Fri Apr 11 17:52:43 2008

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Columbus returns to friendly confines vs. Chivas USA

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Columbus, OH (Sports Network) - The Columbus Crew return home for a Major League Soccer fixture on Saturday after a rough trip to New York in week 2 that saw them fall behind 2-0 in the opening seven minutes of the game, which ended up being the final score.

"We didn't deal well with the turf," Crew coach Sigi Schmid said of the Giants Stadium playing surface. "The field is slick and it's fast. It's not what we normally play on and the early part of the game you have to play a little more direct until you get used to the surface. We were trying to play combinations and passes in our defensive part of the field and ended up giving the ball away time and time again so it allowed them to put pressure on us."

Columbus hopes the grass surface at Crew Stadium is a little more friendly when it hosts Chivas USA, which is coming off an lackluster 3-1 win over Real Salt Lake at home. The California club also hopes to add its first road win of the campaign after earning a draw at Dallas in week 1.

"It was very important for us to get three points in our first home game," Chivas USA coach Preki said. "We didn't play the way we wanted to play, but sometimes games don't work out the way you want them to work out. On the other hand we are happy. I think we could play a lot better, but we got the three points."

Chivas USA, which has had injury concerns early in the season, got goals from Sacha Kljestan, Alecko Eskandarian and Atiba Harris in the win over RSL, with the latter two being new additions to the squad.

"Going through the preseason, we talked about how many guys we had that could step up and put the ball in the back of the net for us," Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan said. "You saw firsthand tonight that the guys did a great job."

Harris and Eskandarian contributed minutes for the injured Ante Razov and Maykel Galindo, who is rounding back into form after offseason sports hernia surgery.

"Everybody knows I am not at 100 percent," Galindo said. "Aside from that, though, I did not play well. I have to keep working and get healthy because it's not easy to play through pain."

The Crew will hope to contain the Chivas attack with a defense that looked very bad at times against the Red Bulls a week ago, especially in the middle where center back Danny O'Rourke is learning a new position.

"It's a transition. The biggest thing is positioning, but I'm learning every day from guys like Frankie (Hejduk), Chad Marshall and Stefani (Miglioranzi)," O'Rourke said. "It's definitely a process and I still have a lot left to learn."

"We win as a team and we lose as a team and obviously tonight, we lost as a team," Crew right back Hejduk said after the New York loss. "It's a team, it's nobody's fault, we can't look too much into it."