Donovan And Bornstein ‘Excited’ To Be Back For SuperClasico

Two members of Bob Bradley’s Confederations Cup squad were excited to be back with their club teams and looking forward to their derby showdown.

After a long run with the U.S. National Team, Jonathan Bornstein, Landon Donovan, and Sacha Kljestan will all be involved in Los Angeles’ SuperClasico on Saturday. Two of those players, Borstein and Donovan, expressed their excitement to be back with their clubs after the trip to South Africa.

“That experience was good for myself and I think Jonny and Sacha, who is also back now,” Donovan said of the Confederations Cup. “But when you get back here, you're excited to get back with your teammates again. We've been on a good stretch lately. I want to help that.”

Bornstein was in a similar state of mind, quickly switching from national team talk back to his club side.

“We had a very nice time,” the defender said, before moving on to talking about Chivas USA. “We've had a bit of a bad stretch of games lately, especially with the Open Cup and the SuperLiga, so we're ready to go. We've got a lot of guys back from injury and a couple of guys back from the national team, so we're going to hit the ground running and hopefully get that win.”

Coming off of one of the most important matches in U.S. Soccer history, it would be understandable if the returning stars didn’t view a midseason match up with the same kind of vigor, but Donovan insisted that Saturday’s match would be very important for him.

“This is a big game,” the U.S. star said. “I think a month ago, we would have been have been ten or twelve points behind Chivas. If we can win tomorrow, we are only three points back, so it's a big game for us.

“In years past, it might have been difficult to be motivated, but now I'm a different player and every game motivates me. I love being with this team and I love to win. It's a big game for us.”

This particular match has also taken on another storyline. Alecko Eskandarian was traded from Chivas USA to the Galaxy recently and is expected to be on the pitch against his former mates Saturday. Bornstein spoke a little about playing against a player he was so familiar with.

“I actually feel more comfortable facing Alecko,” Bornstein said. “We practiced against each other all year. He's a great player, so you can never say you know someone's game or anything. I'm just looking forward to the battle it's going to be and hopefully I can come out on top, winning more battles over him than anything. But it should be a good test for us.”

Eskandarian admitted that playing against his former club could cause a bit of a chess match with a back line that understands his game so well, but said that he would let it change his game.

“When you go over a year playing against guys, not just Jonny, but all those guys, you do learn their tendencies and their strengths and weaknesses and things like that,” the striker, who opened his L.A. account against New England last week, said. “I'm still friends with all the guys I was friends with back on Chivas USA. That won't change just because I put on a different jersey. But come game day, I'm going to give it everything I can to help the Galaxy win.”

The SuperClasico will have its next installment Saturday night at 11:00 pm ET. The Galaxy are coming off a 1-0 win over New England last week while Chivas has not played a league match in over a month.

Allen Ramsey, Goal.com

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