D.C. pays return visit to Guadalajara
Second leg of Copa Suamericana sees United up
THE MATCH: D.C. United enters the match with a one-goal advantage on aggregate, after their 2-1 victory last Wednesday at RFK Stadium. If United wins, or the match is a draw, United will qualify to the quarterfinals. If Chivas wins 1-0, or by two or more goals, the Mexican club will advance. However, if Chivas wins by a goal, but United scores two or more goals, the MLS club will move on. If Chivas wins 2-1, the tie will be decided on penalty kicks. The winner will face Argentina's Arsenal de Sarandi in the next round, who defeated Goias of Brazil 4-3 on aggregate.
CHIVAS: After United's 2-1 win in Washington, Chivas coach Jose Manuel de la Torre was dismissed from his position. In his place came Efrain Flores, who saw his charges come back from an early deficit before defeating Veracruz 3-1 at the weekend. Alberto Medina, Ramon Morales and Sergio Santana scored for Chivas.
Flores has said he is looking for a decisive victory and will be looking to have his team attack from the outset. Flores is not interested in a 1-0 victory, which would still assure advancement, nor does he even care to think about penalty kicks to decide the tie.
"I like to play with people on the flanks, which is what we try to do, and we will also try through the center which will give us freshness in our attack so that we are not static when marked by the opponent," Flores said. "I want our victories to be of a thorough manner -- that's what I want but I also think that's how the player would like to play, enjoyable for them and enjoyable for the crowd."
Flores is aiming to realign his forces with a more attacking thrust, trying to find a No. 10 that was lost when Adolfo Bautista left Guadalajara during the offseason, as de la Torre put out the team with a defensive look in the first part of the season. He is expected to play Santana and Omar Bravo as true strikers, while Alberto Medina and Pineda will attack from the right and left flanks respectively, and Ramon Morales will operate as a holding midfielder with Sergio Avila prompting the attack.
D.C. UNITED: The current overall leaders in Major League Soccer continued their roll, coming back from a first-half deficit with four goals in 19 minutes after the break for a 4-1 home victory against Toronto FC on Saturday night, extending their unbeaten streak to 11 games in league play. Marc Burch, Fred, Jaime Moreno and Luciano Emilio all scored for the Black-and-Red after TFC's freekick opener.
But Burch will miss the second leg after he was sent off just before halftime of the match last Wednesday. Fred's appearance could also be in question after he left at halftime against Toronto FC with a groin strain. Right back Bryan Namoff suffered a thigh injury which forced him off during the Chivas match and he did not play against Toronto, but he is expected to be available.
United firmly expects they will need at least a goal from their visit to Mexico, and they do have Luciano Emilio, who leads MLS with 20 goals and scored a late goal in the first leg when the clubs met in March in the CONCACAF Champions' Cup.
"It's going to be a very difficult game," said Emilio. "We can't go in thinking that we have any type of advantage. We have to go in thinking that the game is 0-0, which it is. That's the type of mentality we need to have success."
Still, United's back line will face a real test -- especially if Chivas are looking to pin them in from the start. "That wasn't fun at all," said Josh Gros after the first game. "Those guys were some of the fastest players I've played against my whole life. I tried my best, and hopefully I did all right."
THE PAST: In the first leg, United played a man down for 46 minutes and were outshot 21-5 for the game, but still got goals from Ben Olsen and Clyde Simms on either side of halftime and held on for a 2-1 victory. Sergio Santana scored the Chivas goal shortly after Simms' 55th-minute strike put the 10-man United up 2-0.
In March, the teams met in the semifinals of the CONCACAF Champions' Cup. United got a late goal from Emilio to secure a 1-1 draw in the home leg, then Jaime Moreno put United ahead on aggregate after a half-hour in the second leg. But goals from Adolfo Bautista and Gonzalo Pineda sent Chivas through, before they eventually lost to Pachuca in the final.
The teams first met in international competition in 1997, when they played to a 2-2 draw in the third-place match of the CONCACAF Champions' Cup. An MLS team has never defeated a Mexican team in Mexico in an official competition.
In 2005, United played to a 1-1 first-leg draw with Universidad Catolica of Chile in their first ever appearance in Copa Sudamericana, only to concede two late goals after going up by two goals in the opening half-hour on the return match, losing the series 4-3 on aggregate. This is the first appearance by Chivas de Guadalajara in the competition.
