It's been quite a week for US and Chivas USA midfielder Sacha Kljestan. Following a weeks trial with Scottish champions Celtic, Kljestan returned and scored a hat trick for the US against Sweden in front of a hometown crowd.

Kljestan told reporters after the game: "Getting a hat trick is pretty exciting for me. I've never scored more than one goal in a game as a professional, so it's definitely exciting. I'm just as happy about the win, and I'm glad we held on in the end. It was great to do it [score a hat trick] here at the Home Depot Center. I have a lot of friends and family that come and support me every game, so that was pretty cool to have them here."

Kljestan also credited his club coach for the past two seasons, Preki, for his developing free kick skills.

"I have worked a lot on free kicks with Preki [Chivas USA head coach] this past year. He showed me to just take a deep breath and put the ball where you want it. I tried to focus a lot and put the ball where I wanted it, and tonight it went there. You just want to put the ball on target to give yourself a chance and luckily it went in tonight."

The big question now is will it be stripes or hoops on the shirt for Kljestan in 2009?

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