Saturday, May 12, 2007

Focused on Columbus

In case you haven't come across these stories yet ahead of the Chivas USA-Columbus Crew match, here are a couple of stories I wrote that were published on Friday on MLSnet.com.

Chivas USA needs a win. A tie would suffice but the club really needs to turn around its two-game losing streak and not fall to 2-4. After six games, 2-4 would be lousy; 2-3-1 would only be slightly better but it could inject some confidence into the team. What makes this match particularly important is that the Galaxy loom around the corner and Chivas USA is plain lousy against the Galaxy. The players are talking three points from the Crew game today and seem focused and ready to overcome their recent troubles.

As for the midfield, Sacha Kljestan returns and along with Paulo Nagamura, Francisco Mendoza and Jesse Marsch will give the team a new-look midfield.

One last thought. When I was writing my season preview for MLSnet.com on Chivas USA, I focused on three players: Kljestan, Mendoza and Jonathan Bornstein. I probably could have written about Amado Guevara and him fitting in with the team but I felt that more important to the club's success was the continued development of Kljestan, Mendoza and Bornstein. I felt before the season that these three players could each take the next step in their respective development and that would help overcome the losses of Juan Pablo Garcia and Francisco Palencia more than Amado Guevara could.

Turns out that those three players will be key. With a midfield of Mendoza-Marsch-Nagamura_Kljestan, the onus for producing will fall on Mendoza and Kljestan. Those two players will have freedom to roam in the center of the field and won't be bound to the flanks as Bornstein and Zotinca like to make runs on their respective sides. If Mendoza and Kljestan can handle the load, Chivas USA will be fine. If they can't, the season could be difficult.

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