CARSON, Calif. - Chivas USA played FC Dallas on May 26 and does not have another league match scheduled until June 9 at Chicago. But that doesn't mean the Chivas players will spend the weekend sipping cocktails on the beach.
Chivas USA will travel to Seattle on Saturday for a friendly against United Soccer Leagues First Division (second tier) side Seattle Sounders.
Head coach Preki said he was hoping for "a good game. Quite a few guys will get a chance to play and their opportunity to impress and hopefully we get a good result there too."
For backup goalkeeper Preston Burpo, the opportunity to play in the match is meaningful. Burpo spent nine seasons with the Sounders and led the club to a USL-1 championship. Now that he is in his second year with Chivas USA, going back to his old stomping grounds will be good.
"I'm looking forward to it because, one, I will be playing and, two, I will get to see some friends and some family up there," Burpo said.
This is the second consecutive year that Chivas USA will play Seattle. A year ago, the arrival of a pair of former Sounders players led to the first meeting between the two sides.
"It started with me coming down here and (Brent) Whitfield. That's how we got the game up there last year," Burpo said. "The league bought (Maykel) Galindo and part of the deal was to go up there for Galindo."
Like Burpo, Galindo spent time with the Sounders. After leaving the Cuban national team during the 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup, Galindo sought and received political asylum and eventually latched onto the Sounders.
Playing this game will be an important occasion for both sides, Burpo said.
"It's good for the fans up there because there is a decent Latino contingent and quite a few fans came out last year," Burpo said. "It's good for Seattle to make some money and good for us to get a game."
This week has been somewhat different for Chivas USA. After the 2-0 win against FC Dallas, the club had an extra day off and did not return to training until Wednesday. However, five players hit the training field sooner than their teammates.
Jonathan Bornstein and Brad Guzan were called into the U.S. Gold Cup team. Since MLS-based Gold Cup players were allowed to remain with their clubs through this weekend, the USA needed some players to supplement the roster for a scheduled friendly against China on Saturday.
U.S. and former Chivas USA coach Bob Bradley called in Ante Razov, Jesse Marsch and Sacha Kljestan thus were called up and were in the national team camp on Monday.
Having lost nearly half of his starting lineup has been just another obstacle to clear, Preki said.
"You approach it like every other day," Preki said. "You have to go with what you have. The same thing would have happened if a couple of guys had gotten injured. You have to shuffle and find different ways to play. We have other quality players we can use and this will be a good test for them to go in there and play."
With his goalkeeper, left back, two midfielders and star striker gone, the club has nonetheless done well this week.
"It's been a good week of training," Preki said. "The mentality is good. We've done some hard work the last couple of days and we have one more day of training before we go to Seattle. We're going to use the game for the best of our abilities and come back next week and get ready for Chicago."
For players like Burpo - who has yet to play this season - playing time against a challenging opponent is important, and the approach to the game reflects that.
"Playing any USL-1 team is good for me and good for the guys that aren't getting a lot of minutes," Burpo said. "Preki is trying to get a mentality where we're going into training this week with the mentality of trying to win the game on Saturday and take it as seriously as we can. Yeah, it's a friendly but for Seattle, I talked to some guys and they are excited about it."
Kick off is set for 7 p.m. PT and fans can listen to the match at www.cdchivasusa.com.
Luis Bueno is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
