Chivas USA captured a critical home victory over the Eastern Conference leading Columbus Crew on Saturday night, winning 3-1 at The Home Depot Center in Carson. The Red-and-White (5-9-3, 18 points) rode goals from three of its youngest players en route to the team’s fifth victory in the MLS regular season.

Forward Justin Braun opened the scoring for Chivas USA, scoring his team-leading seventh goal of the season in the 37^th minute. Recent acquisition Rodolfo Espinoza floated a cross into the box, and Braun rose above the defense to head home from 10 yards.

Just before halftime, the Red-and-White doubled their lead when rookie midfielder Blair Gavin took advantage of a Crew miscommunication to score his third goal of the year. A Dan Kennedy punt was misplayed by Columbus defenders, and Gavin slipped in to nick the ball past William Hesmer in the Crew goal in the 45^th minute.

In the second half, Chivas USA iced the game when Carlos Borja, who was filling in for Mariano Trujillo (suspended due to yellow card accumulation) at right back, scored his first career goal. After a corner kick was cleared, Ben Zemanski blasted the ball back into the box, and Giancarlo Maldonado chested the ball down for Borja to drive home from 15 yards.

It was a night of firsts for several members of the Red-and-White, as Espinoza, Darío Delgado, Zemanski and Maldonado all notched their first assists in MLS play, while Borja scored his first goal as a professional. All three goalscorers for Chivas USA were 23 years of age or younger.

The win improved Chivas USA’s record to 5-9-3 on the season, and 2-0-2 in the last four MLS regular season matches. In eight games (including U.S. Open Cup and SuperLiga) in the month of July, the Red-and-White had a 4-1-3 record.

Chivas USA Head Coach Martín Vásquez, on tonight’s match: “This has been our biggest win this year. From the first minute until the 90th, we played well. We scored some nice goals. We see some of our younger guys keep stepping up and some of our new players helping. All around, it was a great result for us.” Post-game audio from Vásquez, as well as Ben Zemanski, Paulo Nagamura, Carlos Borja, Blair Gavin and Rodolfo Espinoza, are available on Dentro del Rebaño, the official blog of Chivas USA.

The Red-and-White will take Sunday and Monday off before returning to training on Tuesday at The Home Depot Center. The team will travel on Thursday ahead of Saturday’s match against Toronto FC, the first time Chivas USA will take on former head coach Preki, now at the helm of the Canadian team. The match will kick off at 1:00 p.m. PT and will be broadcast live on Prime Ticket, TeleFutura, and W Radio 690 AM.

Next home game: Following the match in Toronto, Chivas USA takes on the Seattle Sounders on Saturday, August 14 at 8:00 p.m. PT at The Home Depot Center. For more information, or tickets to the match, please call 1-877-CHIVAS-1 or visit cdchivasusa.com.  

POST-GAME REACTION FROM:

HEAD COACH MARTIN VASQUEZ

MIDFIELDER BEN ZEMANSKI

MIDFIELDER PAULO NAGAMURA

DEFENDER CARLOS BORJA

AUDIOS FROM:

POST-GAME PRESS CONFERENCE

MIDFIELDER BLAIR GAVIN

MEDIOCAMPISTA RODOLFO ESPINOZA (SPANISH)

DEFENDER CARLOS BORJA

With Mariano Trujillo set to miss his first MLS regular season minutes of the season, and with Jonathan Bornstein likely still recovering from a knee strain, Chivas USA will have to turn to a new captain in the absense of those two leaders.

After practice today, Martin Vasquez addressed the question:

“In that [SuperLiga] game in Houston, when Jonny B. came out, Ante [Jazic] wore the armband. We feel that he’s a guy that we’ll look to lead us and wear the armband tomorrow.”

As for Mariano missing his first minutes, Vasquez also saw a potential replacement, at least for Saturday:

“We’re going to have to adjust. I think we’ve used Carlos Borja already in three or four games, and I think he has taken advantage of the opportunities and done well, especially in Houston in the 1-1 game. So we’re looking at Carlos to play for Mariano.”

Chivas USA would like to thank both, the Union Ultras and the Legion 1908 for their constant support throughout our games and especially this last one at Rio Tinto Stadium in Salt Lake, UT. Thank you all for making the trip!

Chivas USA earned a win in its third and final group stage SuperLiga game, topping Pachuca 1-0 but falling short of advancing to the tournament’s semifinals. With the victory, the Red-and-White finish with a 1-1-1 record and four points, behind Houston (2-0-1, 7 points) and Puebla F.C. (2-1-0, 6 points).

DARIO DELGADO (SPANISH)

DAN KENNEDY (ENGLISH)

VASQUEZ COMMENTS ON THE GAME

VASQUEZ TALKS ABOUT DAN KENNEDY’S PERFORMANCE (ENGLISH)

VASQUEZ TALKS ABOUT MALDONADO’S PERFORMANCE

Escuche aquí para agarrar la reacción de Giancarlo Maldonado después del partido del sábado vs. RSL.

