise. He even had an MRI that came up with no ligament damage. It did still cause him pain when he was cutting so I pulled him because I didn't want to take a chance," Ellinger said. "Jason does a lot more than score goals. He is part of the emotional voice of things that happen on the field. He's an engine. He generates people to work a little bit harder. Jason does a lot for us as our captain on the field. So no question when we don't have him on the field, it hurts."
Then, after the match, the Rapids did their share of celebrating - resulting in the confrontation between Checketts and Mastroeni.
"During the game, emotions were high, tempers were flaring, and I think there were two or three incidents on the field," Ellinger said. "It's definitely a rivalry, but for us we have allowed them to come in three times to our stadium and walk away with wins. That's just unacceptable."
Said midfielder Carey Talley: "We hate seeing them celebrate on our field, in front of our fans. I don't like they way they were taunting our fans, but it's up to the players on this team to defend the fans that support us, and that starts with us playing well enough and getting the result to prevent the opponent from even having a reason to celebrate in our stadium and in front of our fans."
