On a clear Sunday afternoon at The Home Depot Center, a playoff-bound Chivas USA side fell 2-1 to Western Conference opponents the Colorado Rapids, who kept their postseason hopes alive with the win.Chivas USA had already clinched the second spot in the West and will host the second game of a two-game playoff series on Saturday, Nov. 8 at 7:30 p.m. PT. However, the Red-and-White’s playoff opponent, either Real Salt Lake or Colorado, will not be decided until next Saturday, the final weekend of the regular season, when Real Salt Lake visits Colorado.
In a mach that featured two penalty kick calls in favor of the Rapids, Colorado’s Conor Casey scored the winning-spot kick in the 85th minute, beating Chivas USA GK Tom McManus. Earlier in the second half, Kennedy had stopped Tom McManus’ penalty kick to keep the score 0-0. Colin Clark opened the scoring for the visitors in the 67th, and Jonathan Bornstein had pulled Chivas level in the 72nd, before Casey’s 85th-minute winner.
For Sunday’s match, Chivas USA Head Coach Preki decided to give three key players a rest due to injury and national team duty: Sacha Kljestan (USA, vs. Cuba & Trinidad) and Francisco Mendoza (R foot contusion) both started the game on the bench, while captain Claudio Suárez (L knee contusion) was left out of the 18-player gameday roster as a precautionary measure.
However, injuries continued to plague Chivas USA, as MF Sasha Victorine suffered an apparent left knee sprain early in the first half and was replaced by Kljestan in the 25th minute. Victorine, who was acquired by the Red-and-White on Sept. 15, is scheduled to undergo an MRI tomorrow to determine the extent of the injury.
Preki, on the match: “I kind of had a feeling that it’s going to be tough for us just because already we’re in the playoffs. We’ve secured the second spot, so it’s tough to get the group of guys motivated. From the first moment I didn’t think we were sharp, we were losing the ball too easily. Colorado was a little harder than us, they wanted it a little more than us.” (For a full quote sheet, please visit http://www.cdchivasusa.com/.)
