NPR is in the building this evening preparing a story on Jorge Flores and tabbed your truly for a quick interview, so I'm a little late with the lineups.

The night's important numbers: the Wizards have won just once on the road this season and and Colorado's 5-4 win over the Red Bulls earlier today means Chivas USA is third in the table and seven points behind Western Conference leaders Houston, which drew 1-1 with Toronto.

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The end of Chivas USA's participation in the inaugural CONCACAF Champions League effectively came in the 62nd minute when Luis Moreno equalized to tie this game 1-1.

But that put the score 3-1 on aggregate meaning Chivas USA needed not two goals (because away goals count double in the event of a tie), but three more goals within a half hour to move on.

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Chivas USA ended the half one up courtesy of a Roberto Nurse goal to put the series 2-1 on aggregate, but if they go out of the CONCACAF Champions League they'll be ruing three easy missed chances in the opening 45 minutes.

Sacha Kljestan missed a penalty with a weak shot he sent almost straight at the goalkeeper in the 23rd minute after Nurse ran onto a Panchito Mendoza ball and was brought down by goalkeeper Willington Dominguez.

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This is more dinner party than soccer game. There's so few people here, you get the feeling people should introduce themselves to each other.

Attendance tonight has been capped at all of 2,000 - not that there are dozens, yet alone hundreds clamoring to get in, you understand. (The reason: something about lots of parking complaints at the sold-out Galaxy-Pachuca SuperLiga final).

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Chivas USA will host a critical match against Tauro FC tonight. Chivas USA needs to win by two goals in order to have any hopes of advancing to the CONCACAF Champions League.

Here is audio of my post-game chat with Jonathan Bornstein about the game.

Acutally, it's a bit more complicated than just winning by two. Click to continue reading...

Well, that was awful.

Chivas USA looked like a team that had studied their CONCACAF Champions League opponents Tauro FC of Panama on the airplane ride down (ahem) going down 2-0 tonight in their preliminary stage two-game series.

Chivas USA did everything wrong.

They gave away a soft early goal, applied pressure, but failed to capitalize, and then swooned on the second (where exactly was Panchito Mendoza?

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Unless something drastic changes, there is quite a bit of talent and experience that will be absent for Chivas USA against the Galaxy on Thursday.

Now, that doesn't mean that the club will field a reserve team or anything but there are concerns over certain aspects of Chivas USA's potential lineup. Click to continue reading...

First off, the U.S. Women defeated Japan 1-0 overnight at the Olympics.

USC's Amy Rodriguez got her surprise first start of the Olympics over Natasha Kai. Here's Coach Pia Sundhage on why she made the move:

"The reason for A-Rod instead of Kai was her speed. That was crucial when we looked at the way Japan plays.

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Suarez' miss from the penalty spot.

Photo by Scott Varley

Game story.

Box score.

Here's Claudio Suarez on missing the first half penalty kick:

"I feel bad for having missed it because it influenced the result. If I'd put it in it would have changed the game.

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The domain transfer hasn't fully gone through yet (I'll call tech support as soon as I finish my coffee), but I saw this post by Luis and had to respond. He noted that, with Guzan leaving for England, Francisco Mendoza is the only player currently on Chivas USA's roster who was there from the beginning, and put it out to his readers for the others.

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The domain transfer hasn't fully gone through yet (I'll call tech support as soon as I finish my coffee), but I saw this post by Luis and had to respond. He noted that, with Guzan leaving for England, Francisco Mendoza is the only player currently on Chivas USA's roster who was there from the beginning, and put it out to his readers for the others.

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La verdad, no mire lo que paso entre Panchito Mendoza y David Beckham. Cuando paso, algun jugador se habia lesionado y empeze a escribir algo en my computdora cuando escuche algunos gritos en la tribuna.

Algo habia pasado con Panchito y Beckham, y despues del partido hablo sobre eso.

"Es parte del partido. Click to continue reading...

The difference in this game is again the easily flustered Galaxy defense, who froze as Sacha Kljestan, proving why he was a deserving pick in today's announced MLS All-Star XI, ran menacingly at them to lay the ball back to Ante Razov, who sent an assured, perfectly-placed strike out of the reach of Cronin for the 113th goal of his career.

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Since I spent most of the time in the locker room interviewing Claudio Suarez and Panchito Mendoza - the team's two Mexicans - about next Sunday's SuperLiga opener against Pachuca for Tuesday's column, my opportunities to get quotes about tonight's game were limited.

Still, there weren't many talking points anyway.

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Hi all - I'm at the stadium for the second day in a row - got an assignment!
Chivas USA Starters: Guzan, Burling, Talley, Suarez, Marsch, Kljestan, Nagamura, Mendoza, Harris, Razov, Bornstein
SJ Quakes: Cannon, Riley, Garcia, Hernandez, Denton, O'Brien, Corrales, Gray, Guerrero, Johnson, Kamara
The Union Ultras have some new spiffy flags, but I don't see the Legion signs out at all. Click to continue reading...

Francisco Mendoza nearly became full property of Chivas Guadalajara in the offseason. Instead, he is back with Chivas USA, but in a different capacity than in years past. Mendoza doesn't have a deal yet. His contract ran out at the end of last year and he hasn't signed a new deal yet.

He told me that his agent was working on a deal and that he expected everything to be taken care of by the start of the season. Click to continue reading...