Sep 13, 2007, 3:22 GMT
Carson, CA - The Los Angels Galaxy and CD Chivas USA will square off for the fourth and final installment of the Honda Super Clasico Thursday at The Home Depot Center, and both teams will be gunning for title.
The Los Angeles teams have split the season series at 1-1-1 in the first three editions of the L.A. derby, meaning Thursday's league fixture is for all the marbles. A win or a draw will give the Galaxy the Super Clasico crown for the third consecutive season while the Goats are in a position to take the series for the first time.
Chivas USA, which is two points behind Houston in the Western table, can also take the lead in the conference with a victory, while the Galaxy are desperate for their first two-game winning streak of the season.
Chivas USA is riding a five-game unbeaten streak, including a 3-0 victory over the Galaxy on Aug. 23. The Goats' leading scorer, Maykel Galindo, scored two goals in the first 10 minutes of that match to help his side to the easy victory.
'On the first one I saw that the defender had trouble clearing the ball and when the goalkeeper was coming off his line I touched it in. The second one was a very good team effort and I just finished it,' he said.
There could be some bad blood between the two teams after Chivas' Alex Zotinca and L.A.'s Kevin Harmse were ejected in first half stoppage time of the last fixture after a hard challenge by Jesse Marsch on David Beckham led to a scrum at midfield.
'He had kind of gotten a piece of me quite before that. So it was somewhat a retaliation, somewhat a tactical foul because he was on a break,' Chivas midfielder Marsch said. 'And like I said, it was harder than I would have liked it to have been and I apologized to him. I told him I respect what he's about. He was kind of done with me though.
'It was two teams standing up for guys on their team. I think everyone respects him over there and I hope guys respect what I'm all about here. I appreciate all my teammates sticking together and that's what a team's about. I didn't see what happened between Harmse and Zotinca, but obviously things got a little bit heated. And I thought the rest of the half was pretty emotional on [the Galaxy's] part too, I thought they put a lot into it. But once it comes down to passing I think we did well,' he added.
It also didn't help that Galindo was taunting the L.A. fans after he scored his two goals in the game.
'I celebrated in front of them because at the beginning of the game I saw that Claudio [Suarez] and Pancho [Francisco Mendoza] were upset at the Galaxy fan club mocking us by wearing sombreros,' he said. 'Pancho and Claudio felt it was a lack of respect. After all, they are Mexican and I defend these Mexican colors. That's why I went over there and now they are feeling the pain with our win and the 3-0 scoreline.'
Beckham will not be on the pitch for L.A. after injuring his knee against Pachuca FC in the SuperLiga final last month, but that doesn't mean the game won't get chippy.
Both teams are coming off victories, with Chivas earning another dominating performance at The Home Depot Center in their last fixture. The Goats topped Red Bull New York 3-0 to improve its home record to 8-0-2 on the season.
'It's always impressive when you beat a team like New York, with the players they have,' Chivas coach Preki said. 'Obviously, after a tough and emotional game last Thursday against D.C.(a 2-2 tie), I just thought this could be a very dangerous game if we don't take it seriously from the first moment. But, from the first minute, we stepped on the field and we were sharp. In some stretches of the game we didn't play well, due to the fatigue or for whatever reason, we had a little bit of tough time and they made it a little tougher for us, but I give full credit to my players. Tonight they had a good mentality; they worked hard for each other.'
The Galaxy snapped a eight game winless streak and a six game losing streak with their win last weekend over Colorado, 3-1. With Beckham already out with an injury, the team was also without Landon Donovan, who played with the U.S. National Team against Brazil Sunday.
'Tonight was a good night for us, I think we did well in all departments and obviously getting three points is the most crucial thing for tonight,' Galaxy coach Frank Yallop said after the game.
'Ironically, I think this was probably our poorest performance of the last couple of weeks, and we won, so I mean at this point we will take it,' Galaxy midfielder Peter Vagenas said. 'Sometimes that's the way this game goes.'
After Thursday's fixture, both teams will be back in action Sunday, with L.A. hosting Houston and Chivas traveling to Colorado.
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