CARSON, Calif. -- In a season full of injuries and changes to the starting lineup, it seemed only fitting that the latest entrant would help provide Chivas USA with three points.
Sasha Victorine earned his first start for Chivas USA since joining the club on Sept. 15 from Kansas City and scored the game-winning goal in a 2-1 win against his former club.
Alecko Eskandarian also scored as Chivas USA remained in second place in the Western Conference table with 36 points.
A pregame chat with his new boss, though, kept Victorine grounded and helped him focus on the match instead of on the opponent.
"Preki came up to me before the game and said 'You don't have anything to prove tonight' and that made me relax a little bit," Victorine said. "Obviously you've got a lot of emotion when you go out there and you're playing against your old team."
Victorine seemed focused and relaxed on the game's first goal. Ante Razov found Victorine on the left side of the penalty area and the former Wizards midfielder took the ball from there.
"Ante saw me making the run through and played a great ball. I saw the initial cutback to Eskandarian and Jimmy (Conrad) was cheating so I just gave him a little fake and Esky kept going," he said. "Atiba took a guy to the near post which opened up a little lane for me to play it through. It was great movement on everyone there."
Near the end of the first half, Victorine did damage to his former club. Victorine took a feed from Harris, ran across the top of the penalty area and ripped a shot into the back of the net from about 20 yards out.
"I knew if I'm going to beat him I had to hit a good shot. When I came on to my right foot there were a couple of guys in front of me ... who made good runs to open up a little bit of a lane for me. I hit three of those shots in warmups and missed them. Hopefully that was the one I saved for the game."
The goal gave Chivas USA a 2-0 lead heading into the break. Still, holding a two-goal lead did not necessarily provide Preki with comfort.
"It's tough to play (ahead by) two goals," Preki said. "That's been a tough part for us because we are such a team that likes to play and put the ball on the ground and tonight in some moments we did not realize when is the time to move the ball fast forward and when is the time to keep the ball and move it around."
Kansas City eventually sliced into the lead when Josh Wolff scored on a bicycle kick in the 70th minute. But the goal only provided the game with some late tense moments as Chivas USA eventually put the visitors away.
It was just another game in which the club had to shuffle the lineup as Alex Zotinca and Jesse Marsch returned from injury and Victorine debuted.
"A lot of new faces again from last weekend. We had to scramble and make adjustments," Preki said. "I give my guys incredible amount of credit because they fought and are still fighting. The whole year has been the same and they deserve what they are getting."
Although both Colorado and Real Salt Lake won road games on Saturday, Chivas USA kept the pressure off momentarily by coming through with a win of their own. In fact, it was the Rapids who provided some of the incentive Chivas USA players used to go out and fight for a win, which was Chivas USA's fourth in their last five games.
"Being honest, watching Colorado win before us ... put a little more importance in the game, in our warmup, in the start of our game, in everything," Victorine said. "I felt like everybody responded pretty well."
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