RSL, Chivas USA highlight midweek clash

Western Conference foes battle for playoff positioning Wednesday

A real six-pointer in the Western Conference is ahead at midweek as Chivas USA makes the trip to Rio Tinto Stadium to take on Real Salt Lake. After back-to-back victories following a five-game losing streak, Chivas USA are back in a tie for third place in the West and three points clear of the last playoff position. RSL is three points behind the three-way tie for seventh place overall that holds the last postseason spot and haven't lost at home in league play since mid-May.

REFEREE: Terry Vaughn. SAR (bench): Greg Boles; JAR (opposite): David Bragg; 4th: Yader Reyes MLS Career: 115 games; FC/gm: 28.9; Y/gm: 3.9; R: 38; pens: 37

INJURY REPORT: REAL SALT LAKE - DOUBTFUL: FW Yura Movsisyan (R rotator cuff impingement); MF Javier Morales (R groin strain); PROBABLE: MF Nelson Gonzalez (illness); MF Will Johnson (L calf strain); MF Andy Williams (R hamstring strain) ... CHIVAS USA - OUT: FW Justin Braun (concussion); DF Jim Curtin (L ankle sprain); MF Kevin Harmse (R knee tendonitis); GK Dan Kennedy (R knee surgery); FW Ante Razov (R ankle tendonitis); DF Claudio Suárez (R calf strain); DF Lawson Vaughn (L ankle surgery); MF Sasha Victorine (concussion); MF Cesar Zamora (L hamstring strain); PROBABLE: MF Paulo Nagamura (R hamstring strain); GK Zach Thornton (R quad strain)

INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none
SUSPENDED: none
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: RSL: Kyle Beckerman, Will Johnson, Clint Mathis, Robbie Russell ... CHV: Eduardo Lillingston, Jesse Marsch
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: RSL: Tony Beltran, Nat Borchers, Fabian Espindola, Javier Morales ... CHV: Sacha Kljestan, Marcelo Saragosa, Bojan Stepanovic

HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (15 meetings): Real Salt Lake 3 wins, 13 goals ... Chivas USA 9 wins, 27 goals ... Ties 3 AT SALT LAKE (6 meetings): Real Salt Lake 2 wins, 9 goals ... Chivas USA 2 wins, 8 goals ... Ties 2

• Chivas has won six of the last seven league meetings between the teams.

• Real Salt Lake's victory in the second meeting last season, on June 14, not only ended an eight-game winless streak against Chivas USA over two-plus seasons, but also marked RSL's first-ever win against Chivas at The Home Depot Center. Real had lost six of their seven previous visits to Carson to face Chivas, with one draw.

• Over that streak, the Red-and-White won five of those games, with three draws. The last Real Salt Lake victory in the series had come Aug. 6, 2005, their last meeting in the inaugural season for both clubs.

• The teams also in the Western Conference Semifinals last season, where RSL won the first-ever meeting at Rio Tinto Stadium, 1-0 on a last-minute goal from Yura Movsisyan, then advanced after a 2-2 draw at The Home Depot Center.

• Coaches record: Jason Kreis vs. CHV: P6 W1 L5 D0 ... Preki v RSL: P7 W6 L1 D0

LAST MEETING (MLS):
5/9: CHV 1, RSL 0 (Nagamura 54)
•Chivas USA defeated Real Salt Lake 1-0 in the first meeting between the teams, May 9 at The Home Depot Center.

• The game's lone goal came in the 54th minute. A half-cleared cross was headed backward by Sacha Kljestan, and Paulo Nagamura ran onto it to hammer home a rasping drive from outside the box for his third goal on the campaign.

• Chivas USA goalkeeper Zach Thornton made six saves for the match, including a stellar stop of Javier Morales in the second half, for his sixth clean sheet in the opening nine games on the season.

