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Chivas USA-Red Bulls Preview

Aug 14, 2009 - 5:44 PM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

Chivas USA (8-7-3) at New York (2-15-4), 7:00 p.m. EDT

Chivas USA is mired in a five-game losing streak. The New York Red Bulls have far greater problems.

Chivas will try to end its club-record 320-minute scoreless streak while New York seeks to avoid setting a league mark with a 13th straight game without a win Saturday night when the two lowest-scoring teams in MLS meet at Giants Stadium.

After getting off to a 7-1-1 start and looking like an elite team, Chivas USA (8-7-3) has stumbled during its longest slide of the year to fall into fifth place in the Western Conference.

"We're not panicking," Chivas coach Preki Radosavljevic said. "I know we're in some type of slump, but we still have two games in hand against most teams, and some three. So our destiny is still in our hands."

His club has scored just one goal during the skid and five in nine road matches. Chivas allowed two goals in the first four minutes in a 4-0 loss at Colorado last Saturday.

"I guess you have to say we weren't ready to play," midfielder Jesse Marsch said. "I don't know. I felt coming into the game that we were ready to go, but apparently we weren't. We were very easy to play against and we were giving up chances by the bunches. We've got to put it behind us and move forward here and find a way to get out of this funk."

Chivas has scored a conference-low 19 goals - three more than New York.

"We just have to be more aggressive as a team," Radosavljevic said. "The goals will come."

New York (2-15-4), meanwhile, hasn't won since May 8 and will play an MLS match for the first time since a 4-0 loss at Colorado on July 25. The Red Bulls fell to 0-11-1 over the last 12 games to match their 12-game winless run from 1999 as the worst in league history.

New York had the last two weeks off from MLS play while participating in the CONCACAF Champions League for winning the West title last year during its surprising run to the MLS Cup final.

The Red Bulls were eliminated from the lucrative competition with a 2-1 home loss to W Connection from Trinidad & Tobago on Aug. 5. New York drew 2-2 the previous week on the road before failing to hold a one-goal lead in the second leg.

"Unfortunately the game today just sums up our season," Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio said. "Thirty-nine minutes into the game, we control the game, we are 1-0 up and we started taking some liberties and we allowed a very soft goal, the first one. We went into desperation and then make another big mistake and we were punished for that."

New York went 1-0-1 against Chivas last season.