As Preki made his way across the employee parking lot at the Home Depot Center, he carried a limp as pronounced as if he was wearing a cast.“It’s just something I have,” he deflected.

The limp won’t keep him away from coaching Chivas USA in the team’s season opener on Sunday at FC Dallas. However, several players will be carrying limps and other ailments of their own into the regular season.

Forward Maykel Galindo has played sparingly in the pre-season due to various ailments. Forward Ante Razov is just now rounding back into fitness. Newly acquired forward Alecko Eskandarian has an injury that neither he nor the fitness staff can identify.

“I think right now we’re using process of elimination to figure out what it is, because there’s no really clear cut answer,” Eskandarian said. “Basically similar to a sports hernia, but I’ve already had that surgery.”

Midfielder Rafael Wicky, Chivas USA’s biggest offseason acquisition, has been fighting off various bumps and bruises. Defender Jonathan Bornstein is coming back from ankle surgery. Defender Alex Zotinca is likely out for the season with a knee injury. Goalkeeper Brad Guzan sprained his MCL during the preseason.

Combine the injuries with the late resigning of midfielder Francisco Mendoza, and Chivas has spend it’s preseason without, at different points, seven of 11 likely starters, making the task of predicting a starting lineup for Sunday difficult at best.

Forward Attiba Harris will likely start out of necessity; he’s the only senior roster forward who has stayed healthy throughout the preseason. However, Galindo will make the trip to Dallas as well, and if he’s able to play, one must figure that the team’s leading goalscorer of 2007 has to get on the field.

“He’ll be in the plans,” Preki said. “We’re not sure if he’s going to start or come off the bench yet.”

Once Galindo, Razov and Eskandarian find full fitness, Chivas USA will have its deepest compliment of strikers in club history. Last year’s third forward, John Cunliffe, was traded March 28th to San Jose for midfielder Chris Pozniak.

“We’d like to think that we’re deeper, and once everybody gets fit I think we’ll have a good competition for places,” Preki said.

Meanwhile, the back line, including goalkeeper Guzan, returns mostly intact. Combined with midfielders Jesse Marsch and Pablo Nagamura, the defense, especially in the middle of the field, should be as solid as it was in 2007, when Chivas allowed the second fewest goals in the league.

“Obviously that brings a lot of confidence among those four in the back,” Bornstein said. “But also the midfield is pretty much the same. Our block of eight has stayed pretty much the same.”

One area where Chivas USA hopes to improve, rather than remain the same, is how the club starts the season. Last year, Chivas USA won just two of its first seven games, both against the eventual cellar-dwellers in each conference.

“Sometimes you can’t do anything about it,” Preki said of the team’s traditional slow start. “Sometimes for some reason things work out that way. But we’re certainly not trying to do that. We hope this year is going to be different. It’s going to be even harder this year because so many guys have been out and not able to train. Hopefully we can gel faster.”

NOTES: Chivas is 2-1 in opening matches, losing to DC in the club’s first match ever, and then beating Real Salt Lake (2006) and Toronto FC (2007). … This is the first time Chivas USA has opened a season on the road. Its record in road openers is 0-2-1, drawing San Jose in Chivas’ inaugural road match, then losing in DC (2006) and Houston (2007). … Chivas USA split the season series against FC Dallas in 2007, going 1-1-1 with the lone win coming at the Home Depot Center.