A Fast Start Ignites Chivas USA to Win

Road woes? Not for the Chicago Fire.

Coach Dave Sarachan’s team was handed the unenviable task of starting its Major League Soccer season with nine consecutive games away from home while its new stadium is completed in Bridgeview, Ill.

No big deal, said the Fire players, who entered Saturday night’s match against Chivas USA at the Home Depot Center with a 2-1-4 record, a five-game unbeaten streak and 10 points in the bank.

Today, they still have 10 points. Chivas USA scored early and then hung on -- sometimes a little desperately, sometimes a little luckily -- to notch a 1-0 victory, its second win, and end its five-game winless streak.

Goalkeeper Preston Burpo, making his MLS debut, earned the shutout.

“Every now and then there’s some importance in maybe just grinding out a result,” Coach Bob Bradley had said beforehand. “You don’t want to play that way every game, but ... that’s what we’ve got to keep pushing for.”

That’s what Chivas achieved. It wasn’t the most attractive way to win, but, as Bradley said, three points are three points.

That said, Chivas started off like a house on, uh, fire. It took the team only 63 seconds to take the lead.

A fine through ball from Sacha Kljestan found Ante Razov in the penalty area and Razov’s shot brought a sharp save from Chicago goalkeeper Zach Thornton, who had to throw himself low to his left to knock the ball away with his outstretched hand.

Unfortunately for Chicago, the ball rebounded to Juan Pablo Garcia, who stuck it into the back of the net before Thornton could regain his feet.

It was the fastest goal in the team’s brief history and Garcia’s third of the season.

Chicago might have tied the score in the 14th minute when Nate Jaqua worked his way into a dangerous position only to steer his shot wide of the right post.

Thiago, the Fire’s Brazilian midfielder, replicated Jaqua’s miss less than two minutes later as the Chivas USA defense showed every sign of being as porous as it had been a week earlier in a 5-4 loss at the New York Red Bulls.

But Chivas USA hung on and held the lead when the first half ended.

The second half was 45 minutes of tedium interrupted by some occasionally inexplicable refereeing.

In the worst instance of the latter, Chivas midfielder Francisco “Paco” Palencia was judged to have committed a foul just outside the Fire penalty area and was arguing the call with referee Silvio Petrescu, when Thornton -- no lightweight at 6-feet-3 and 230 pounds -- rushed over and threw a body block on the 5-9, 157-pound Palencia while play was stopped.

Petrescu, amazingly, did nothing about it.

Despite such refereeing shortcomings -- typical of MLS this season -- Chivas USA managed to hang on and hand the Fire only its second loss in eight road games.

“They’ve shown resilience,” Bradley said. “They knew going in that they had this nine-game stretch where they just had to batten down the hatches and compete and take points wherever they could.

“If you treat that all the right way then there are positives to get from it, and I think so far they’ve done that.”

On Saturday night, Chivas USA finally showed the same sort of resilience and was rewarded for it.