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Chivas USA rally to draw San Jose
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Braun scored his third of the season tonight
CARSON - Coming in to Saturday nights encounter with the San Jose Earthquakes, the Goats had already assured qualification into the playoffs. What position they would finish the season on the other hand was still up in the air. The Goats, Galaxy and Houston Dynamo were all tied at the top Western Conference at 44 points a piece.
In what turned into a see saw match up, the Goats found the back of the net first courtesy of Maykel Galindo in the 7th minute with a Sacha Kljestan assist. However, the next two goals came courtesy of San Jose's Brandon McDonald (21st minute), and Jamaican international Ryan Johnson (58th minute). No sooner than San Jose had taken the lead, Justin Braun headed in the tying goal. His third of the season followed a left footed lob into the box by Canadian international, Ante Jazic in the 66th minute.
The Goats offense picked up for the rest of the match trying to find the winning goal. In stoppage time, Braun got himself into a one v one with San Jose keeper Andrew Weber, only for Weber to knock the ball away as Braun approcahed the goal inside the box.
If only for a few hours, the Goats are back on top of the Western Conference. Sunday's matinee between Houston and LA will determine a new Western Conference leader, or put everyone back at a 3 way tie. With Seattle's 3-2 win over Kansas City, they now trail the Goats by one point.
If the Goats have one advantage, it's that they have a match in hand. Translation: they have two more matches left this season to earn points, while Houston, LA, and Seattle only have one after this weekend. With that in mind, they now travel to Chicago for their 3rd and final encounter of the year with the Fire (10/22, 5pm on ESPN 2). Chicago has been victorious in the two prior meetings this year on May 20th at the HDC, and also in the 1st round of the Superliga at Toyota Park.
Bornstein after his 2nd goal for the US national team
(AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) 
In other Goat notes:
Jonathan Bornstein returned to the squad following his participation in two back to back World Cup qualifiers for the United States. Not only did the he go the full 90 in a nail bitter in San Pedro Sula, but also scored the tying goal in the final WCQ of the cycle against Costa Rica. The 95th minute goal not only earned him his second goal in a USA jersey, but also relegated Costa Rica to playing the 5th place South American team (Uruguay) in a home and away series to begin next month.
“It was in stoppage time and we were pushing extremely hard that whole second half and we got a couple corners late in the game”, Bornstein said after the match. “I don’t usually go up for corner kicks, usually I stay in the back, but for that one, I was like, I’m getting in there.”
With qualifying over, Bornstein finishes the campaign with 5 WCQ appearances. Thanks to his efforts in the last second draw, the United States stays atop the CONCACAF standings and wins the hexagonal group with 20 points. The two other automatic qualifiers, Mexico and Honduras, finished with 19 and 16 points respectively.
“Our whole goal from the beginning of qualifying was to win the group. Whenever you step on the field you want to win every game”, Bornstein continued. “All 10 games, I think we set out to do our best and try to get the results that we needed in order to ultimately win the group and, to do it, I think we have to be really proud of ourselves and I would say there’s huge significance in that.”
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