CARSON, Calif. — Chivas USA's Major League Soccer debut was a festive affair, marred only by a lot of empty seats, a lack of goals — and a defeat.
"It was great atmosphere, to see all that red and white," Chivas coach Thomas Rongen said Saturday after D.C. United beat his team 2-0.
"It was all that we hoped for — great support, very loud, very knowledgeable fans, clearly fans who know what the game is all about and have the passion to support Chivas."
The game had a distinctive flair, with mariachi music, a "Guadalajara-style" food court on a concourse outside the stadium, and even a halftime wedding uniting two Chivas fans — the bride wearing bright red, the groom in all white.
The MLS expansion team is an offshoot of the Guadalajara club team, one of Mexico's most popular. Chivas translates to "Goats."
With Chivas USA's first crowd a festive array of fans clad in red-and-white-striped shirts, blowing horns and banging noisemakers, the home team was unable to mount many serious scoring threats.
United capitalized on its chances.
Joshua Gros scored in the 32nd minute off Brian Carroll's perfect pass across the box. Christian Gomez fought his way through traffic in the box to give United a two-goal lead in the 76th minute.
The announced crowd of 18,493 was smaller than anticipated, about two-thirds of capacity. By contrast, last season's United-Los Angeles Galaxy game — Freddy Adu's first in Southern California — drew a sellout of 27,000.
This time, Adu, United's 15-year-old forward, came on as a substitute in the 74th minute. He had one slashing run with the ball and threaded a fine pass to Jaime Moreno alone on the wing in the 87th minute, but Moreno's shot sailed wide of the goal.
Rongen, who coached United when they won the MLS title in 1999, wished Chivas could have given the crowd more to cheer.
"We are extremely disappointed that we couldn't show our fans more than zero points," he said. "On the other hand, I thought we displayed some things that will make us a good team.
"The difference was our not converting our opportunities. D.C. United was able to do that. Peter Nowak, coach of defending champion United, liked the way the defense played.
"The whole team represented itself defensively very, very well," Nowak said.
He wasn't particularly pleased with the overall play in the first half, but said, "I addressed the issue with the team at halftime and in the second half, we did much, much better."
United goalkeeper Nick Rimando got the shutout, by making only two saves. On Chivas' best chances, Rimando dived to his right to swat Hector Cuadros' free kick outside the post in the 17th minute, then make an almost identical dive to his left to tip away Francisco Mendoza's curling shot from 25 yards away early in the second half.
Chivas goalkeeper Brad Guzan, a 20-year-old former standout for the University of South Carolina, got the start because Martin Zuniga is out with a knee injury. Guzan faced three shots on goal and had one save.