MLS News: Chivas USA Play New England Revolution to 3-3 Draw
Chivas USA (7-10-7, 28 pts.) and the New England Revolution (6-14-6, 24 points) played to a 3-3 draw on Wednesday night, August 29, at Gillette Stadium before a crowd of 10,945. The Revs started the scoring with three straight goals – two by Saer Sene – within the match’s first 21 minutes. Chivas USA stormed back with three unanswered goals, two by Shalrie Joseph and the third by Miller Bolaños. With the tie Chivas USA continues its solid play on the road, as it is unbeaten in nine of its 11 games away from home.
Both clubs came out attacking in their final thirds, but it was New England that was able to take the advantage in the fourth minute on Sene´s first goal. The forward controlled a long ball over the top inside the box delivered from inside the midfield mark. With his back to the goal, Sene turned, took the strike and found the back of the net. Seven minutes later an own goal by the Goats helped New England go up 2-0. In the 21st minute Sene fired from about 25 yards out to give his squad a three-goal advantage.
Chivas USA was getting into dangerous spaces in their final third and was able to mount a comeback with Joseph’s two goals in the first half. The recently-acquired midfielder was traded to the Red-and-White from New England and was making his first appearance at Gillette Stadium since the trade. In the 23rdminute Joseph headed in his first goal with Chivas USA near the short area off Nick LaBrocca´s corner kick. As the first half entered stoppage time, Shalrie received a pass from Juan Agudelo near the semi-circle and unleashed a powerful strike that beat Revs’ goalkeeper Matt Reis near the right post to draw the Rojiblancos closer at 3-2.
The Goats came out in the second half fast, scoring in the 47th minute. After being awarded a throw-in, Agudelo controlled the ball outside the right side of the box, crossed it to fellow forward Casey Townsend across the box. Townsend centered the pass with a header to Bolaños who fired passed Reis for his third goal of the season to tie the match. Agudelo´s effective passing on the night helped him record his second and third assists on the season.
In the 62nd minute, it took two consecutive saves by Reis on the same sequence to prevent the Goats from going up by a goal. Sub Juan Pablo Angel worked the ball into the right side of the box and fired but was denied. Agudelo recovered the deflection and took a shot of his own but was also turned away.
The Rojiblancos continued to advance forward and try to cap-off the comeback by finding their fourth goal as they outshot the Revs 20-15 for the match. Bolaños made a solo run down the left flank in the 74th minute and threaded a pass to Angel that split two defenders, but the shot sailed high. In stoppage time Laurent Courtois – who came on in the 76th minute for Agudelo – took a strike from just outside the box that also sailed high over the post. Five minutes of stoppage time were added, but neither team conceded the game-winning goal and the contest remained a 3-3 tie.
Chivas USA continues its Western Conference push when it travels to face its Northern California rival the San Jose Earthquakes, Sunday, Sept. 2 at Buck Shaw Stadium, for a 6:00 pm PT match. The game will broadcast on television, live on NBC Sports Network in English. For more information please visit cdchivasusa.com. Follow Chivas USA on Twitter @cdchivasusa and Facebook.com/chivasusa
THE WORD FROM THE TEAMS:
CHIVAS USA
Head Coach – Robin Fraser:
I think we just picked up our urgency. In the beginning, things weren’t urgent enough and too many balls were bouncing around in our end of the field, and we didn’t deal with them with enough urgency.
We talked about being compact. I felt like we weren’t as disciplined in the beginning of the game as we would like to have been. As the game went on we got better and defensively we got better, and as a result guys were able to push forward and create some good opportunities and show good character.
Again, it’s what you need to do. You need to do your job. Clearly we didn’t start off well enough, and again I’m going to keep using that word, urgency – we weren’t urgent enough in the beginning. As the game went on we got better and it was definitely a good thing to see improvement as we went forward, and then good resiliency to get the goals and get back into it.
Well, we’ve scored five goals in our last two games, so certainly we’ve created more chances over the last couple of games than we have pretty much all year. So we like to feel like we’re moving in the right direction there. … It’s just been things we’ve been talking about. I think a lot for the year is aggressive running, aggressive running in behind, playing balls in behind, and putting balls into dangerous spots. We don’t score if we don’t put balls in dangerous spots and I think we’ve done a better job of that in the past two games.
