Carson, CA (My Sportsbook) - Major League Soccer rivals, the Los Angeles Galaxy and Chivas USA, square off in the third and final SuperClasico of the regular season on Saturday night at The Home Depot Center.
The first meeting in early April ended as a scoreless draw, and the second match, on July 11, ended with the Galaxy earning a 1-0 victory. Chivas USA has actually not defeated the Galaxy in the last five L.A. derbies, going 0-2-3 during that span.
The Goats (10-8-3) are currently tied with Seattle for third in the Western Conference, just two points back of the second-placed Galaxy with two games in hand. They are, however, coming off an embarrassing 4-0 defeat at Real Salt Lake in a mid-week MLS fixture.
"We didn't start the game looking good or end the half good," Chivas USA coach Preki said after the loss on Wednesday. "We handed them a goal. The mistake we made on the first goal ended up deciding which way the game would go. Once you're down a goal, you have to change the way you play. But I give credit to RSL, they came out with more of a sense of urgency and they seemed to want it more."
The loss snapped a two-game winning streak, that had stopped the five-game losing streak that preceded it.
"You can never be too high when you win a couple of games," Preki said. "You always need to keep humble and make sure you're ready to play. We can't think that just because we win a couple games that we don't need to work so hard as a team - hopefully we can change that."
The Galaxy (8-4-11) are one of the hottest teams in MLS, losing just once in their last nine league fixtures. They have been steadily climbing the table since late June, and appear to be rounding into top form for the stretch drive.
They are coming off a scoreless draw at D.C. United that capped off a three league games in seven days stretch, with Saturday's game the first of a three- game home stand.
"We are in good shape," Galaxy attacker Landon Donovan said after the draw at United. "The goal is to continue to separate ourselves from the last playoff teams and another point helps. Having David [Beckham] here consistently helps; we are gelling better and maybe on another night we win this game, but in the end we are happy to get a point out of it."
The Galaxy will be without defenders Sean Franklin and Julian Valentin, while forwards Edson Buddle and Alecko Eskandarian, and midfielder Dema Kovalenko are questionable, all with injures.
Chivas USA will be without forwards Ante Razov and Justin Braun, defenders Jim Curtin and Claudio Suarez, and midfielders Kevin Harmse, Sasha Victorine and Cesar Zamora, while midfielder Paulo Nagamura and goalkeeper Zach Thornton are probable with a host of injuries.
