Chivas USA to Rely Heavily on Razov
Major League Soccer teams carry 28 players on their rosters, but the burden to perform always falls most heavily on the designated striker.
In the case of Chivas USA, that would be Ante Razov, the onetime UCLA forward and 10-year MLS veteran who has been reunited with his former coach, Bob Bradley, as the pair seek to turn around Chivas USA’s fortunes.
“We’ve had a good relationship,” Razov said on his arrival back in Los Angeles from the MetroStars. “It’s worked, for the most part. It’s just good to be home, you know.
“I’ve been away for a decade. I’ve been a soccer nomad. The chance to come home, it’s hard to pass that up.”
This afternoon, Chivas USA opens its second MLS season against Real Salt Lake at Home Depot Center, and Razov is likely to be paired up front with Mexican international Francisco “Paco” Palencia, with Juan Pablo Garcia, if he is fit, also joining in the attack.
“Ante has a good feeling of how to move along the forward line,” Bradley said. “Paco likes to play a little bit underneath at times. So I think that combination is quite good. I’m hoping that Ante’s mobility opens things up for Juan Pablo to come forward from the second line. Juan Pablo’s a gifted player.”
Bradley first came across Razov when the forward joined the Chicago Fire in 1998 after spending most of his first two years in MLS on the Galaxy bench.
Razov delivered right away, helping Bradley and the Fire win the league championship and the U.S. Open Cup in its first season. In 10 seasons in the league, Razov, a former U.S. international, has scored 84 goals and assisted on 44 others in 186 games.
“Ante is a player who is at his best when he’s active, when he’s moving,” Bradley said.
“He’s not a player that is just up there as a post-up kind of player. Again, he’s at his best when he’s working off the ball. That opens up things for him but also opens up space for others.
“When I started with Ante years ago, I think one of the things I always said was to be a very, very good striker you have to help your team on days when you don’t score. You can’t just be a guy [who] when you score it was a good day and when you don’t then it was a bad day.
“He grew a lot in those ways. He knows that whenever he and I work together, that is something that I will ask of him. I want him to set a tone in terms of his contribution to the team.”
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TODAY
vs. Real Salt Lake, 4 p.m., FSNW2
Site -- Home Depot Center.
Radio -- 1020.
Records (2005) -- Chivas USA 4-22-6, Real 5-22-5.
Record vs. Real (2005) -- 2-2.
Update -- Chivas USA added defender Tim Regan to its roster and signed rookie forward Drew Helm to a developmental contract. The club also waived midfielder Antonio Martinez. Midfielder Ramon Ramirez (left knee sprain) and defender Carlos Llamosa (left hamstring strain) are doubtful starters, and midfielder Juan Pablo Garcia (left knee sprain) is questionable. Real Salt Lake will be without defender Paul Broome (left ankle) and midfielder Seth Trembley (torn ligament in his left knee).
