Lackluster DC United Fail to Advance
It was the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup between MLS side D.C. United, and Mexican side Chivas of Guadalajara. The first leg - in Washington DC - ended in a draw between the two sides thanks to a lucky injury time goal from Luciano Emilio. D.C. would not be so lucky again.
There’s always talk about American sides playing in the “high altitude and smog” of Mexico City - or the surrounding area as the game was sixty or so miles outside of Mexico City. Are these claims justified? Maybe, or maybe it’s just an excuse for poor performances from teams that travel there to play. Either way, talk will continue as D.C. really didn’t look like much in this game. They maintained possession for much of the game, but the possession was in the central third of the field. Chivas allowed D.C. to move the ball side-to-side, and backwards, but made it extremely difficult to actually move the ball forward. When it was moved forward their wasn’t must possession from either side as Chivas often stole the ball and went on the quick counterattack. Chivas dominated their defensive third, and D.C.’s defensive third: not something any coach wants to see.Early on it looked like D.C. was going to make a match out of this encounter. The first ten minutes or so saw Chivas flat footed, but this was before it was clear that Chivas had no desire to posses the ball in the middle third. D.C. didn’t produce many real chances in the first half-an-hour, while Chivas produced even less, however, the few chances they produced were much more potent than those of a sorry D.C. offense.
Despite Chivas’ powerful attacks, it was D.C. who would strike first in the thirty-sixth minute. Emilio showed some good skills to carry the ball into the box. When it was clear that he would not be able to get a shot off, he passed the ball square to an open Jaime Moreno. Moreno had a poor first touch knocking the ball into the air, but he knew the Chivas’ ‘keeper had come off his line to meet Emilio. Moreno then gave the ball a little bicycle kick that floated over the last Chivas’ defender into the back of the net.
Chivas didn’t look too kindly on this attack and looked to rectify the situation eight minutes later. There wasn’t much passing in the middle third on this one, as the ball was moved out of the defensive third, to half, and then on to Alberto Medina in quick succession. Medina read the ball well, better than his defender Facundo Erpen, and easily outran Erpen into the box. Medina then showed the intelligence to pull the ball back to Adolpho Bautista who had stopped just outside the six yard box. Bofo then slotted home easily past Troy Perkins.
The second half continued to see D.C. moving the ball about the middle third, but their slop began to show through. Chivas’ second goal came in the fifty-second minute from about thirty yards out. Poor clearance out of the D.C. box allowed Bofo to drop the ball back to Gonzalo Pineda who ripped the shot on goal. Perkins should have done better as it looked to be a typical save. Perkins lifted his hands lazily above his head, and was simply unable to keep the ball from slipping through and into the goal. There was no excuse for this error, and in the end it cost D.C. the game.
D.C. responded quickly producing their first chance of the second half, and a good save from the Chivas doorman. This was the only real chance for D.C. until the final minutes of play when Emilio saw his head come of the post and a scramble of players in front of the box clear it away to safety.
It was Chivas’ game. They dominated, and D.C. looked lazy and slow. They were constantly second to the ball, and even their passes backwards were sloppy. Their first touches were equally as sloppy, bouncing aimlessly around on the pitch. Gomez was just another body on the field wandering around aimlessly creating virtually nothing in the middle. Had Chivas not scored their second and gone into a defensive shell, there is no doubt they would have scored another somehow.
Chivas will host the first leg of the Finals on April seventeenth against Pachuca or the Houston Dynamo (the winner will be decided on the Thursday).
First Leg: D.C. United 1 - 1 Chivas
Second Leg: D.C. United 1 - 2 Chivas
Aggregate: D.C. United 2 - 3 Chivas
D.C. United 5/10 | Chivas 7/10
Second Leg: D.C. United 1 - 2 Chivas
Aggregate: D.C. United 2 - 3 Chivas
D.C. United 5/10 | Chivas 7/10
does anybody know the attendance to his game? I’ve been looking everywhere for it.
Thanks
Comment by Ian — April 5, 2007 @ 9:47 am
Attendances are notoriously tricky to get in Mexico. You can usually only get them in the paper the next day. Be beware, even then they are pretty random - I have seen one Pumas match described in three different papers as being 35K, 30K and 18K!!
This match was played in The Jalisco in Guadalajara - which is about 700km from Mexico DF. As for the height difference was lucky enough to see Cienciano beat Boca Juniors 3-0 in Cusco - now there I think it does tell, but not that much here in DF
Comment by DT — April 16, 2007 @ 11:33 pm