NPR is in the building this evening preparing a story on Jorge Flores and tabbed your truly for a quick interview, so I'm a little late with the lineups.

The night's important numbers: the Wizards have won just once on the road this season and and Colorado's 5-4 win over the Red Bulls earlier today means Chivas USA is third in the table and seven points behind Western Conference leaders Houston, which drew 1-1 with Toronto.

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I know I'm ready for some half-decent soccer after watching two bad games in two days involving Mexico and the Galaxy (although in truth Blanco was fun to watch as usual and it's great to see a DP actually make a difference on the field rather than just selling shirts off it).

Guess I should be glad I didn't make it three games by watching the No.

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Chivas USA walked away with a victory on the road against Real Salt Lake.

Not the prettiest game, but a win none the less. It was a tough fight for both teams, as both teams played tight defensive soccer. The game could have gone either way, with neither team controlling the pitch.

The Good:

Lots of friendly faces on the pitch.

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Chivas USA did exactly what they needed to do Saturday, beating Real Salt Lake 1-0 on a 72nd minute Alecko Eskandarian goal and moving above their opponents to take second place in the Western Conference.

Somewhat of a comedy routine gave the former Real Salt Lake striker the winner over his old team: Real Salt Lake goalkeeper Nick Rimando and defender Nat Borchers collided and the ball bounced past them to Eskandarian, who gratefully accepted the gift that was his third goal of the season.

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Here's your live soccer and television viewing guide for the weekend.

The Galaxy (6-10-8) look for their first victory in 12 games at 8 p.m. Saturday at Home Depot Center (live on Fox Soccer Channel) against D.C. United (10-11-3), while Chivas USA (8-10-6) are on the road in Salt Lake (live at 6 p.

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Here's clip someone sent me from the event everyone is talking about, the Sports Sponsorship Symposium. Seriously, I here this thing is hotter than Comic-Con and the Conventioneers Convention. Anyway, the Volkswagon suit who stars in this video alludes to some big plans VW has for MLS Cup this year, including professional players. Click to continue reading...

Chivas USA 1, Tauro FC (Panama) 1 - Tauro advance 3-1 on aggregate

That score from last night is an attention-grabber, isn't it? MLS has invested a lot of effort in playing up a rivalry with Mexico as the best league in this part of the world, so a loss to a team from Panama -- which ranks somewhere below Costa Rica, Guatemala and El Salvador in terms of international achievement -- isn't at all what the league would want.

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The second leg of matches in the CONCACAF Champions League kicks off tonight, with the headline being two MLS teams fighting for their tournament lives against lesser-known opponents.
The New England Revolution welcome Joe Public FC, the Jamaican side that advanced to the tournament by way of their runner-up finish in the Caribbean Football Union Club Championship in 2007. Click to continue reading...

ChivaGirls ready to suit up against Houston Dynamo if needed!

Chivas USA take on the Dynamo Wednesday night. Well, half of the Chivas USA will take on the Dynamo while the other half remain on the injury list. Lets do the math.

28 Full squad
-11 Injured
-1 International Duty
_____
16

Sixteen players are healthy and available for the matchup.

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That's Lance on the left along with veteran midfielder Jesse Marsch and Jamaican defender Shavar Thomas on the set of KTLA in LA, as part of the "Shirt Off Their Back" promotion Chivas ran earlier this season. Way to represent Lance!

There are also plenty of action shots to be found on Google but I thought this one might get me more traffic If you click on the photo, you'll get a larger version.

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*While I've been columnizing much of the day, plenty of other stuff is going on in the soccer world with one highlight being former Galaxy defender Chris Albright slamming departed Galaxy Coach Ruud Gullit at SI.com:

"My thought was that he'd be gone by midway through this year - I thought that two days after meeting him," said the 29-year-old defender, who was part of the Galaxy squad that made preseason trips to Australia and New Zealand.

