¡Vamos, Chivas!

Angelenos of Mexican descent can now root for (or against, depending on their sympathies) the same sports franchise here that they did back home. Well, sort of -- Chivas USA, which makes its Major League Soccer debut Saturday, is not exactly Chivas de Guadalajara, Mexico’s most popular team. This squad will wear the same uniform but lacks some of the talent. It’s as if the New York Yankees opened a franchise team in Tokyo.

Still, this is a significant milestone in the ongoing internationalization of Los Angeles. As for Major League Soccer, it’s no mystery why the struggling 9-year-old league would welcome an expansion franchise of a Guadalajara team, which claims to have 10 million registered followers in the United States. As it is, three U.S. Spanish-language television networks show hundreds of Mexican league soccer matches annually, and MLS is hoping it can capture some of that audience for an L.A.-based team.

Chivas USA’s first game will be against champion D.C. United at the Home Depot Center, which Chivas will share with the L.A. Galaxy team. Following in the footsteps of other professional leagues, MLS plans to expand into Canada too. Meanwhile, baseball has contemplated having a franchise in Monterrey, Mexico, and the National Football League will play a regular-season game in Mexico City next season.

Multinational leagues make a lot of sense in a shrinking world, and Europe’s Champions League is the best illustration of this phenomenon. Far and away the world’s most popular sport, with an estimated quarter-billion people playing it (and countless others cheering them on), there’s no telling how many boundaries soccer will erase.