CHIVAS USA HEAD COACH MARTIN VASQUEZ

Overall thoughts on the match:

“We came here with the attitude to win the game because we need to add points to stay close to all the teams in the Conference. We will take the point; it’s a good result considering the way things happened in the game. The effort and the load of nine games in 28 days, I think it was a good result and we will take it.”

On Chivas’ ability to change formations on the fly:

“We just apply the fundamentals and principles of playing in whatever formation we play. We try to defend with pressure, cover and balance. Whenever we are attacking, we try to give a lot of mobility and support. Today we changed on the fly to a 5-4-1 because [Real Salt Lake] was pressuring us.”

On newcomer Giancarlo Maldonado’s performance:

“I think he did well. It’s not easy to come to [Rio Tinto Stadium] against the Champions. It’s a big field and it’s a high altitude. I think, at times, he was dangerous, and he was good with the ball. I think he needs a little more time to adjust, and with a couple of more games I think it will help. But I am happy with his performance.”

CHIVAS USA FORWARD GIANCARLO MALDONADO

Overall thoughts on his performance:

“I felt good. I think the team had a very good game. It was a very complicated team we were playing and it was a rival. But I think that the team gave everything they had during the 90 minutes and, at the end, we got out with a point and that is very useful for us.”

On his transition with the team:

“I’m adapting little by little. I am gaining confidence and I think that the minutes that I am getting will help me improve.”

CHIVAS USA GOALKEEPER DAN KENNEDY

On the match:

“We came here and we didn’t want to give anything away early and we wanted to be organized and make it difficult for them to get easy chances on goal. In the first half the pitch was really slippery, really wet; I think you could see that in the possession that we tried to have, but the ball kept slipping out of bounds on us. We came out in the second half and wanted to be a little better on the ball and the guys worked really hard. The saves I had to make were saves you can make as a ‘keeper because your defense is putting opposing players in tough situations.

“I was happy with the team’s performance. We got a point and we said we were going to get out of here with at least a point, so we accomplished our goal.”

On his discussion with the defense after RSL’s lone goal:

“It’s been a long month for us and we have had a lot of games. We were in the 60^th minute and we just gave up a goal to put us down 1-0 and we needed a little boost. If that’s vocally, I was just trying to get the guys going as much as I could. Once we scored that goal we just wanted to make sure we didn’t give another goal away.”

With a goal by Jesus Padilla one minute after entering the match as a substitute and with seven saves by Dan Kennedy, Chivas USA tied Real Salt Lake 1-1 on Saturday night at Rio Tinto Stadium in front of a sell-out crowd of 19,469 fans.

The Red-and-White (4-9-3) has now an undefeated streak of three MLS matches and reaches 15 points in the Western Conference. The Red-and-White has earned five of their last nine points in league play.

Chivas USA forward Jesus Padilla entered the match at the 69 minute for Paulo Nagamura and scored one minute later with a 30-yard shot that Rimando tried to clear but the ball went between his legs for the tying goal. It was Padilla’s fourth goal of the season. Real Salt Lake midfielder Ned Grabavoy had given the lead to the MLS Cup Champions four minutes before with a spectacular volley from outside the box after a corner kick that forward Justin Braun had cleared out at the 66th minute.

Chivas USA goalkeeper Dan Kennedy (fourth start of the season) had a busy night with seven saves, six of those during the second half. Kennedy replaced injured goalkeeper Zach Thornton, who has a left ankle sprain.

Three players made their 2010 MLS debut tonight: midfielders Paulo Nagamura and Rodolfo Espinoza, as well as forward Giancarlo Maldonado. The three signed with the Red-and-White for this second half of the season and participated with Chivas USA during SuperLiga.

Chivas USA Head Coach Martín Vásquez on tonight’s match: “We came here with the attitude to win the game because we need to add points to stay close to all the teams in the Conference. We will take the point; it’s a good result considering the way things happened in the game. The effort and the load of nine games in 28 days, I think it was a good result and we will take it.”

Chivas USA will travel to Los Angeles on Sunday and will have the day off on Monday. The team will resume training on Tuesday at 10:00 am.

Next game: Chivas USA will face the Columbus Crew next Saturday, July 31, at 7:30 p.m. PT at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. For more information, call 1-877-CHIVAS-1 or visit cdchivasusa.com.

PHOTOS: Juan Miranda/Chivas USA

The Chivas USA Under-17 Team starts play today in the fourth annual SUM Under-17 Cup taking place from July 23-29 in Houston, Texas. The tournament includes teams from each of MLS’ 16 clubs, and the Red-and-White will face the New England Revolution today before taking on Toronto FC on Saturday and the Houston Dynamo on Monday. The 16 teams are split into four groups, with the winner of each group advancing to the semifinals and other teams squaring off in placement matches. This tournament is being hosted at no cost to all participants as Soccer United Marketing, adidas, and the MLS teams are covering the costs of player travel, accommodations and other tournament-related expenses.