CARSON, Calif. -- When Chivas USA won the Western Conference in 2007, the club did so behind a core group of players.
This year, however, injuries have ravaged the club from the start of the preseason all the way through the final game of the regular season.
The Red-and-White, though, have weathered the storm and entering into their Western Conference Semifinal Series against Real Salt Lake, the Chivas players are ready for whatever obstacle is thrown their way.
"We have a great depth in this squad," Chivas USA midfielder Paulo Nagamura said. "We have a great group of guys that can step up and play for whoever is injured or suspended. We are not worried about that. We know we have a great squad so we go into Salt Lake as strong as ever."
A year ago, Chivas USA had 11 players who saw more than 2,000 minutes during the regular season. Injuries, suspension and national team call-ups reduced that number to four this season as every line has been hit hard by injury.
Even now, with the club seemingly in somewhat healthy shape, the injury list is extensive: Lawson Vaughn and Raphael Wicky are out for the season, Maykel Galindo has not played in more than one month, Sasha Victorine is nursing a bum knee and Dan Kennedy is suspended for Saturday's first leg.
"It would be great to have the guys who are injured back because we still need guys who are impact players like Galindo and Wicky. It's unfortunate that they're out," right back Carey Talley said. "The guys who have been asked to step up I think have done a pretty good job considering where we placed in the standings and how many guys were out. I think that's what good teams have been able to rely on, the 28 players deep."
A year ago, the club broke down in October when Galindo and Ante Razov went down with injury. The quality on the bench was not sufficient enough to make up for the absence and the team whimpered out of the playoffs without scoring a goal.
This year, Razov and Galindo have missed large stretches of the season. Razov logged 1,415 minutes while Galindo saw 549 minutes of action. The duo combined for 23 goals a year ago but just six this season.
Yet Chivas USA's offense was strong. Players like Justin Braun (four goals) and Jorge Flores (three goals) were able to help pick up the scoring slack at different times of the season.
"What's different from this year as opposed to the other two years is the depth on the bench," Chivas USA midfielder Sacha Kljestan said. We have a guy like Jim Curtin coming in or Bobby Burling, who has proven to be real good all season -- I think in years past we didn't really have a good option off the bench. In any position, if we lose somebody we have some decent guys off the bench to come in and make the difference and that's the important thing this year."
The Red-and-White have been able to use the same starting lineup in just four games this season. Thus, not only have the players had to adjust to playing with different faces in nearly every game, the coaching staff also had the task of juggling players in and out of the starting lineup.
"We've done a good job of adjusting, Preki has done a good job of managing players and managing how we play," Kljestan said. "We're as confident as we can be."
The one thing that has helped the club is the ability to pull out results no matter who is or is not available.
"I'm not going to even go through the (injury) list because it's been one of those years where every game something happens," Chivas USA coach Preki said when asked to assess the club's health situation. "We keep going. We're not going to go down without a fight."
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