By BRIAN LEWIS
The reserve-laden Red Bulls beat Chivas de Guadalajara _ the real Chivas _ 1-0 in a friendly that wasnât very friendly at University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale. Oscar Echeverry scored his first goal since joining the club, side-footing the ball into an open goal after a great pass from Sinisa Ubiparipovic.
“First of all, weâre very pleased with the result. The guys played really well, especially in the first half,” said coach Juan Carlos Osorio. “The plan was to start with a strong starting line and then in the second half, give a chance to everybody. Maybe the quality dropped a little bit, but we still battled and competed.
“I think in the end, great individual performances, great commitment, great effort from the guys playing against a top opponent. So, Iâm very pleased with the result and the performance.”
With five road games in 16 days, they fielded a young lineup with stars Claudio Reyna and Juan Pablo Angel back in New York healing _ and playing in Steve Nashâs charity game, but letâs not go there. Theyâve got a backlog of fixtures with Chivas USA coming up Saturday, but they played well against the original Mexican version.
Echeverry was arguably Red Bullâs best player and couldâve had three goals, with one called back offside and another cleared off the line. But in the 22nd minute, Ubiparipovic _ coming off his best MLS game in the 1-0 win over Dallas _ dribbled through the penalty area, danced around ne defender and laid the ball to Echeverry.
“I made the run for Hunter (Freeman) and I saw him receive the ball. I ran towards the open space and made the run, got to the ball, crossed the ball back to Oscar…and he finished it off well,” Ubiparipivic said of Echeverry, who doesnât have a goal or assist in five league games _ 311 minutes _ but looked sharp.
“Sinisa is very capable of seeing a pass and executing it and Oscar just put it away,” Osorio said. “In general, I think that it was a very good reward for Oscar for all of his hard work, putting his injury aside and battling back into the team. Iâm very pleased for him.”
The game got chippy with Seth Stammler and a Chivas player both getting red cards.
Centerback Jeff Parke wore the captainâs armband and had the defensive play of the night, racing 20 yards from off the screen to strip a Chivas attacker who had a breakaway.
Rookie left back John Gilkerson looked great in his first start, sprinting to tackle the ball away from striker Javier Hernandez Balcazar in the first half.
“Itâs big,” Gilkerson said. “Iâve been waiting for this for a long time. I didnât think it would come this soon but I thank coach for letting me have the opportunity to let me in there and it was great to get a game under my belt.”