• Here's Preki's team (4-4-2): Zach Thornton - Mariano Trujillo, Carey Talley, Shavar Thomas, Jonathan Bornstein - Sacha Kljestan, Jesse Marsch, Paulo Nagamura, Bojan Stepanovic (Maykel Galindo 58) - Justin Braun (Atiba Harris 82), Eduardo Lillingston (Sasha Victorine 73). Substitutes Not Used: Chukwudi Chijindu, Jim Curtin, Gerson Mayen, Lance Parker

• Here's Kreis's team (4-4-1-1): Chris Seitz - Robbie Russell, Nat Borchers, Jamison Olave, Chris Wingert - Will Johnson, Kyle Beckerman, Clint Mathis (Andy Williams 75), Raphael Cox (Robbie Findley 67) - Javier Morales - Yura Movsisyan (Fabian Espindola 75). Substitutes Not Used: Jean Alexandre, Tony Beltran, Ned Grabavoy, Kyle Reynish

REAL SALT LAKE

Real Salt Lake lost for the third consecutive road match, falling 3-1 to the New England Revolution on Sunday evening at Gillette Stadium. Real have 27 points from 22 matches on the year, in sixth place in the Western Conference, currently three points out of the final playoff spot.

LAST MATCH
• The Revolution were returning home after a 1-0 victory at Seattle Sounders FC just three days earlier that ended a two-game winless run. Real were coming off back-to-back shutouts, though the second was a scoreless home draw with the Houston Dynamo.

• The Revolution led 2-0 before the half-hour mark. In the ninth minute, Jay Heaps hit a hopeful ball down the left flank for Mauricio Castro to run onto, and he drove a low cross across the top of the six that Kheli Dube knocked home. Then in the 29th minute, Michael Videira cut into the area on the left and hit a shot that RSL 'keeper Nick Rimando could only palm aside, and Dube crashed in to bundle home the rebound.

• New England and Dube made it three in the 66th minute. Dube swung the ball out to Shalrie Joseph on the right flank and the Grenadian swung in a low cross to the near post that Dube turned home with a neat volley, completing his hat trick with his sixth goal on the campaign. It was the first hat trick for New England since Taylor Twellman did it in September 2005.

• RSL pulled a goal back five minutes from the end when Pablo Campos tried to drive a ball back into the goalmouth, instead bouncing off rookie Darrius Barnes' shin into the goal.

• Real coach Jason Kreis made two changes to the team that played to a scoreless draw against the Houston Dynamo the week before. Chris Wingert returned to the team with Jamison Olave suspended, while Rachid El Khalifi made his first MLS start, in place of Clint Mathis.

• Here's Kreis's team (4-2-3-1): Nick Rimando - Chris Wingert, Nat Borchers, Robbie Russell, Tony Beltran - Kyle Beckerman (Ned Grabavoy 71), Will Johnson - Fabian Espindola, Javier Morales (Andy Williams 13), Rachid El Khalifi (Pablo Campos 57) - Robbie Findley. Substitutes Not Used: Raphael Cox, Nelson Gonzalez, David Horst, Chris Seitz

• "We hadn't had a game where I felt like we just had no chance and I'd say tonight we didn't," Kreis said.

TEAM NEWS
• It was the second time in the last three road games where RSL was two goals down with barely a half-hour gone. Real have allowed 17 of their 30 goals away from Rio Tinto Stadium; 10 of their 30 goals on the season have been conceded in the opening half-hour.

• "It's another game where we're on the road and we give away a goal early on," Kreis said. "And when I say give away, I mean give away. I felt like they didn't do much to deserve that goal, and that's clearly not good enough commitment on the defensive side of the ball. It's just not good enough and it's never going to be good enough, and when we do that on the road we're not going to get any points."

• The RSL attack suffered a big blow early on when Javier Morales was forced from the field after just 13 minutes with a adductor injury suffered before the game started.

• "Anytime you lose (Morales), it's going to be a big impact," Beckerman said. "Nobody really knew that he was feeling some symptoms, but I think it happened a little in warmups and then he felt it in the game, so he couldn't continue. It was tough, but Andy (Williams) came on and tried to fill that spot the best he could. I thought he did well."

• The first Dube goal snapped a 213-minute shutout streak. But by evening's end, Real had allowed a season-high three goals for the second time - both times coming in the last six games (previously July 18 at Columbus).

• "It's another case where I think our guys are reading the newspapers and the stat lines and seeing that we're doing a good job defensively and that's going to carry us into this playoff chase, and they forget that there's some effort that is involved in the 90 minutes," Kreis said.

• The game started a difficult three-game stretch - first at New England, home vs. Chivas USA then at Kansas City - where RSL was hoping to begin their drive to return to playoff consideration.