Two goals (for Shalrie Joseph)? Two goals, certainly the first one conjured up out of nothing and then the second one was great presence and presence of mind; it was a huge lift for us obviously.
(Shalrie Joseph is) a confident leader. On the field he’s such an impactful player because he’s such a presence. He’s a big presence for us and for teams to be successful you need a couple players like that and certainly he adds that to our team.
Midfielder - Shalrie Joseph:
Being 3-0 down and coming back and getting a point shows a lot of character in this team. We just have to move forward and try and get another one and get some points Saturday in San Jose.
It feels good to score two goals; it doesn’t matter what team. It’s bittersweet that it’s against my old team, and it feels good. But it’s more than about me right now. It’s about a team trying to make a playoff run. That’s what we’ve got to look forward to.
To be in the away locker room is something different. I haven’t seen the away locker room in 10 years. As I said, it’s not about me right now. It’s about the team trying to make a playoff run. Even though it feels good to score – to get one point and score two goals – there were definitely opportunities and chances we had to win it, and we’re going to have to look at it and work on it in the next couple of days and make sure we’re ready for San Jose.
No hard feelings. They made a business decision. They made a decision that they thought was better for the team and better for the organization, and I can’t hold that against them. That’s what they thought was good for them. Right now it’s about me being on Chivas, and me making sure I’m ready to play week in and week out, and making sure I make this team better.
You saw (what I hope to bring) tonight: play the ball wide, get it to the creative guys - (Juan) Agudelo, (Juan Pablo) Angel – whoever is on the field. Just making sure I get the ball in good positions so I can go against guys and be a leader for the team. Making sure guys come in and work and prepare themselves for practice and games every day, and making sure we push ourselves a little bit harder for each other.
I just kept pushing guys and just believing (when we went 3-0 down). As you said, we were in a hole last week against Seattle, and we ended up scoring two like that. Once we started to push guys, we just got that feeling that we can be right back in it after we get the second one, and (Juan) Agudelo played me a great ball to my left foot and I just tried to curl it. It went in and it felt good, and after that we just kept pushing and pushing. Then we got the third one from Miller (Bolanos). There were opportunities for both teams to win the game and unfortunately we both got a point. We both needed three to put ourselves in a better position, but we’ll take what we get and make sure we’re ready for San Jose.
(My relationship with Jay Heaps) was what it was. It was sometimes rocky and sometimes great, but I can’t really dwell on that anymore. It’s in the past, and now I just have to make sure I practice every day and work hard every day, keep pushing this team and get ourselves into the playoffs.
Everyone told me when I was coming back home. I know I have my dog, so that’s what I was looking forward to when I was coming back to Boston. But every game is important, and it’s about the team as I said. Even though I’ve been here 10 years, I’m making sure it’s about the team and making sure I push these guys in a game or wherever to get into the playoffs.
(The Revolution players) know the hard work I put in, they know the type of person I am and for them to show that kind of respect – it’s mutual on both sides. That was great and I look forward to seeing them in the winter and next season again.
You can’t celebrate against somebody who gave you such a great opportunity. You represent the organization and as I said, it’s been top-notch and it’s been class when I’ve been here with Steve Nicol or Jay Heaps or whoever. It’s been top-notch and there’s class on both sides. I didn’t want to celebrate or disrespect anybody, but it’s all about the team, with me not showing disrespect to anything like that.
Defender - Danny Califf:
I think certainly in the first 20, 25 minutes we were showing them that we were trying to get used to playing together again, and our communication and stuff like that. So there were a few miscues I think, but after we sorted that out I think we had a pretty solid combination and pretty solid partnership.
I think we just started being able to move the ball a little bit better, started to be able to spread them out and not only look to play underneath them, but also look to get in behind, and once you do that you get the other teams defense guessing a little bit.
The feeling coming in (to the half) was that we felt we were still in the game, and we felt we could still get something out of the game. And obviously scoring early helps, but we were definitely in an upbeat mood after scoring right before half time. It was good. It showed a lot of character to come back from 3-0 down.
