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Chivas hopes to bounce back against Seattle

Sep 7, 2012 - 9:44 PM Seattle, WA (Sports Network) - Chivas USA will be trying to snap a five-game winless streak when the club travels to CenturyLink Field to take on Seattle Sounders FC on Saturday.

But Robin Fraser's team will also be attempting to bounce back from a heavy 6-2 home defeat at the hands of Seattle only two weeks ago, and in the process attempt to keep their playoff hopes alive.

The Goats are currently nine points out of the final playoff spot, occupied by Vancouver. However, Chivas has three games in hand on the Whitecaps and could make things interesting in the Western Conference if the club can turn around a poor run of form.

After allowing 18 goals in the past five games, including a 4-0 defeat against San Jose last time out, Fraser and his team will have a big job to do on Saturday against Seattle, which has managed to find the back of the net 14 times in its previous five matches.

And while the numbers aren't pretty for Chivas, Fraser believes the mistakes being made by his team are correctable.

"The run of goals we've given up, they've all been preventable," Fraser said. "It's just been attention to detail, seeing plays out, a little bit different decision making, but they're all been preventable. They're all correctable."

Unfortunately for Chivas, those mistakes have been made against top offensive sides in Seattle and San Jose recently, while the Galaxy scored four times and New England tallied three goals over the past month against a struggling defense.

Defender James Riley knows that mistakes in the back are often punished, but even more so this time of year when teams are in top form.

"This late in the season, when teams find their strides, you get punished for mistakes a lot more than you do early in the season," Riley told MLSsoccer.com. "Teams are in their full stride like a Seattle or a San Jose, and you get punished for every mistake."

Seattle will be hoping to capitalize on a few more mistakes on Saturday with a win moving the club into second place in the West, one point clear of Real Salt Lake with two games in hand.

The club enters the match having lost just once in its last 10 games, while Seattle has put together a seven-game unbeaten streak against Chivas since the Goats won the first two meetings between the two sides.

But just because all signs point to another big win for Seattle, head coach Sigi Schmid is taking nothing for granted.

"The most important thing in games like that is you can't look at the past one as a predictor of the future," Schmid said. "Every game is a separate occurrence and is mutually exclusive from the past. That's the way we have to approach it. Just because they had a bad game against us in LA, doesn't mean they are going to have a bad game again."