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We're about two-thirds complete with the MLS season and we still haven't figured much out. One week, New England is the best team in the league, the next thing you know they are dropping their second straight game. San Jose meanwhile was given up for dead but now they are legitimately chasing a playoff spot. Click to continue reading...

Chivas USA midfielder Jesse Marsch is expected to miss 6-8 weeks of action after suffering a broken jaw midway through the second half of Chivas' 2-2 tie against the Los Angeles Galaxy on Thursday night. Surprisingly, no foul was called on the play by referee Alex Prus.

"If the referee is standing three yards away and he's looking at the whole play. Click to continue reading...

The injury list for Chivas USA grows longer as Jesse Marsch was ruled out 6-8 weeks with a fractured jaw.

Others such as Claudio Suarez and Jonathan Bornstein may be ready by next week's match against San Jose, but Marsch won't be one of them. In fact, the 6-8 week range puts him as possibly returning by late September, best-case scenario. Click to continue reading...

It was a crazy night at Home Depot Center. Between an early goal, a rally, en elbow and subsequent broken jaw and a stoppage-time equalizer, the game had a little of everything.

Of course, the on-the-field action wasn't the only thing that made the night a crazy one.

First, celebrity chef Ingrid Hoffmann was there. Click to continue reading...

Chivas midfielder Jesse Marsch said after the game he broke his jaw and it was going to require surgery.

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Unless something drastic changes, there is quite a bit of talent and experience that will be absent for Chivas USA against the Galaxy on Thursday.

Now, that doesn't mean that the club will field a reserve team or anything but there are concerns over certain aspects of Chivas USA's potential lineup. Click to continue reading...

Zach Thornton has landed in Chicago and Jesse Marsch looks pretty happy to see his former Fire teammate (and an experienced goalkeeper). Do we assume Thornton plays today? I think we do.

Two who won't play a part in today's Chivas USA-Chicago Fire game (5:30 p.m. live on Fox Soccer Channel) are Preki (at least on the bench-he's suspended) and Blanco.

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It's a beautiful day here in Milwaukee. i'm heading to Toyota Park soon for a Red Stars Advisory Board Meeting followed by the Fire vs. Chivas USA game. The meeting agenda follows:

Chicago Red Stars Advisory Board
August 2, 2008

1. Team Update (Peter Wilt)

a.

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Dang. Chivas plays tonight on HDnet at 7:30 pm and I'm planning on catching the game at Coester's in the hopes of seeing Lance Parker in goal. The Wizards game kicks off at 6:30 pm, in DC.

I thought it might be his turn after Dan Kennedy's outing last week against the New England Revolution in the Superliga group stage.

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Photo by ISIphotos.com

Chivas USA has turned to an MLS veteran to fill the void left by Brad Guzan's transfer to Aston Villa.

The Goats have acquired Zach Thornton from the New York Red Bulls for future considerations.

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A while ago I mention that Jaimie Moreno technically wasn't an MLS original. He joined DC United after the 1996 season was underway. With Tony Sanneh retiring from the game after his 2007 sting with the Colorado Rapids it appears that there are 5 players left that were with the league on it's first day. Click to continue reading...

Chivas USA plunged out of SuperLiga Sunday when Pachuca and Santos Laguna tied 1-1 in San Jose in the night's second game. Chivas USA needed Santos Laguna to beat Pachuca to stay alive in the competition.

It was difficult to conduct interviews with Chivas USA players after the 1-1 tie with the Revs simply because they couldn't really say much considering their future in the tournament was being decided hundreds of miles away as they spoke.

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Jesse Marsch didn't seem too happy after the match. He is usually in decent spirits even after losses. That wasn't the case on Sunday. And I wasn't about to take a picture of him that way.

I asked Jesse all of the questions on the audio clip here. So most of the time he was looking right at me. Click to continue reading...

Horrible field (and you thought Home Depot Center was bad), horrible half.

It would be an understatement to say scoring chances were few and far between - they were virtually non-existent.

