(Sports Network) - The New York Red Bulls and the Chicago Fire renew their Eastern Conference rivalry in Major League Soccer action on Saturday at Toyota Park. A lot has changed for both teams since the Fire went to New York and dominated the Red Bulls, 5-1, on May 25. Since then there have been numerous roster changes as well as a change in the fortunes of the clubs.

At that time the Fire were tops in the league, but have since fallen to third in the East by going 4-5-4. At that time the Red Bulls were last in the East, but have since climbed into a tie for fourth, just three back of the Fire and eight back of league-leading Columbus. New York has gone 5-4-5 since that May 25 game and currently holds the last spot in the 2008 MLS Cup playoffs.

"Obviously, it's a very important game for us," New York coach Juan Carlos Osorio said. "Three points separates the two clubs at the moment. It's getting really tight up in the table, so this is a great opportunity to shorten that distance and hopefully, we manage to do that this weekend."

The Red Bulls (8-6-8) are currently on a six-game unbeaten streak, with a three-game winning streak snapped with a scoreless draw at D.C. United - the team New York is tied with in the East - last week.

"I think we did enough to win the three points but in a way we let them off the hook," Osorio said after the D.C. game. "But I'm very pleased to have a clean sheet and contained a very good team going forward, especially at home. A clean sheet will prove to be very good for us and for what we're trying to do here."

The Fire (10-7-5) are coming off a 2-1 loss at Houston in which they were completely dominated by the Dynamo's suffocating defense.

"We know Houston is a very good team," Fire coach Denis Hamlett said. "We knew that they were going to come out and compete. They're at home, and they're a team that's been on a good roll lately, so we felt that it was a big challenge for us to come down here and try to get some points. I was happy with our group here. We competed until the end."

Both teams will be missing key players on Saturday, with Red Bulls midfielder Jorge Rojas and defender Andrew Boyens on international duty. Defender Kevin Goldthwaite will also miss the game due to yellow card accumulation. The Fire will be without midfielders Cuauhtemoc Blanco and Marco Papa and defender Gonzalo Segares because of international duty and forward Patrick Nyarko because of injury.

"I can only say that Cuauhtemoc is a very good player, very important player for them," Osorio said of the Mexican international missing the game. "But at the same token, we're missing Jorge Rojas so I would rather concentrate how to replace our player and try to get out of our squad the most we have as opposed to try to second-guess what they will try to do."



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