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Galaxy, Fire set to square off at The HDC

Fri 30th, July 2010

Carson, CA (Sports Network) - Fresh off of officially introducing designated player signing Nery Castillo, the Chicago Fire travel to Los Angeles to take on the Galaxy in their first Major League Soccer action since July 8.

"Getting to this day has been a long journey for the Chicago Fire," Chicago Klopas told mlssoccer.com earlier this week when the Mexican international was officially introduced. "I can remember over two-and-a-half years ago, when we in the UK, looking for potential [designated players]. Obviously we all knew Nery, and we were actually thinking that one day potentially this guy could be a great addition to the Fire organization."

While Castillo is not expected to start this weekend, he could make an appearance.

"I come over here with a lot of objectives," he told the league's website. "I know [Cuauhtemoc Blanco] was here in the past and I'll be trying to [recreate his individual success] but I want to get a championship with the team. I want to show my qualities as much as I can so we can get things that the club deserves to get."

The Fire (4-5-5) have their work cut out for them at The Home Depot Center on Saturday against the first-placed Galaxy (12-2-4), who are coming off a 2-2 draw with San Jose in their last MLS fixture.

"It's a game that we should have won," Galaxy attacker Landon Donovan said after the game. "We were the better team, we created a lot more chances. Getting scored on early was difficult to come back from, but we did a good job and you had to think if anyone was going to win it had to be us. Our resiliency was good, it was a good test for us, something we haven't dealt with a lot this year, going behind a goal and then a goal again, so all in all it's still okay and we can't really be mad because we played well and just had a few mistakes."

Galaxy forward Edson Buddle scored his league-leading 12th goal of the season it the game, and if the Fire are going to be successful, they are going to have to find a way to shut down the combination of Buddle and Donovan.

"It went in. It was a tough ball. It skipped and was bouncing. It went past Alan [Gordon] and a defender," Buddle said of his goal. "I had to have a quick reaction and get it on target. I was lucky to get a foot on to it."