Chivas USA vs. New York Red Bulls | MLS Match Preview

CHIVAS USA vs NEW YORK RED BULLS
STUBHUB CENTER, Carson, Calif.
August 25, 2013 (WEEK 26, MLS Game #239)
5 pm ET/2 pm PT (UniMas; MSG)

Chivas USA and the New York Red Bulls meet in an interconference clash on Sunday afternoon at StubHub Center. Chivas USA saw their current winless run extended in midweek at home, FC Dallas coming back for a late 3-1 win. The Red Bulls, now tied atop the Eastern Conference, hit the road following a scoreless with Philadelphia Union last week at Red Bull Arena.

REFEREE: Kevin Stott. AR1 (bench): Jeff Hosking; AR2 (opposite): Baboucarr Jallow; 4th: Daniel Radford
MLS Career: 238 games; FC/gm: 25.6; Y/gm: 3.3; R: 60; pens: 51

DISABLED LIST: CHV: Daniel Antunez
SUSPENDED: CHV: Gabriel Farfan (through August 25), Tristan Bowen (through August 25)

WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: NY: Tim Cahill
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: CHV: Mario de Luna, Bobby Burling, Carlos Alvarez, Gabriel Farfan, Tristan Bowen ... NY: Jamison Olave
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none

HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (15 meetings): Chivas USA 5 wins, 22 goals ... Red Bulls 4 wins, 17 goals ... Ties 6
AT CHIVAS USA (7 meetings): Chivas USA 2 wins, 7 goals ... Red Bulls 1 win, 4 goals ... Ties 4

2012 (MLS)
5/23: NY 1, CHV 1 (Cooper 56; Angel 47)
This is the only league meeting between the teams this season.
The Red Bulls last defeated Chivas USA on June 5, 2010, a 1-0 victory at Red Bull Arena. The last Chivas USA victory vs. New York came May 15, 2011; the teams have played to draws in their last two meetings, including the only one a season ago.
Coaches record: Mike Petke vs. CHV: first game ... JosÈ Luis Real vs. NY: first game

CHIVAS USA
Chivas USA had their latest winless skid extended to four matches, falling 3-1 to FC Dallas on Wednesday evening at StubHub Center. Chivas USA sit in ninth place in the Western Conference with 18 points from 24 matches.

LAST MATCH

• Chivas USA took the lead just before halftime. Bryan de la Fuente settled a perfectly placed chip in from Marco Delgado in the heart of the area and stroked it past Ra˙l Fern·ndez.
• FC Dallas pulled even in the 71st minute when Blas PÈrez scored the equalizer on a shot from outside the box that took a nasty deflection and rolled past Chivas goalkeeper Dan Kennedy.
• FCD then went a man down with nine minutes remaining when Jackson received a second yellow card for a hard challenge on Carlos Bocanegra.
• But FC Dallas overcame the disadvantage to score over the game's final five minutes. David Ferreira scored in the 86th minute on a deft, angled chip past Kennedy after he was freed on the left side of the area, then Ramon Nunez sealed the result with a curling blast into the top corner in the 90th minute.
• Chivas USA head coach JosÈ Luis Real made three changes to the team that reached a 1-1 draw with the Colorado Rapids at StubHub Center. Carlos Bocanegra returned from suspensiÛn in place of Steve Purdy in central defense, and Edgar Mejia and Bryan de la Fuente came into the midfield in place of the suspended Tristan Bowen and Gabriel Farfan.
• CHIVAS USA (4-4-2): Dan Kennedy - Marky Delgado, Mario de Luna, Carlos Bocanegra, Josue Soto - Eric Avila (Bobby Burling 72), Carlos Borja, Edgar Mejia (Julio Morales 87), Bryan de la Fuente - Carlos Alvarez, Erick Torres.

