Up next for Chivas USA: Sunday at Columbus

AT COLUMBUS

Time: noon PDT.

On the air: TV: TeleFutura; Radio: 690.

Where: Crew Stadium; Columbus, Ohio.

Records: Chivas USA 8-3-3, Crew 3-2-7.

Record vs. Crew: 1-0.

Update: Having lost, 1-0, to the two-time MLS champion Dynamo in Houston on Wednesday because of a lapse in defensive concentration in the final seconds of the first half, Chivas takes on the defending champion Crew knowing that if it keeps dropping points, its first-place status will not last much longer. Coach Preki’s team had squandered 10 of a possible 15 points in its last five games after picking up 19 of 24 in its first eight games. “We cannot make such a dumb mistake as we did,” Preki said of the slack defending that allowed Houston to score on the last kick of the half. Chivas, which defeated the Crew, 2-1, in Carson in April, will be without defender Jonathan Bornstein and midfielder Sacha Kjestan. Both are in South Africa with the U.S. national team to take part in the FIFA Confederations Cup that begins today. Defender Mariano Trujillo returns from a one-game suspension. Columbus, unbeaten in its last eight matches, will be minus defender Chad Marshall, who is suspended, and midfielder Duncan Oughton, who is at the Confederations Cup with New Zealand. Two other defenders, Frankie Hejduk and Andy Iro, are listed as questionable because of injuries.

-- Grahame L. Jones