Chivas Ponders a Lost Season

The superstar sat in front of his locker, elbows on his knees, hands folded as if in prayer and head hung low, hidden beneath a white towel.

Ramon Ramirez was shutting out the game, shutting out the season, shutting out the world.

“Ramon is a very proud player,” a Chivas USA spokesman said. “This has hurt him a lot.”

For Ramirez, Sunday afternoon’s Major League Soccer season finale at the Home Depot Center pretty much summed up the way 2005 had gone.

Chivas USA had dominated the game, it had played the more attractive soccer, it had taken 26 shots compared with only 14 for the MetroStars, it had earned 17 corner kicks to only three for the visitors. Its adventurous play had even inspired the “Legion 1904” faithful to ignite smoke bombs and to hurl red and white ribbons onto the field.

And it had lost, 2-0.

It was the latest loss in a season filled with similar disappointments. Chivas USA, one of two MLS expansion teams in 2005, finished with a 4-22-6 record, worst in the league.

That was not the way it was supposed to turn out.

And so Ramirez sat motionless in the locker room, staring at the floor. No one dared approach him.

Outside, it was a different matter. Chivas USA partisans among the 17,394 who had come for the finale, even though little was at stake, were getting ready to enjoy themselves.

On the stadium’s grass slope, a huge and smiling image of the superstar beamed down. But Ramirez no longer had the fans’ attention. Instead, they were focused on the guitar- and accordion-slung men in beige suits and cowboy boots on the field. Tigres del Norte, a popular band of ancient vintage, was about to end the first year with a toe-tapping Tex-Mex concert.

So, Chivas USA had lost. No problema. There was always next season.

*

A few days earlier, on one of the Home Depot Center’s training fields, the man in the suit had gathered the men in the cleats around him to talk about what had been and what would be.

The players and coaches sat on the grass, looking up at Antonio Cue, Chivas USA’s 35-year-old president and co-owner, seeking the answer to only one question from the Bel-Air businessman: Which of them would return in 2006?

The answer was not forthcoming.

Instead, Cue told them he would shoulder the blame for a season that had gone awry and he would do something about it.

Normally, the coach takes the fall when a team wins only four of 32 games. Hans Westerhof might prove to be an exception.

“Hans has told me that he wants to come back,” Cue said later. “I have a lot of respect for him. I think most of what happened on the field had to do with the structure of the team, it wasn’t with the training. I think the team has improved a lot. I think we have a very different team than we started with.

“We knew it was going to take time. But he [Westerhof] didn’t have the right players. Those mistakes were made at the beginning of the season.

“It’s very probable that Hans will be back with us.”

Westerhof, who took over for Thomas Rongen when Chivas USA was 1-8-1, said he wants to fix things, not move on.

“I feel myself responsible,” he said. “I don’t want to leave the club in this situation. It’s more honor than anything else.”

But there are complications.

Westerhof, 56, is not only coach of Chivas USA but also director of football for Mexican businessman Jorge Vergara’s soccer empire, which includes Chivas USA, Chivas de Guadalajara in Mexico, Saprissa in Costa Rica and Universitario in Peru.

As such, he wears two hats, and it is a matter of which one Vergara wants him to discard.

“I have a job there [in Guadalajara] and I have a job here, and it’s not possible to do both,” Westerhof said.

“I don’t know if it will be easier to find someone to do that job or if it’s easier to find a coach for here.”

Vergara and Westerhof will meet in Guadalajara this week and a decision will be made.

As for player turnover, there will undoubtedly be quite a bit.

“I don’t think half the team, but I think 30% of the team will be changed,” Cue said.

The core will remain. Ramirez is expected to return. Francisco “Paco” Palencia also is expected back, as are Ezra Hendrickson, Juan Pablo Garcia, Francisco Mendoza, Douglas Sequeira, Antonio Martinez and Brad Guzan, among others.

Chivas USA will have the top draft pick in 2006 and additional allocation funds. Finances, Cue said, are not the problem.

“I don’t think it takes money,” he said. “It takes [finding] the right people. I think there are good-enough players [in Mexico] that will fit better in this league. This league is very physical. We need strong players physically and, obviously, mentally.”

Westerhof agreed.

“We want to keep our style,” he said, “but we need in some positions players who are tougher.”

Hendrickson, who won MLS titles with the Galaxy in 2002 and D.C. United in 2004, said the players realize that a shake-up is inevitable.

“With the season that we’ve had, there obviously needs to be changes,” he said.

Palencia disagreed that a more physical style is called for in order for Chivas USA to be competitive in MLS. He wants the team to pass more and vary its attack.

“I don’t think soccer is a physical sport 100%,” he said. “I think you have to think more than run.”

In other words, play more intelligently

If Westerhof stays, Rongen, now the team’s sporting director, probably will too.

“I won’t speak for Thomas, but we think in the same way,” Westerhof said. “We don’t want to leave this project. The job is not done.”

*

It was a Wednesday night in early August, and a soccer doubleheader was on tap at the Coliseum.

The first game featured Chivas USA against the Galaxy, and the second involved Chivas de Guadalajara and Club America.

An announced crowd of 88,816 showed up, two-thirds of the fans there before the second game.

For Cue and Whit Haskell, Chivas USA’s senior vice president and general manager, that was all the proof they needed.

“That doubleheader was something that we designed and built and will continue, hopefully, on an annual basis,” Haskell said.

“It’s an awesome melding of rivalries. We’re going to work closer and closer, I think, with Club America to do those clasicos together and make them bigger and bigger, not only in L.A. but in other markets, if possible.

“It’s a sure-fire winner, and it enhances both brands in this country.”

Chivas USA, which led the league in sponsorships and in jersey sales, might have averaged only 12,298 at the Home Depot Center, but clearly a large fan base is there to be tapped.

“The fans are there,” Cue said. “It’s just a matter of being patient and working hard. There have to be some changes, but we’re on the right track.

“We came here to stay forever, not only for one season.”