Bruce Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy continue their 2011 Major League Soccer season when they take on Chivas USA at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California for the renewal of the Honda Superclasico, Major League Soccer's only city derby to date.

Yes, the one-sided Honda Superclasico. The Superclasico that has seen the Galaxy dominate with a record of 12-3-6. Chivas USA have yet to get their hands on the prize since 2007, the only year they dominated the rivalry.

But with the Goats issuing a warning with a 3-2 victory over the New York Red Bulls, this may have all the makings of a scintillating contest.

The Galaxy are currently 5-2-5 (20 points) and are first place in the league, while Chivas USA are 3-3-3 (12 points), good for seventh in the MLS Western Conference.

Los Angeles are coming off a 4-1 win over Sporting Kansas City on Saturday, May 14 at Victoria Street.

"We just said that if we passed better we were going to create chances," Arena said earlier this week. "We continue to grow as a team and our passing is improving."

Team captain Landon Donovan leads the league with seven goals this season.

“It feels good to be on top of the league in points as a team and that’s the goal," Donovan said. "But it’s always nice to score, it’s always good to hit the net. Like I’ve said a million times, when you put yourself in good spots and are you are aggressive, the chances come. Sometimes they go in and sometimes they don’t, and right now they’re going in so we’ll just keep going.”

Midfielder David Beckham leads Los Angeles in assists with five this year.

“I think it was better for us once we got the possession because the guys have been on a road trip," Beckham said on Saturday. "It is tough for them to come into this game with a tough game on Wednesday and traveling on Thursday and not training until Friday and not doing much.

"It was some great performances tonight all the way from the back four, Josh [Saunders] obviously playing in goal, and I think it was Juninho’s best game of the season. Obviously Landon [Donovan] and Chad [Barrett] and it is great that Juan [Pablo Angel] scored tonight it is important. At first it started off difficult, we started slow. We went in and in the second half we came out we got the ball a lot more and obviously the early goal helped us out and we pushed on from there.”

The backline of Omar Gonzalez, Sean Franklin, Todd Dunivant and A.J. DeLaGarza will need to mark the likes of Alejandro Moreno and Justin Braun. Proper dispossession is a plus, specifically for Gonzalez.

Both Moreno and Braun have three goals to their credit.

Braun is especially dangerous as of late, having found his scoring touch last weekend against the New York Red Bulls. Moreno, Jazic and Pearce are the Goats' main facilitators, with two assists each.

Keeping possession will be important to the Galaxy's chances on Saturday, Dunivant argued.

“I think that’s a lot of what you are going to see going forward," Dunivant said. "We’ve wanted to play a lot more possession style, but that’s a big change because we haven’t been like that the last couple of years. It has taken time. And it’s going to continue to be something that we work on.

"If we can do that—if we have the ball, keep the ball—it puts them on their heels, get’s their forwards back defending and that means I’m not attacking and that’s good for us.”

Watch for midfielders like Nick LaBrocca, Michael Lahoud, Simon Elliott and Marcos Mondaini to generate space and create chances for Moreno and Braun.

Defensively, the backline of Andrew Boyens, Zarek Valentin, Ante Jazic and Heath Pearce will have a challenge stopping the power tandem of Juan Pablo Angel, Donovan and Beckham when they are firing on all cylinders.

Goalkeeper Dan Kennedy has a record of 3-1-3, a 75 percent save percentage and an 0.71 goals against average. His counterpart, Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts, battled a stomach virus last weekend but should recover in time for this Saturday's match.

Ricketts owns a 3-1-4 record, a 79.3 percent save percentage, a 0.75 GAA and 23 saves to their credit.

Juan Pablo Angel snapped a long scoring drought on Saturday against Sporting Kansas City but needs to continue to produce. The search for consistency begins in earnest for the Colombian international.

"The team has changed its style of play from how it played the last couple of years," Angel said earlier this week. "We’re now playing a lot more possession ball. I’ve said it from the beginning, we were first working on correcting our defense, which we’ve done very well, and the next step was fixing the offensive part of our game, and that the moment we got some rhythm on our offensive game this team was going to be very dangerous. Tonight we showed it.

"Against Philadelphia, we played well in certain situations and all that was missing was converting on our opportunities. [Sporting] was the perfect game. The possession was the same, the way we distributed the ball was good and we converted the scoring opportunities we had.”

Miguel Lopez, Chad Barrett and Juninho are due for their share of opportunities. Watch for these three to make the most of their touches in space.

Prediction:
While Chivas USA should be credited with their biggest victory of the season, the Galaxy are a team capable of taking steam out of opposing sides building them.

What will be important is that the Galaxy put the pieces together like they did against Sporting Kansas City and get conversions from their power trio.

Another complete performance from the Los Angeles Galaxy is in order.

Los Angeles Galaxy 3, Chivas USA 0
Kickoff is scheduled for 7:00 p.m. PT/10:00 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 21 and will be televised by ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes.


INS AND OUTS:
Youth Academy Update

It has been a disappointing week for the Los Angeles Galaxy Youth Academy's Under-16 and Under-18 teams, who could only manage a draw and a loss each over the weekend.

On Saturday, the Galaxy Youth Academy took on the Irvine Strikers. The Under-16s got flattened unceremoniously 3-0 while the Under-18s managed just a 2-2 draw.

On Sunday, the Young G's faced Pateadores. The Under-16's drew 2-2, but the Under-18s lost 3-2.

The renewal of the Mini-Clasico between the Galaxy and Chivas takes place on Saturday, May 21, before the SuperClasico derby involving the two senior sides.

Kickoff for the Under-18s is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. PT/5:00 p.m. ET while the Under-16s kick off at 4:30 p.m. PT/7:30 p.m. ET.

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