CARSON, Calif. -- When Yura Movsisyan scored in the 90th minute Saturday in the first leg of their Western Conference Semifinal Series, the Real Salt Lake striker seemed to have put Chivas USA in a terrible situation.
Chivas USA plays host to the second leg of the series at The Home Depot Center this Saturday evening, but despite their deficit, players said all the goal did was change their focus slightly.
"The guys are pretty positive. We know we can take them at home," Chivas USA defender Jonathan Bornstein said. "We would have had to score anyway to win the thing."
The Red-and-White nearly escaped Rio Tinto Stadium with a valuable draw but Movsisyan had other ideas. Statistically, the goal gives Real Salt Lake an advantage as a draw will send the Utah club through to the Western Conference Championship.
But a draw would not necessarily have helped Chivas USA, players argued.
"Even if we got a draw we'd still have to go home and win anyway. I still think we're in a fine position," Chivas USA midfielder Sacha Kljestan said. "We need to go home and play well, play the football we need to play and just get a result and I think we're capable of doing that so we're not very worried."
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Any added pressure that Chivas USA face now in having to win will be miniscule. Only a road victory might have alleviated some of that. The only difference now is what the final margin of victory would mean. Winning by one goal would send the game to extra time and, if necessary, penalty kicks. A victory of two or more sends Chivas USA through to the conference final.
Regardless, though, a win would have been necessary had Movsisyan not scored.
"We're in the same spot last year going home and hopefully it will be different for us," Chivas USA coach Preki said. "No matter what, even if it was 0-0 [in Salt Lake] we'd have to go home and win. We have to win no matter what."
A year ago, Chivas USA dropped their road leg by 1-0 to Kansas City and returned home only to draw 0-0 and be ousted from the postseason. While the loss stung, it could give the players a bit of insight into what to expect and how to prevent history from repeating.
"I hope we learned from what happened last year. We couldn't finish. When we play our game, we've been playing pretty hard this year, if we could just score some goals it will get us over that hump that we couldn't get over last year and on to the next round," Bornstein said.
Although scoring goals is a must, the only difference between losing on Saturday and having returned home with a draw is the significance of the goal.
"Now you score one and you're tied and maybe send it into later stages but hopefully we can take it in 90 minutes," he said.
Ultimately, Chivas USA players said they must set the pace of the game and try to generate chances often. Beyond that, the ability to finish as well as a bit of luck would dictate whether or not the club finds the back of the net.
"There are no guarantees," Kljestan said. "The thing we need to do is play our game, create as many chances as we can, possibly early on in the game against Salt Lake at home. That's all we can ask for."
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