• "It's going to be a tough eight days, and this isn't the way you like to start it. We've just got to put it past us. We put ourselves in the situation we're in. We're still in it, we have a chance to still get into the playoffs," Beckerman said. "There're games left, so luckily we have a game to forget about this one as quickly as possible. So hopefully we can turn it around and forget about this game."

CHIVAS USA

Chivas USA won for the second consecutive week, defeating Toronto FC 2-0 on Saturday evening at The Home Depot Center. Chivas have 33 points from 20 matches, sitting in a tie for third place in the Western Conference with Seattle Sounders FC, seven points behind division leaders Houston Dynamo.

LAST MATCH
• Chivas USA had put paid to a five-game losing skid with a 2-0 win at New York the week before, while Toronto FC were coming off a huge 2-0 home win against D.C. United that ended a three-game winless run.

• Chivas took the lead after 32 minutes. A corner kick overflew the area and was chased down by Carey Talley beyond the left post. He flighted a cross back into the scrum that was headed goalward by Maykel Galindo then redirected home from close range by Sacha Kljestan for his first goal of 2009.

• Kljestan doubled the lead six minutes after the break. Brazilian striker Maicon Santos, in his MLS debut, sent an inch-perfect through ball between defenders for Kljestan to run onto in the area, and he coolly tucked a low, curling shot past goalkeeper Stefan Frei inside the far post.

• Chivas USA coach Preki made two changes to the team that defeated the New York Red Bulls 2-0 on the road the Saturday before. New signings Jesus Padilla and Maicon Santos each made their MLS debuts, coming in for Bojan Stepanovic and Chukwudi Chijindu.

• Here's Preki's team (4-4-2): Lance Parker - Mariano Trujillo, Jonathan Bornstein, Carey Talley, Ante Jazic - Jesus Padilla (Bojan Stepanovic 71), Jesse Marsch, Marcelo Saragosa, Sacha Kljestan - Maykel Galindo (Paulo Nagamura 77), Maicon Santos (Eduardo Lillingston 65). Substitutes Not Used: Chukwudi Chijindu, Kevin Guppy, Michael Lahoud, Shavar Thomas

TEAM NEWS

• Preki gave starts to both of the club's newest signings -- Brazilian striker Maicon Santos and ex-Chivas de Guadalajara man Jesús Padilla - and both sparked the club's attack. Santos laid on Kljestan's second goal and Padilla was active all night opposite Kljestan on the right flank.

• "We had a couple new guys, and it's not always easy to gel right away with your teammates, but I thought that both of those guys [Jesús Padilla and Maicon Santos]; the longer the game went, they settled in and played better. I think we played better especially the second half," Preki said. "This is a period of a little bit of adjustment for us, some new faces and hopefully we can survive this period and towards the end of the year we'll be the team that we want to be."

• Kljestan hadn't scored a goal since June 19, 2008 and had struggled to make an impact in the early part of the season. He had added just two assists - one of those the week before vs. New York (the other coming vs. Real Salt Lake).

• "He's been working really hard in training. When Sacha comes to play, when he really wants to play, Sacha is one of the better players in the league and one of the more talented players in the league.," Preki said. "So I think this is a good sign. I thought he had a really good game. I thought he worked hard defensively too. We just hope he can keep going."

• Said Kljestan: "It's just one of those things that happens in football sometimes. You get discouraged and it's even harder to come back. But talking with the coaches and trying to get motivated, and trying to get my confidence back, it's been good. I think the past three weeks in training have been really good for me."

• In his second MLS start, Lance Parker was credited with the shutout. The game came two weeks after he was beaten for four goals by Colorado in his league debut.

• "I'm pretty excited," Parker said. "We came out a lot stronger than we have and we didn't let them get on top of us early in the match. When we did get up a goal, we didn't sit back and just defend; we kept on going at them and got that second goal which was helpful for us."

• Chivas put together clean sheets in back-to-back games for the first time since recording three in a row April 25-May 9, when they had a stretch of six shutouts in nine games to open the season. In front of Parker the Red-and-White maintained the same back four of Mariano Trujillo, Carey Talley, Jonathan Bornstein and Ante Jazic.

• Facebook
• Supporter Comments
• Email
• Print

MLSnet.com Comments

• 

  Number of Originals dwindles to one

• 

  Davis: Kreis still has answers for RSL

• 

  Olsen adjusts to 'a whole new animal'

• 

  MLS supports UNICEF's efforts in Haiti