Chivas barely beats Morelia

Chivas is on its way to the Copa Libertadores soccer tournament for the fourth time in five years. But the team that shows up next month in Argentina for its first-round game probably won’t resemble the one that squeaked past Morelia in a shootout in Sunday’s Interliga final in front of a sellout crowd at the Home Depot Center.

That’s because the Guadalajara team is scheduled to begin play in the 50th Copa on Feb. 11, the same day Mexico’s national team meets Team USA in a World Cup qualifier in Columbus, Ohio. And since the World Cup takes precedence, guess where Chivas’ best players, among them Carlos Ochoa, Gonzalo Pineda and Alberto Medina, will be that day?

And that could be a problem since Chivas, the only team to finish the eight-team, three-city Interliga unbeaten, needed everything it had to beat a Morelia club that fought it to a 1-1 tie in regulation despite playing most of the second half short-handed, the result of Fernando Salazar’s red card.

“You want to divide yourself and play in both [events],” Pineda said. “Our federation will have to resolve this and decide who goes where. You can’t be with both teams.”

For Ochoa, a national team veteran who didn’t join Chivas until last month, the choice is a bit tougher.

“I want to play with both,” said Ochoa, who grew up in Baldwin Park. “The truth is, one of my dreams has been to play with Chivas. And another of my dreams with the national team, which I’ve already done.”

The shootout was made necessary when Chivas’ Marco Fabian scored in the 66th minute, helping to erase a pair of ugly moments for the overwhelmingly pro-Chivas crowd 10 minutes earlier when Ochoa deflected Hugo Droguett’s corner kick into his own goal, giving Morelia a 1-0 lead and inspiring an angry spectator to throw what appeared to be a beer container onto to the field, striking Morelia’s Wilson Tiago in the back of the head.

Droguett wound up taking Morelia’s final shot of the game as well, but Chivas goalkeeper Luis Ernesto Michel batted it to the turf, giving his team a 4-2 victory in the tiebreaker and its first Interliga title .

Pachuca of Hidalgo, Mexico’s oldest soccer club, also needed penalty kicks to qualify for the Copa on Sunday after blowing a 3-0 first-half lead against Atlas of Guadalajara.

But if how it qualified -- the 13-round tiebreaker featured goals by both goalkeepers -- counts as bad news, here’s the good: As Mexico’s final entry into the Copa, Pachuca won’t have to worry about any scheduling conflicts with the national team since it will face the University of Chile in what is essentially a two-game play-in for the tournament’s final spot beginning later this month.

A shootout hardly seemed likely after Pachuca jumped to a 3-0 lead 34 minutes into the Interliga’s Group A final on two goals from Paraguayan Edgar Benitez and another from Argentine Christian Gimenez.

But Pachuca Coach Enrique Meza substituted freely in the second half -- sitting Benitez and Gimenez, among others -- and his team gave up the aggressive, attacking style that had been so successful in the first period. That allowed Atlas to climb back into the game on goals by Gonzalo Vargas and Jorge Achucarro.

However, Pachuca’s biggest mistake came in the 71st minute when defender Leobardo Lopez, trying to clear a centering pass, headed the ball into his own net. That helped set up a shootout that ended when Paul Aguilar found the upper-lefthand corner of the net and Pachuca goalkeeper Miguel Calero stopped Achucarro for the second time in the tiebreaker.

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