WVHooligan - Soccer Blog

You have to love a cross country match-up for MLS Primetime Thursday on ESPN2. This week Chivas USA travels to the east coast to take on New York Red Bulls and their soon to be Jozy Altidore-less attack. Don’t worry the word is Jozy will be in the line-up and ready to go for the Red Bulls as his deal isn’t final yet.

Both clubs come in at different points in the season right now. The early part of the year saw Chivas stumbling over injury and losing nearly every game in sight, while New York was playing some solid defense and was right in the thick of things in the east. Right now Chivas is on a three-game surge and New York hasn’t won in a couple games, mostly due to their defense not playing well and their offense forgetting how to score.

Injuries have been an issue for both squads but Chivas has lately found the way to get over the hump and figure out what to do with young players in reserve. Give a lot of credit to Preki for that, he’s not messing too much with the chemistry of this club and it is paying off. Not to mention guys like Jesse Marsch and Jorge Flores are really stepping up for this club.

As tight as the eastern conference has been this season, this has to be a “must-win” type of game for Juan Carlos Osorio’s bunch. They’ve been looking rather out of sync as of late and its a mix of defensive woes and offensive question marks. If they can finally get Juan Pablo Angel healthy they may be able to turn things around on the offensive end. So far that just hasn’t happened.

New York should be in a desperate mode for this one, while Chivas should be able to get a solid result on the road with the way they’ve been playing. They have no fear on the road these days and their record is starting to show for it.

I think the play out of the midfield tonight will be key for both clubs and honestly you have to favor Chivas in that category. New York doesn’t have the creative juices to make things happen and Chivas, with the likes of Sasha Kljestan should be able to cash in on that. I like the Goats in a road upset to help get the western conference back into it against the east.

WVH Prediction: Chivas 2, NY 1

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