For Club America, a Chance to Soar
The crowd surrounding USC’s gated McAlister Field was beginning to thicken Friday morning as a water break was called in the middle of Club America’s 2 1/2-hour training session.
Las Aguilas, the Eagles, retreated to the shade to grab bottled water and some 100 admiring fans silently shifted in their spots and craned their necks, to better their view of the visiting heroes.
The serenity was spoiled, though, when a man driving his truck down 30th Street began honking his horn and cheering the name of his favorite Mexican club team.
“Arriba Chivas,” he yelled, before calling the Club America players by a Spanish slang term meant to question their masculinity and honking his horn again. “Arriba Chivas ... “
Fans and Aguilas alike looked up at the ambling truck, smiled, shook their heads, and went about their business. The Club America-Chivas rivalry may know no borders, but Las Aguilas have more pressing matters. Namely, getting their house in order.
While Club America of Mexico City may be the second-most popular club team in Mexican soccer, behind tradition-rich Chivas of Guadalajara, it will undoubtedly feel like the home team Sunday at the Coliseum when it faces Manchester United on the second leg of the English Premier League champion’s four-city American tour.
Club America players expect the Coliseum, whose officials are hoping for a crowd of 60,000, to be awash in the team’s canary yellow color.
“Yes, the countries are very close so we do have a lot of fans here in Los Angeles, Mexicans and Latinos,” said midfielder Jesus “Chuy” Mendoza. “Anytime we play here you see the flag and the colors being waved by the fans in the stands.”
Club America is coming off a disappointing season. It did not qualify for the playoffs a year after winning its ninth league title, one less than record-holding Chivas.
Manuel Lapuente, a former Mexican national team coach, paid for the flop with his job and Club America turned to its past in hope of saving the future.
Leo Beenhaaker, 60, the curmudgeonly Dutch-born Larry Brown of international soccer, was hired on June 3. He had previously coached Club America in 1994-95 and was awarded a reported two-year contract worth $2 million annually that included a house and the use of a helicopter.
He had resigned as Ajax Amsterdam’s coach a day earlier.
Club America officials hope he will bring back his brand of attacking and high-scoring soccer, especially with striker Cuauhtemoc Blanco attempting to rebound from a one-goal season.
“It’s a good experience ... another team with other players,” said Beenhaaker, whose resume includes coaching stops at Feyenoord, Real Zaragoza, Real Madrid and Chivas, as well as heading the national teams of the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.
“It’s just as you start with another team, you need some time to know who is everybody ... what the possibilities are. Then you start building a team and ... a philosophy of football.”
Beenhaaker said he may go with a 4-4-2 alignment against Manchester United, with Blanco and recent Uruguayan pickup Sebastian Abreu as forwards. The scheme was impressive Wednesday night in San Jose, when Club America played Italian power Lazio, which had advanced to the UEFA Cup semifinals this spring, to a 1-1 draw.
The result was all the more uplifting as Club America is without two of its top defenders -- Pavel Pardo, who is with the Mexican national team preparing for its Gold Cup title match against Brazil on Sunday at Mexico City, and the injured Duilio Davino.
Abreu, who came to Club America from Cruz Azul, said his new team will use the Sunday’s match as a tune-up for the Spanish tournament it will play in next week against such teams as host Deportivo La Coruna, Nacional of Uruguay and Bayern Munich of Germany.
“It’s a game and a beautiful opportunity because it’s against one of the most important and respected teams in the world,” Abreu said. “It’s a team that is always playing well and we can gain confidence.”
Beenhaaker, though, wasn’t buying it.
“I have 38 years of football now so I’ve met [Manchester United] several times,” he said. “For me it’s just one more match.”
Try telling that to Club America fans, or the guy driving his truck down 30th Street.
