WHITECAPS AND CHIVAS BATTLE TO DRAW
Short- handed due to questionable red card, the visitors still managed to outshine home side
CARSON, Calif. — Replacement officials are working Major League Soccer games during a labour dispute. And with a quick resolution nowhere in sight, dubious calls like the one made by Ramon Hernandez make coaches weigh in with harsh words.
Chivas USA’s manager Wilmer Cabrera was incensed after midfielder Augstin Pelletieri was sent off in the 12th minute against the Vancouver Whitecaps Sunday afternoon at StubHub Center. Pelletieri looked to have made a strong, solid tackle in contesting a ball with Whitecaps’ midfielder Pedro Morales, but he got the instant red card from Hernandez after the Chilean came out the worse in the exchange.
The Goats looked to be in major trouble, playing 10 men against 11, with close to 80 minutes ahead of them in 30 degree C heat.
Instead, it was the visitors who appeared undermanned, lethargic and without constructive purpose for much of the match as the Goats and Whitecaps played to a 1- 1 draw.
A strike by Erick Torres, just before halftime, stood up until the 80th minute when Whitecaps’ substitute Kekuta Manneh scored the equalizer.
Manneh, who replaced Nigel Reo- Coker in the 59th minute, used his fresh legs to press the attack and came close to scoring on a couple of other occasions before he booted home the equalizer.
It came after Darren Mattocks intercepted a pass, worked the ball into the box and slid a pass to Manneh, who side- footed it behind Chivas goalkeeper Dan Kennedy to bring the Whitecaps level.
When coach Carl Robinson reviews the game, he’ll give praiseworthy marks for the industry of Mattocks and Manneh, but the rest of the squad was dreadfully disappointing, coming off a resounding 4- 1 win over the New York Red Bulls eight days earlier and promising much more.
South Americans Sebastian Fernandez, Matias Laba and Morales, revelations against the Red Bulls, were shut down and rendered ineffectual by the tenacious Goats. Kenny Miller, a two- goal scorer against New York, also played an unthreatening game, holding down the spot of Russell Teibert, who didn’t make the trip because of a hamstring injury.
After seeing his team outplayed and outworked in the first half, Robinson made three substitutions in the second in an attempt to energize his club.
“Our guys were playing at 70 per cent and their guys at 100 per cent,” he explained. “I told them at half time I could have made 10 changes. Everyone was below the levels I expect. I thought we started off the second half better. I wanted to keep up the momentum.”
The move to Manneh was the masterstroke.
“I know what Kekuta can do,” Robinson said. “He’s bright, he’s young, he’s energetic. I wanted to give him enough minutes where he’d have an effect on the game. Obviously, he did.”
Manneh replaced Reo- Coker, the man who made an egregious giveaway to Mauro Rosales that led to the Chivas goal.
“I told Nigel it was a suicide pass,” Robinson said. “But credit them ( Chivas) for the desire and work ethic they showed playing with 10 men.”
Capitalizing on Reo- Coker’s lapse, Rosales played the ball to Torres, the 21- year- old Mexican known as El Cubo who was been a sensation since he joined Chivas last season. Torres’ strike deflected off defender Jay DeMerit and found the net behind a wrong- footed Whitecaps goalkeeper David Ousted to put Chivas in front 1- 0.
Ousted knows all about Torres, who has scored nine goals in 17 career starts in MLS. The Mexican had two of them in a 2- 2 draw with Vancouver at BC Place last September, one of them a sensational bicycle kick strike that fooled the Danish ‘ keeper.
“I’m getting a feel for the attackers in this league and he’s definitely one of the good ones,” Ousted said. “You watch for him.”