Chivas USA Coach Preki and players look ahead to Saturday’s conference semi-final match against Real Salt Lake in this video preview:

Here’s a profile of Chivas USA’s apparently ageless defender Claudio Suarez who now sounds like he will not retire at season’s end after all.

Not a single Chivas USA player was named as one of the three finalists in the various categories for the MLS 2008 season awards announced today.

Galaxy defender Sean Franklin is up for Rookie of the Year (no surprise there) and Landon Donovan for MVP (or there).

Full disclosure: I didn’t vote. I’m not a huge fan of awards or some of these categories (MLS Referee of the year!? Are you kidding me?) And let’s dump Rookie of the Year completely (as MLS gets better, rookies just don’t make that much of an impact any more). Whatever.

Here’s the complete list:

Goalkeeper of the Year
Jon Busch – Chicago Fire
William Hesmer – Columbus Crew
Matt Reis – New England Revolution

Fair Play Finalists
Juan Pablo Angel – New York Red Bulls
Michael Parkhurst – New England Revolution
Chris Rolfe – Chicago Fire

MLS Comeback Player of the Year
Jon Busch – Chicago Fire
Kenny Cooper – FC Dallas
Santino Quaranta – D.C. United

Defender of the Year
Jimmy Conrad – Kansas City Wizards
Chad Marshall – Columbus Crew
Bakary Soumare – Chicago Fire

Referee of the Year
Michael Kennedy
Jair Marrufo
Terry Vaughn

Rookie of the Year
Geoff Cameron – Houston Dynamo
Kheli Dube – New England Revolution
Sean Franklin – Los Angeles Galaxy

MLS Coach of the Year
Dominic Kinnear – Houston Dynamo
Sigi Schmid – Columbus Crew
Frank Yallop – San Jose Earthquakes

MLS Most Valuable Player
Cuauhtmoc Blanco – Chicago Fire
Landon Donovan – Los Angeles Galaxy
Guillermo Barros Schelotto – Columbus Crew

Newcomer of the Year
Darren Huckerby – San Jose Earthquakes
Claudio Lopez – Kansas City Wizards
Andre Rocha – FC Dallas

MLS will gradually release the winners in the days leading up to MLS Cup, beginning with the goalkeeper of the year honor on Tuesday.

Fans are being asked to choose the 10 best goals of the year from 35 semifinalists. Vote here.

Finally, the Cal State Northridge women (7-9-2, 2-4-1 Big West) lost 1-0 today to UC Riverside (7-10-2, 2-5-1 Big West) at Matador Soccer Field.

The loss severely dented the Matadors’ playoff hopes.

Here’s what has to happen, according to CSUN:

“To make the playoffs, the Matadors must defeat Cal State Fullerton on Sunday and hope UC Irvine either loses both their matches or draws in one and loses the other combined with Pacific dropping their match against UC Davis on Sunday.”

Got that?