Travel always makes a difference, and then when you’re traveling and then playing on turf, it takes you a few minutes to get used to it, to get used to the bounces, to get used to the ball staying in bounds with the turf not being wet. The ball checks up and it doesn’t really run out of bounds like it does on regular grass or even turf that’s been watered. Those are adjustments that we need to make and certainly in the first 20 minutes we didn’t make those adjustments.
I think it gives us confidence that we can score goals. Now we have to get back to locking it down and being tougher to play against defensively, a hallmark for us in the beginning of the season. But now that we have the confidence that we can score goals, I think we also have the confidence that we can lock it down. So it’s a good step.
NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION
Head Coach - Jay Heaps:
I don’t know exactly what to say when it comes to the tale of where to start the game and then some just textbook errors that we made – the timing of them. I haven’t seen the film, but I’m a little disappointed in the timing of the goals. Their set-piece goal, then two minutes before halftime and two minutes after halftime. Those are just critical times in a game – times we stress, times we work on. It’s a disappointing result.
From a feel, it felt like they put one back on a set piece – one that we wish we could have back. You give a team life. Credit their team, they fought hard. In the end, we have to be better on the set piece and we have to be better in game management, two minutes in the half and two minutes to start the half.
I have to go back and watch (the set-piece goal) on tape. I would lean toward being extremely upset and I’m sure after I watch it, I’ll be beyond extremely upset. It’s just stuff we work on.
We don’t know yet if (Saer Sene) is going to be all right. They’re still doing tests. He’s a special player for us and someone that when we score goals, he seems to be around it. He’s creative and he’s dangerous and he’s unique – and I like that about him. But I’d like to see him score more goals. That’s the thing for me – and he himself feels like he’s left five, eight goals out of the next, goals that he wants. So we want to make sure he’s all right and ready for Saturday.
I think we switched up formations a little bit. We’re trying to be a little more dynamic in how we break teams down, rather than we do a lot of analysis of where we possess the ball. We’re number one in possession – I don’t know where we are after this game – and number one in possession in the midfield, but in the other team’s half, but not in the final third. So we’ll call it the middle third, but attacking middle third. We want to get out of there and get into the final third. We’ve spent a lot of time this week and last week and probably the week before trying to break out of those areas and find areas we can get past it and then get back in, rather than try to build everything from one area.
I can’t even believe … how long … this has got to be a record – four minutes in and it’s the first Shalrie (Joseph) question and he’s got two goals … Shalrie’s a gamer. I bet you he circled this one. Credit to him. He put this team on his back and he did a nice job. He’s always going to be a Rev, it’s just a little bit of time when he’s not. But in terms of what he did tonight, I never questioned that guy.
Midfielder - Ryan Guy:
You know, that’s soccer for you sometimes. Maybe that’s a function of we’re not used to being in the game like that and just coasting and maybe we took it a little too lightly. But really, there is no excuse; it’s little mistakes that punish us. And that’s been the story of the season. We’ve just been getting into a lot of difficult things have been happening to us, and I think it’s just the way that we cope with them. Fortunately we got a point tonight and that’s the only thing to take out from this one.
We are such a good attacking team that it doesn’t much matter who is playing where. I felt that the reason that Shalrie (Joseph) stood out tonight was because he sat so deep, and he was getting balls in spaces where he had a lot of time on the ball. Although he got a lot of time on the ball, I felt that we pushed them into areas that we wanted them to go and in that sense it was kind of a positive defensive shape for us because their midfielders were so far apart it was difficult for whoever was there in the middle, whether it was myself and Clyde (Simms), or Benny (Feilhaber) and myself. But I thought overall we dealt with it well. Again when you are there in the midfield when it’s tied at home we are trying to attack, trying to go forward and score a goal so you are always going to leave yourself open in certain spots.
It’s just very frustrating; it’s always very frustrating getting a goal scored on you. I think I definitely take some of the blame for that goal right in before half. I let Shalrie (Joseph) come in behind me. It was a great strike, all credit to him, but those are things that are unacceptable. I definitely take full responsibility for that and it’s something now that I know if it’s going to happens, it’s never going to happen again, or at least I’m going to do my best to make sure that’s the case. And then on the second side of the half, I can’t say it enough it’s the story of our season: we let up for half a second look what happens. It’s one point instead of three.
