Fri Apr 4 18:40:08 2008

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RSL, Chivas USA aiming for first win

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Carson, CA (Sports Network) - Western Conference rivals Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA will be looking for their first Major League Soccer wins of the season on Saturday night, with both coming off 1-1 draws in their season openers last weekend.

The Goats earned a 1-1 draw at Dallas after Maykel Galindo scored a late goal to earn a split of the points while RSL gave up a goal in stoppage time to allow Chicago a share of the points.

"Maykel (Galindo) is always a threat. He's a lively player who knows how to get behind people," Chivas USA coach Preki said. "If you give him a chance, he knows how to score. I'm glad he put that one into his net for his own confidence."

"I thought our guys did a fantastic job playing the game; they took a lot of chances," RSL coach Jason Kreis said after the Chicago draw. "And then at the end it's a special player who makes one special goal. It wasn't about a breakdown on our part or a bad mistake in our penalty box. It was about one special player who made one special play and didn't do really anything else the entire game - except run around and whine."

Real Salt Lake would love nothing more than to top its fellow class of 2005 opponent. While RSL has yet to even sniff a playoff berth in its first three seasons, the Goats are coming off the Western Conference regular season title, but Kreis isn't putting too much pressure on his team early.

"I always think it is a fantastic thing to jump off to a good start and win a lot of points early in the season, but points count the same whether its the first game or the last game of the season," Kreis said. "I think we also need to be realistic in the fact that we have so many new players and it takes a little bit of time for them to jell. We are just trying to get our team and our staff focused on improving their games and if we do that the results will come."

Chivas USA is looking to get healthy with its top two strikers not at 100 percent. Ante Razov is nursing a calf injury and Galindo isn't completely fit after offseason sports hernia surgery.

"Physically, I don't feel great yet," Galindo said. "I didn't do a full preseason with the team and finally, now I am starting to get my physical capacity back. These minutes that Preki has been giving me have been really important for me because it gives me a lot more confidence and game speed, which is important. I'm feeling a lot better right now."