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Chivas, Sporting hope to stop the rot

Sep 11, 2014 - 9:14 PM Carson, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Sporting Kansas City and Chivas USA both will be looking to stop the rot when the two sides battle at the StubHub Center on Friday.

Both clubs enter the match on four-game losing skids in league play.

Such a streak means little to the Goats, who have bottomed the Western Conference for much of the season, but it has cost Sporting its position at the Eastern Conference summit.

Following Sporting's 2-1 loss at Red Bull New York on Saturday, head coach Peter Vermes attempted to put the losing streak in perspective.

"You've got to understand that the whole season we've been in first or second place, the whole entire season with massive amounts of injuries, guys away on international duty, we've kept ourselves in the mix. In this league, you always run into a rough patch somewhere," said Vermes. "The question is when do you come out of it and when you do, how is your upswing? I have all the confidence in the world (with) where we're at. I really do."

The loss to New York was the fourth consecutive contest in which Sporting conceded four goals. Prior to that streak, the club had allowed more than one goal in a game just once in the previous 12 league matches, dating back to May 23.

"We've always taken pride in defending," Vermes said. "It's not just one guy. It's every guy on every roll of the ball. From that perspective, that's always going to be high on our priority list every time we step inside the white lines. (Against RBNY), it wasn't really pride - it was more of a situation where we got back to playing the way we do."

A clean sheet on Friday, however, could be in the cards as Chivas has managed only two goals in its last eight games.

The Goats are winless in their last nine games, most recently suffering a 3-0 loss to the Columbus Crew.

"We knew that it was going to be a tough game for us after the third game in one week," Chivas head coach Wilmer Cabrera said after the game. "I think the guys, suffered in the second half. The first half as tough, we played even, we controlled the attacking from the Crew very well, but in the second half we had guys running around, we paid the price and we gave them too much of a threat. We tried to take risks and when you try to take risks, you have to be able to deal with crisis in the back and we didn't have very good answers in terms of attack."

Even while questions of Chivas USA's attack persist, Cabrera remains insistent that the team's defense must improve.

"We have to be more consistent with our defending," said the Goats boss. "We gave up two goals in the same way. In the second half, we lost the ball in transition; we lost the ball in the middle. For the two goals that came outside of the box, we have to step up better we have to do a better job in that aspect because that is something that cannot happen.

"The same player scored the same type of goals in less than 10 minutes. Obviously, if we want to get a result at home, we have to be a threat. We have to have better ideas and have to have a better mentality. The possession has to happen for this."