Chivas USA (7-9-6) at Toronto (7-10-5), 4 p.m.

Toronto, ON (Sports Network) - Chivas USA topped Toronto FC 2-1 last week in Major League Soccer action, but when the two teams square off at BMO Field on Saturday, both will be facing extreme hardships.

Toronto will be missing nine starters because of international call-ups and Chivas USA has two called up as well as a host of injuries to deal with.

"I've had some challenges in my life, but I've never had anything like this," Carver said. "We have played games with six or seven players missing, like when we beat L.A. earlier this season, but this time Julius James and Marvell Wynne got call-ups and Jarrod Smith is also away with New Zealand.

"I've hardly been able to work with a consistent team all season because we keep losing players to internationals. To be honest, we played on Saturday with what was probably our strongest team of the season and we were dreadful, but there haven't been many times this season when I have been able to put my strongest team on the field."

TFC (7-10-5) will have just one first-team defender - Marco Velez - available and just five other players - Chad Barrett, Danny Dichio, Rohan Ricketts, Abdus Ibrahim and Kevin Harmse - who have seen significant minutes with the first team.

"This is what I consider a case of extreme hardship," Carver told the Toronto Sun. "Right now I'm calling around looking to get players on loan so I can fill out a game sheet."

The players missing because of international duty are goalkeeper Greg Sutton, defenders Jim Brennan, James and Wynne, midfielders Amado Guevara, Tyrone Marshall, Smith and Carl Robinson, and forward Carlos Ruiz. On top of that, defenders Todd Dunivant and Nana Attakora-Gyan are out with injuries.

Goalkeeper Brian Edwards will get his sixth start of the season with Sutton away.

"We will have a lot of new faces in defense and some of the guys who will be playing there don't even play at the back in practice, so we have a huge task in front of us," Edwards said. "We are all working toward the same thing and if we can work hard in training this week to get to be a collective unit, I'm sure we can put on a good performance and surprise some people."

Chivas USA (7-9-6) will have little sympathy for its opponent on Saturday, however, as it is dealing with injury concerns of its own - which it has been all season.

The Goats will be without midfielders Jesse Marsch and Raphael Wicky, and defenders Claudio Suarez, Carey Talley and Alex Zotinca. Forward Maykel Galindo is also listed as questionable. Also, midfielders Sacha Kljestan and Shavar Thomas are on international duty and forward Atiba Harris is out because of yellow card accumulation.

With the win last week, Chivas USA was able to climb to third in the Western table while Toronto is still stuck in a last-place tie with Kansas City in the East.