Goats in LA?

By Oscar Villegas on January 23, 2013

When it comes to soccer in LA there is one team that is king, the LA Galaxy, who have been MLS Cup Champions the last two seasons in a row. This is bad news for LA Galaxy neighbor Chivas USA, who they share the Home Depot Center with. Chivas USA is a relatively new team tracing their roots back to the good old days of 2005. At the beginning the team showed a lot of promise reaching play-offs four  years in a row. They look like they were going to give the Galaxy a run for their money but sadly it wasn’t so.

In the last three years Chivas USA have struggle both on and off the field, missing out on the play-offs for three consecutive years and struggling to come up with an identity. The idea of the owners when the team joined MLS was that it would attract the Hispanic, predominantly Mexican, community in Los Angeles but there were flaws in the concept. First the name of the team is linked with it’s sister club in the Mexican league, Chivas de Guadalajara, one of the most popular and successful Mexican teams. This limits the team’s potential fan base to those Hispanic that are not in dislike of the sister club alienating fans of their rivals America and Atlas. Fans of such teams are very unlikely to support a team that is associated with a major rival. Second, Chivas de Guadalajara are a team based upon the ideal of having 100% Mexican* players (the percentage can be argued as there are a couple of Mexican-Americans playing in the team) and is recognize as being a Mexican team. A team that has the USA part in its name will not sit well with ultra supporters. Third, by attempting to associate the team with the Hispanic community they have neglected the non-Hispanic communities that live in LA.  With all these in mind its no surprise that Chivas USA have struggle to create an identity inside and outside the field.

With the absolute purchase of Chivas USA by Jorge Vergara, who owned half of the shares before, there is the opportunity for the team to turn a new leaf. The new owner started of by implementing a new administration. By bringing in Jose Luis Real from the Mexican organization to  supervise the clubs on-field activities as the Technical Director the club has a person that has experience as a youth coach, head coach as well as fulfilling the same role with the sister organization. The role of Jose Luis Real is to organize the clubs sporting aspects from their youth team to the senior team in a manner that mirrors the way the Mexican club. This is good news as the Mexican Chivas has one of the most organized and talented youth set-ups in the world, constantly feeding talented players to the first team. If this can be achieved in Chivas USA the team will prosper in means of talented youth, which would also benefit the USA men’s national team, as well create  bond between the community and the team as most of these youth will come from the surrounding communities.

Another big change was naming Jose Luis Sanchez Sola (A.KA. Chelis) as head coach. Chelis is a renown Mexican coach who came to fame by leading Mexican team Puebla to play in the first division. He is famous for being a great motivator as well  as installing a fighting spirit in his teams. With him in charge the team will fight to the end and if there is something that American audience love is a never give up attitude. This will help them turn some heads in the American soccer landscape.

There are two things that the team will need more than anything else if they are to come out of the shadow of LA Galaxy. First they must move out of the Home Depot Center into their own venue. Owner Jorge Vergara has to do his best to get Chivas USA their own home, with their own stadium the team can focus on increasing their fan base as well as creating an environment that is entirely theirs. Second, the team has to do its best to win a trophy, by winning the MLS Cup. By doing this they are certain to turns some heads and fans in their direction. As well as provide one of the best underdog stories in soccer history, and who doesn’t love a good underdog story?

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