New York Red Bulls vs. Chivas USA Preview

The New York Red Bulls finish up one of their busiest weeks of this season with a third game in eight days as they face Chivas USA tonight at Red Bull Arena. After a draw against the Los Angeles Galaxy and a friendly defeat to the Montreal Impact, New York will be looking to get back to winning ways and stretch their lead over the Philadelphia Union to four points at the top of the Eastern Conference.

Chivas have had a mixed start to the season after finishing second-bottom in MLS last year. After losing their first three games, they responded by going unbeaten through the month of April before falling 1-0 to Real Salt Lake last week. The story of that game was not RSL's late goal, but the red cards for Chivas' Andrew Boyens (who left the Red Bulls after last season) for a pair of tactical fouls and Marcos Mondaini for a scissor tackle from behind on Javier Morales. Both are suspended for tonight's game, and Mondaini received an additional three-game ban.

The Red Bulls split their season series with Chivas last year, losing 2-0 at the Home Depot Center and winning 1-0 at Red Bull Arena. New York put on a fairly inept performance out in LA, and Bouna Coundoul scored a spectacular own goal to put Chivas ahead before they scored another in stoppage time. At home, the Red Bulls played a bit better, and won through a long-distance strike from Seth Stammler, which turned out to be his last goal as a professional.

On the injury front, Teemu Tainio and Austin da Luz are both listed as probable, so the Finnish midfielder should be back in the starting XI, while da Luz may be on the bench. Aside from that, the Red Bulls have no new injury problems, although Luke Rodgers is two yellow cards away from a one-game ban, and Sacir Hot is again away with the US U-20s.

Kickoff is at the very civilized time of 7:00 PM, and the game is on Galavision and MSG+ if you can't make it out to the Cathedral of Football. As always, we'll have a Match Thread going here, so if you're not going to the game, stop by and enjoy our revelry. Or whatever it is we do.