Spokane edges Chivas de Guadalajara U23 in international friendly 2-1

The young Chivas played hard and fast, but a second-half goal propelled the more experienced Spokane Velocity to a victory in the international friendly.

The Velocity hosted Chivas de Guadalajara U23, an academy team of the historic Mexican soccer club, at ONE Spokane Stadium on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Spokane overcame a brutal own goal in the first half to escape with a 2-1 win.

“To make sure that we continue to work on in the game what we’ve been working on in training and to refine ourselves and to be better in front of the goal, which is one of our big focuses in the past few weeks and we saw that today, which is positive,” Veidman said on what he hoped to get out of the match.

Chivas was notably aggressive out of the gates, applying pressure to the Spokane defensive backs. The Velocity were able to break through early and create chances, but could not find the back of the net.

In the 17th minute, Velocity forward Josh Dolling recovered the ball off a mistake from and rolled it by the goalie to put Spokane up 1-0.

“It’s a great feeling, no matter what game it is, it’s good to score,” Dolling said. “It’s been a little now since I scored, so it’s alway nice to get that confidence … I was happy with it.”

In the 30th minute, the Chivas pressure finally paid off. The Spokane defense looked to reset with a pass back to the goalkeeper, but the ball rolled by a distracted Brooks Thompson and made it into the goal before the Velocity goalkeeper could save it.

The clubs entered halftime tied at 1-1.

Just after the break, Velocity midfielder Kimarni Smith looked to put Spokane ahead with an impressive shot, but the play was one of several nullified by offsides.

Smith and Dolling said after the match that they thought he was onside.

Chivas continued their scrappy play into the second frame, picking up a handful of yellow cards on hard fouls in the wet conditions. The young Mexicans displayed raw talent and athleticism but had a hard time converting opportunities against the Spokane defense.

“It’s different playing a team like that because they obviously (have) an emphasis on keeping the ball in play a lot, where teams we come up against in USL (League) One will be in deep blocks and defending a lot – it’s a bit more organized,” Dolling said. “In those games, it’s easier for us attackers to get chances, but we need to figure out a way to beat those low blocks in the league and start scoring (more) goals.”

In the 70th minute, Chivas looked to counter off an errant Spokane pass, but the Velocity quickly regained possession and looked to attack. An unnamed trialist that started for Spokane displayed impressive dribbling along the left side of the field, before working his way in and crossing it to a slashing Smith, who finished with a flying foot.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Smith said of his first goal with the club. “A goal is a goal and I’m happy to get one.”

Chivas nearly leveled the match in the 84th minute off a corner kick, but Spokane was able to hold on to its lead to secure the win.

“It’s incredible – to have Chivas come into Spokane, just saying that sentence alone,” Veidman said. “The fact that that’s being brought into Spokane is incredible and thankfully we put on a good show for the fans too.”

The Velocity get 10 days off until they travel to Omaha to get a rematch with the Union Omaha in more group play in the Jagermeister Cup on June 13th.