This game is such a mental game at times. I think right away whether we liked it or not memories of our last game crept into our minds. As much as we didn’t want it to I think it happened and again those little let-ups led up to exactly what we didn’t want to happen.
Forward - Saer Sene:
(It feels) Bad. It may seem funny, but I feel bad because first, we tied 3-3 and I got injured in the second half. We had the game in hand again, we started very well and went up 3-0. Then after that, I don’t think we played the same way we started the game and then they scored one, two goals and then the third and it’s very sad because that was our game again.
When things are going bad, things are going really bad. We have to be 100 percent concentrated and I think we kill ourselves every game. We get the game in hand and we give up the points so easily. I think the other team is not better than us every time, but we give the points away so easy that it is our mistake.
I don’t know right now, but tomorrow I will know more about my knee.
I don’t really pay attention to things like (my goal total) every time. I play, I’m a striker, I’m here to score goals for the team and that’s what I try to do every game.
Yeah, (Jerry Bengtson and I) work well. We don’t speak the same language but we try to communicate. It’s soccer and wherever you go soccer stays the same. I think we did a good job and we have to keep going and score a lot of goals, if it’s four, five or six whatever to take the three points.
We have to get prepared fast. Now this game is finished, we’re going to think about it tonight, but tomorrow we’ve got to come into practice and forget it and think about the game on Saturday and try to learn from our mistakes tonight and try to win the game.
Chivas USA (7-10-7) vs. New England Revolution (6-14-6)
Aug 29, 2012 – Gillette Stadium
Scoring Summary:
NE – Saer Sene 10 (unassisted) 4
NE – Own goal (Rauwshan McKenzie) 11
NE – Saer Sene 11 (unassisted) 21
CHV – Shalrie Joseph 2 (Nick LaBrocca 1) 23
CHV – Shalrie Joseph 3 (Juan Agudelo 2) 45+
CHV – Miller Bolaños 3 (Casey Townsend 2, Juan Agudelo 3) 47
Chivas USA – Dan Kennedy, James Riley, Rauwshan McKenzie, Danny Califf ©, Ante Jazic, Tristan Bowen (Juan Pablo Angel 54), Shalrie Joseph, Nick LaBrocca (Oswaldo Minda 83), Miller Bolaños, Casey Townsend, Juan Agudelo (Laurent Courtois 76)
Substitutes Not Used: Tim Melia, Jose Correa, Jorge Villafaña, John Valencia
New England Revolution: Matt Reis ©, Chris Tierney, Stephen McCarthy, A.J. Soares, Kevin Alston, Lee Nguyen, Clyde Simms (Diego Fagundez 68), Ryan Guy, Kelyn Rowe (Fernando Cardenas 83), Saer Sene (Benny Feilhaber 65), Jerry Bengtson
Substitutes Not Used: Tim Murray, Darrius Barnes, Dimitry Imbongo, Florian Lechner
Misconduct Summary:
NE – Kevin Alston (caution) 44
CHV – Danny Califf (caution) 60
Referee: Matthew Foerster
Referee's Assistants: Adam Wienckowski, Corey Parker
4th Official: Mark Geiger
Attendance: 10,945
Time of Game: 1:53
Weather: Clear, 73 degrees
About Chivas USA: Founded in 2004, Los Angeles-based Club Deportivo Chivas USA has achieved remarkable success in seven full seasons in Major League Soccer. From 2006-2009, the Mexican-owned club qualified for the MLS Cup Playoffs in four consecutive seasons, to the delight of its passionate supporters. In addition, Chivas USA’s innovative grassroots programs demonstrate its deep commitment to the Southern California community, while the club’s youth teams and Soccer Academies offer unprecedented opportunities to the region’s best young talent. For more information on Chivas USA, please call 1-877-CHIVAS-1 or visit cdchivasusa.com.
Related Articles: Chivas USA on SoccerNation
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