TEAM NEWS

• Chivas USA suffered a third loss in the last four matches, and for the fifth time in the last seven matches they failed to hold the lead.
• "We felt the victory was very close," Chivas head coach JosÈ Luis Real said. "It was the opposite of what we've been dealing with in games, with one more player instead of being down a man. But we were too confident, as if we had already won the match."
• Said goalkeeper Dan Kennedy: "When we went a man up, I thought we were going to put ourselves in a very good position to win that game. Maybe we looked a little too quickly to send men forward and get on the attack, and they broke us down on a couple of quick counters. There you saw it, 3-1. Painful."
• Returning to the club where he was a Homegrown Player in 2010, Bryan de la Fuente was given his first MLS appearance in three seasons, his first career start ñ and scored his first professional goal.
• "It's incredible. There are no words to describe the feeling of playing with first team again. It's been hard; it's been a tough year for me," de la Fuente said. "After [coming back from Mexico] and being out of contract and to come back to the team that saw me at the bottom and gave me my first chance professionally feels amazing. I used to play on the first team with Chivas USA and to score obviously that's a plus."
• Another Homegrown Player, Marky Delgado, collected his first career assist in setting up the de la Fuente goal.
• "I know what happens today to Marky Delgado that he didn't have a good game when usually he does [a great job], and on the other side Bryan de la Fuente plays a game, scores a goal and had a great one. That's a part of playing a young team," Real said. "I'm happy with what Bryan did today, not only because of the goal, but for what he did during the entire game. I think that's an area that I have had to work a lot in my career, having this type of situations, I'm not new to them."
• After coming on for a cameo substitute appearance the week before, following four consecutive starts, Edgar Mejia returned to the Chivas starting lineup with Gabriel Farfan and Tristan Bowen serving the first of their two-match suspensions.
• "He suffered an injury that kept him away from the fields for about a month and a half or two months and I think that we are getting him back. Today he had times in which he seemed to return to his own self, but he isn't at the level we know he can be at," Real said. "I think that in this case it's just a matter of having more activity so he can reach a better level and that's a task for the coaching staff."

NEW YORK RED BULLS
The New York Red Bulls were blanked for a second consecutive match, this time reaching a scoreless draw with Philadelphia Union on Saturday evening at Red Bull Arena. The Red Bulls are now in a tie for first place in the Eastern Conference with 39 points from 25 matches.

LAST MATCH

• The game's best chance came in the 73rd minute when the crossbar denied Union's Sebastien Le Toux. Antoine Hoppenot was denied by Red Bulls goalkeeper Luis Robles eight minutes later for one of his three saves on the night.
• Union goalkeeper Zac MacMath was also called upon to make three saves in keeping the clean sheet.
• Red Bulls head coach Mike Petke made two changes to the team that dropped a 2-0 decision to the Columbus Crew at Crew Stadium. Tim Cahill and Thierry Henry returned to the side in place of Brandon Barklage and Peguy Luyindula.
• NEW YORK RED BULLS (4-4-2): Luis Robles - Markus Holgersson, Jamison Olave (Brandon Barklage 76), Ibrahim Sekagya, Roy Miller - Eric Alexander (Lloyd Sam 66), Dax McCarty, Tim Cahill, Jonny Steele - Fabian Espindola (Peguy Luyindula 61), Thierry Henry.

TEAM NEWS

• After scoring seven goals over the previous two games, the Red Bulls were shut out for a fifth time in the last nine games ñ a fourth in their last five road matches.
• "I said when I went in the locker room, I take responsibility for the fact that we need to figure out when teams come and sit in, especially down the middle, clog the middle instead of going side to side," Red Bulls head coach Mike Petke said. [We need to figure out] how to dissect that, how to get forward instead of having two separate teams on the field, a forward line of four or five guys and a back line making lateral passes. That's on me. That's definitely on me."
• After making two starts in midfield, Ibrahim Sekagya moved into central defense alongside Jamison Olave, with Markus Holgersson shifting to right back. Olave was forced off for the final quarter-hour with a quadriceps injury that could sideline him for the next two weeks.
• "Something we've loved about Ibrahim since he's been here, is, with his experience and where he's played, he reads the game incredibly well," said Petke. "There was some talk and a little whisper about age and this and that, but ... he reminds me of Robin Fraser a bit the last three, four years of his career when perhaps he lost a step from years past but his knowledge of the game is so good that he puts himself in great positions. I thought that he did well in that aspect [against Philadelphia]. With the ball at his feet, it's a great feeling for us to have knowing his capabilities of building out of the back, his vision, and we're very happy with the way he played."
• After missing two matches with a knee sprain, Tim Cahill returned to the Red Bulls midfield and played the full 90 minutes.
• "It was too slow, 100 percent," said Cahill. "We had a chat afterwards, but in a game, someone has got to do something to change it, because if that one bit of brilliance changes the game then that obviously makes everything OK. That wasn't there today. You can see, we must've put in 30 crosses, but we have to look at ourselves with the quality of the ball and the timing of making runs and things like that. It's not a bad thing, at least we're creating chances, but it's hard to comprehend because we definitely were the better team."
• Thierry Henry also returned to the team after featuring in the Columbus match after suffering from an Achilles tendon inflammation.
• "We just weren't decisive in the final third," said midfielder Dax McCarty. "That's the bottom line. We had a few half chances, had most of the ball, most of the possession throughout the midfield, but at the end of the day we weren't dynamic enough going forward, we didn't have enough movement, we didn't create enough chances."