The best scoring chance came just before half time, Jesse Marsch blasting a shot from about 20 yards that required the hands of a diving Matt Reis to push around the post.

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Welcome to the beautiful Titan Stadium for tonight's SuperLiga (and I use the word beautiful loosely). I tried to get pictures of both teams before the match but only New England gathered for a team shot. Perhaps Chivas players were too focused on the game...

Here are the starting lineups:

Chivas: Dan Kennedy; Carey Talley, Claudio Suarez, Bobby Burling, Francisco Mendoza; Sacha Kljestan, Daniel Paladini, Jesse Marsch, Jonathan Bornstein; Ante Razov, Roberto Nurse. Click to continue reading...

Five changes to the Chivas USA starting lineup from the team that faced Santos Laguna Wednesday (or as one press box observer said, the A team is back).

Dan Kennedy is in goal, while Claudio Suarez and Bobby Burling return in central defense, Cary Talley is at right back and Pancho Mendoza at left back (although he and left half Jonathan Bornstein have been switching off in recent games and presumably could again).

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As the All-Star rosters are now official, its time to put together the group of eleven that didn't make but had a damn good reason for making it. I've stated my opinion on some that got snubbed but figured that it would be best to put out a full starting lineup of guys that didn't [...] Click to continue reading...

In their short history, Chivas USA has gone through quite a bit. For a while, every positive thing was a first: the first win, the first winning streak, the first time they were over .500, the first time they were top of table, etc.

Still, in Year Four, those string of firsts is not stopping. Click to continue reading...

A common theme for Chivas USA Coach Preki this season has been his grousing that his team doesn't capitalize on their chances.

Well, they did tonight, substitute Ante Razov scoring with an eight-yard header from a nice Sacha Kljestan cross in the 73rd minute for the only goal of the game.

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Second Half Santos failure to finish even one of their numerous chances has encouraged Preki to bring Jesse Marsch and Ante Razov both on at halftime. Chivas USA is no doubt now chasing 3 points! Still for Chivas it seems it will take something special to Oswaldo Sanchez while Santos seems to have used all their [. Click to continue reading...

Green and white versus red and white! Let's go to it. The stadium isn't full by far, but the crowd is lively.
Chivas USA: Dan Kennedy, Jim Curtin, Carey Tallye, Shavar Thomas, Jonathan Bornstein, Francisco Mendoza, Sacha Kljestan, Paulo Nagamura, Kraig Chiles, Roberto Nurse, Atiba Harris
Santos: Oswaldo Sanchez, Jorge Estrada, Rafael Figueroa, Osmar Mares, Fernando Ortiz, Edgar Castillo, Johnnie Garcia, Fernando Arce, Francisco Torres, Vicente Vuoso, Christian Benitez
Kickoff! Click to continue reading...

All sorts of changes tonight for Chivas USA including Dan Kennedy in goal, Claudio Suarez on the bench, Mexican Roberto Nurse making his debut up front and young Kraig Chiles getting a rare start (likely as a withdrawn forward).

The Chivas USA lineup: Kennedy, Jim Curtin, Carey Talley, Shavar Thomas, Jonathan Bornstein, Francisco Mendoza, Sacha Kljestan, Paulo Nagamura, Chiles, Nurse and Atiba Harris.

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Andrea is absent from tonight's match so I'll try and hold the fort down in her absence.

Pachuca won SuperLiga right here in this building a year ago, topping the LA Galaxy in PKs. But, los Tuzos also lost a game right here to the same Galaxy squad, dropping a 2-1 result in the tournament opener. Click to continue reading...

Chivas USA plays its first ever competitive international game tonight against SuperLiga and CONCACAF Champions Cup title holders Pachuca.

So it's a hell of a time for goalkeeper Lance Parker (Missouri State) to make his professional debut. Parker is favored over presumed starter Dan Kennedy with Brad Guzan headed to England's Aston Villa.

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