‘Frustrating night’ ends in no answers
Chivas USA Coach Preki demanded explanations, but police intervened.
So Chivas left South Carolina without much opportunity to discuss lingering matters with officials after its 3-1 U.S. Open Cup loss Tuesday to the Charleston Battery.
It was “a frustrating night” for Preki, whose club lost its sixth consecutive U.S. Open Cup match dating to 2005.
After the match, Preki trotted across the field to speak with officials before police stepped in and led the coach and players in the direction of the locker room.
Preki was frustrated by what he perceived to be a blown call on the Battery’s goalkeeper as Chivas defender Carey Talley prepared to attack the goal.
“I thought it was a foul,” Preki told The Times by telephone after the match. “We just let it slip away; that’s how it is sometimes.”
It didn’t help that forward Randi Patterson scored two goals as the Battery jumped out to a 2-1 lead at intermission. The Battery, unbeaten at home all season, scored again in stoppage time.
Tsuyoshi Yoshitake, a midfielder forward, delivered a swift kick from just outside the penalty box that left Chivas’ goalkeeper planted to the ground.
“The most frustrating thing [is] we had a first chance [to score] in the game,” said Preki on the team’s first two missed attempts at scoring.
Chivas USA will have a 10-day layoff before it plays host to the Galaxy on July 11. The local teams’ last meeting in April ended in a scoreless tie.
Despite losing its last two Major League Soccer games before SuperLiga, Chivas holds the No. 2 spot in the Western Conference behind the best team in the league, the Houston Dynamo.
After the Galaxy game, Chivas will play five of its next six matches on the road.
Aguirre reported from Los Angeles
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