Oswaldo Minda scored in the first half Saturday to give Chivas USA a 1-0 victory over Toronto FC that extended Toronto's season-opening losing streak to a franchise-worst five games.
Toronto (0-5) has yet to win or draw, score at home or even hold a lead this season. And it has a 1-6-2 combined record in league and CONCACAF Champions League play, having been outscored 20-9.
''Bad luck,'' Toronto manager Aron Winter said. ''They're doing the job but the ball is not going in the net ... We deserved to win the game because we were the better team.''
Chivas (3-3-0) has won all three games on the road and lost all three at home.
Chivas, a tidy defensive side with few attacking options in the absence of the injured Juan Pablo Angel, made the most of its limited chances. Toronto didn't and once again paid for a defensive mistake.
The lone goal came in the 31st minute off Minda's downward header from a corner kick. Ryan Johnson was attempting to mark the Ecuador international.
Still on this day, Toronto could have won 5-1, with a slew of second-half scoring chances. But one ball after another deflected off a defender, bounced the wrong way, hit a post or found goalkeeper Dan Kennedy.
''Toronto played really well, especially in the second half, they dominated play,'' Chivas defender and Canadian international Ante Jazic said. ''We started to bend but we didn't break. Last year we probably would have lost this game, or at least tied it. And we were able to get three points.''
In the 80th minute, Johnson looked certain to tie it when, found alone in the corner of the box, his left-footed shot went through Kennedy. But somehow defender Heath Pearce flew through the air to clear the ball as it was about to go in.
''A miracle,'' said Winter, who called it ''a 100 per cent goal.''
Toronto lost four straight to kick off its debut season before beating the Chicago Fire 3-1 on May 12, 2007. The Fire visit Toronto next Saturday.
Perhaps the only other good news for the announced crowd of 18,476 at BMO Field was that captain Torsten Frings dressed for the first time since straining a hamstring March 17 in the season-opening loss in Seattle.
The former German international, however, was rooted to his seat and did not warm up with the other substitutes as the game wore on. Frings and fellow designated player Julian de Guzman were part of a bench with more than $3.2 million in combined salary last season.
