When Chivas USA lines up against the LA Galaxy on Thursday night, three of the most important players in the match will most assuredly be there.
Whether or not they'll play is seemingly anyone's guess.
Chivas USA's standout left back Jonathan Bornstein played for the United States national team on Wednesday, as did Galaxy counterpart Landon Donovan. David Beckham, meanwhile, went the distance in England's match against Germany in London.
The three players are slated to arrive in southern California sometime during the day on Thursday, but if they get any actual playing time likely won't be known until close to kickoff.
Chivas players, though, find it hard to believe that anyone could play in Europe one day and play in southern California some 30 hours later.
"That's not realistic to be honest," Chivas USA forward Ante Razov said. "You'd be putting a player at serious risk of injury from where he's coming from and what he'll be doing. For (Bornstein's) sake, I hope he doesn't (play) because that's a dangerous thing to do."
Bornstein and Donovan each played 64 minutes for the U.S. and were two of just three MLS-based players who saw action in Sweden. After their SuperLiga match last week, Galaxy star Donovan said it would be "impossible" to play two games on two continents in two days.
Chivas midfielder Jesse Marsch said the potential for injury outweighs the positives.
"It's not worth it. We haven't played back-to-back since we were like 12 years old," Marsch said. "There's no reason to expect Jonny -- and I know he's a young guy and he's excited and he likes to play and he's an important guy on our team -- but it's not worth him possibly getting hurt."
Still, Chivas coach Preki did not completely rule out the possibility of sending Bornstein out against the Galaxy on Thursday.
"He's not going to play," Preki said on Tuesday, but softened his stance soon after. "He might be involved in the 18 and we'll see how he feels. At this point, he's not playing."
Though Bornstein and his Galaxy counterparts will be at the stadium physically, the players might be emotionally and mentally drained and may need more than a few hours to recover from having played an international match some 6,000 miles away.
"Come on, let's be realistic with having a game ... 29, 30, 32 hours, whatever it is, before our kickoff and then flying halfway across the world, I just don't think that's very realistic or very smart," Marsch said. "Especially a guy like Beckham, who is a little bit older, I can relate with the way you feel the day after a game -- pretty sore, pretty tired. It's not like they're playing a pub-league game. They're playing international level and even though it's a friendly, those are real games."
When asked to describe what a player feels like the day after a match, Marsch likened it somewhat to a long-distance runner.
"I don't know if you've seen people after they run a marathon but they can barely walk," Marsch said. "It's not that bad but when you're getting older, it's not like you can just recover immediately after a game."
Still, the decision might be left up to the player, at least as far as Chivas is concerned.
"We've talked around here with what we're going to do with Jonny," Marsch said. "In a lot of ways you want to leave it up to the guy and see how he feels but I think the only smart way to do it is to be extremely cautious."
Luis Bueno is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
