The rivalry between Chivas USA and the Los Angeles Galaxy has always been a tempestuous one, but Saturday's SuperClasico is shaping up to be the most intriguing editions of the battle yet. Plot lines abound, such as the media frenzy surrounding Landon Donovan's recent criticisms about teammate David Beckham, or last week's trade of striker Alecko Eskandarian from Chivas USA to the Galaxy. "Our players are excited," said Chivas USA coach Preki. "It's a rivalry here and these are two teams that, when they step on the field, play hard against each other."
Chivas USA has traditionally had a tough time against its hometown rivals, having won just three of the 16 all-time league meetings between the two teams. The two teams played to a scoreless draw back on April 11. "Every year since Chivas started, we've always struggled against the Galaxy," Chivas defender Jonathan Bornstein said. "Somehow we've always fallen short, but we've learned a lot from our mistakes in the past and we're ready to go. We'll have our fans behind us and we'll go out there and fight for everything."
Chivas players Bornstein and Sacha Kljestan returned last week from a three-week stint with the U.S. national team at the FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa, where they played alongside talismanic Galaxy striker Donovan. "[Landon and I] sat next to each other on the flight home from South Africa and were joking around about the SuperClasico," Kljestan said. "It will be a good battle. Going up against Alecko will be fun as well. I'm happy that he scored in his first game with LA, I just hope he doesn't score against us."