CARSON, Calif. - Entering the season, Chivas USA's midfield seemed to be the team's strength. With veterans and youngsters, experience and potential, the middle of the field appeared strong.
Instead, the midfield has contributed little offensively and has head coach Preki longing for more production from his beleaguered midfielders.
"We have one goal from the midfield and (six assists). It's really tough when your guys in the middle ...," Preki said, trailing off.
"They have to give you something."
The midfield's lone goal came late in the first game of the season when Sacha Kljestan knocked an insurance goal in Chivas USA's season-opening 2-0 win against Toronto FC. Since then, no goals have come from the midfield as forwards Maykel Galindo (four goals), Ante Razov (three goals) and Matt Taylor (one goal), as well as defender Claudio Suarez (one goal), have chipped in with goals.
Preki said he expects more production from the midfield, which has contributed six assists. Kljestan leads Chivas USA with three assists in five games. On Sunday, he had an assist on the only goal of the game; however, he fed Razov, who struck a well-placed ball over the top of the Galaxy's backline onto Galindo's path and Galindo took care of the rest.
"They are getting off to a slow start," Preki said. "If you base it on stats, nobody on the field is contributing stat-wise but they are working hard and hopefully the plays they need to make, they will make them again."
The lack of goal production has fallen on the entire club's shoulders and should not be blamed on a handful of players, midfielder Jesse Marsch said.
In each of the last four games, Chivas USA have scored just one goal after having scored six in the first three games. The lack of dangerous plays is evident in their games, Marsch said.
"I don't think we get very good movement or sharp play around the goal, period," Marsch said. "Everybody gets in the act. It's not one or two guys. Either it's a good pass and there are no runs or it's a good run and a bad pass. It's very seldom that you see us put a lot of good plays together on the offensive end."
Marsch said a lack of sharpness is making things difficult for the club right now.
"When we have guys on the field and we have advantages we are just not making sharp plays right now," Marsch said. "There are a number of plays there in the second half (against the Galaxy) where we had little advantages and if we just make one better pass, one better play around the goal, one better run it can lead to something dangerous."
Among those Preki said he expects to contribute more is Kljestan. The second-year man, who leads the team with his three assists, missed two games due to suspension. When he returned, Amado Guevara was no longer a part of the team and Paulo Nagamura had joined the club via trade. Kljestan moved from his familiar central midfield position to a spot on the right.
"He was better than last game," Preki said of Kljestan's performance in the Super Clasico. "He started pretty slow. For about 15-20 minutes he couldn't find the game and then he got better and better as the game went on. Sacha is a young player and has one season behind him but now we expect a lot more things from Sacha. I thought he was a little better but we still need to get more from Sacha and our whole midfield."
Luis Bueno is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
