CARSON, Calif. -- Chivas USA snapped a three-game losing streak on Saturday, beating visiting Toronto FC 3-0 with a flurry of second half goals at The Home Depot Center.
Jorge Flores would start the scoring for the home side, netting his first goal of the season in the 51st minute, before Jesus Padilla and Rodolfo Espinoza added the second and third tallies in the 88th and 90th minutes.
The result sees the Goats maintain a perfect record against the Canadians at home, improving to 4-0 all time in Carson. Toronto suffered their road loss of the season and will return home on a three-game winless streak.
The first half was characterized by near misses at both ends. The first real chance of the match came in just the fourth minute, when Dwayne De Rosario sprung loose into the Chivas USA area. The TFC captain looked destined for goal until Zach Thornton charged off his line to make the save.
TFC also saw two good chances from former Goats striker Maicon Santos, but his shot in the 23rd minute sailed just over the bar and, in the 45th minute, he failed to tip in a cross from Jacob Peterson, touching it just wide of the post.
Soon after the break, Santos again gave the Goats a little scare. The forward received a through ball from De Rosario and, with Thornton beaten after a fake, rolled a shot towards the right and off the post.
Following Santos' miss, the Red-and-White proceeded to take control of the match. Flores’ goal would come in the 51st minute, when he slid to toe-poke a low Espinoza cross from the right wing.
Toronto tried to answer right back through De Rosario, but his long-distance blast was deflected by Thornton right onto the crossbar.
The Reds wouldn't go the rest of the way withough further troubling the Goats' goal. In the 73rd, Santos again threatened, but his shot was cleared off the line by Michael Umaña. Fifteen minutes later, a De Rosario free kick was touched wide by a sprawling save from Thornton.
Pouring on the pressure late, Chivas USA would get their second goal in the 88th minute after Padilla -- subbed in for Justin Braun in the second half -- collected a loose ball in the 88th minute and blasted a long drive that skipped past Stefan Frei to the right and into the back of the net.
A third would come just two minutes later. Taking advantage of a deflated TFC side, Paulo Nagamura raced forward and found Espinoza on the left side of the Toronto area. Espinoza took one touch and hit a high drive that looped over Frei’s head and into the top left corner of the net for the final 3-0 score line.
Chivas USA will now turn their attention to the Seattle Sounders while Toronto FC returns home to host the Columbus Crew next weekend.
Scoring:
CHV -- Jorge Flores 1 (Rodolfo Espinoza 2) 51
CHV -- Jesus Padilla 5 (Alan Gordon 3) 88
CHV -- Rodolfo Espinoza 1 (unassisted) 90
Misconduct:
CHV -- Alan Gordon (caution; Unsporting Behavior) 74
TOR -- Dwayne De Rosario (caution; Reckless Foul) 81
Lineups:
Toronto -- Stefan Frei, Maksim Usanov (Ty Harden 60), Nana Attakora, Adrian Cann, Nick Garcia (O'Brian White 73), Dwayne De Rosario, Dan Gargan, Julian de Guzman, Jacob Peterson, Chad Barrett (Nicholas Lindsay 42), Maicon Santos.
Substitutes Not Used: Raivis Hscanovics, Fuad Ibrahim, Nick LaBrocca, Jon Conway.
Chivas -- Zach Thornton, Mariano Trujillo, Michael Umana, Ante Jazic, Jonathan Bornstein, Rodolfo Espinoza, Michael Lahoud, Paulo Nagamura, Jorge Flores (Sal Zizzo 76), Justin Braun (Jesus Padilla 57), Alan Gordon.
Substitutes Not Used: Yamith Cuesta, Giancarlo Maldonado, Marcelo Saragosa, Ben Zemanski, Kevin Guppy.
Referee: Terry Vaughn
Referee's Assistants: Greg Barkey; Fabio Tovar
4th Official: Ramon Hernandez
Attendance: 12,426
