Chivas coach counts Guevara out
Chivas USA Coach Preki said Thursday evening that Honduran midfielder and former Major League Soccer MVP Amado Guevara had played his final game for Chivas.
“Yes, I think so,” Preki said, even though a planned trade that would have sent Guevara to Toronto FC in exchange for Brazilian midfielder and former Galaxy player Paulo Nagamura had fallen through Wednesday.
Preki yanked Guevara out of Saturday’s 3-1 loss to the Galaxy in the 56th minute and afterward was blunt in his assessment.
“I don’t think Amado was sharp,” he said. “He couldn’t find the ball. Defensively, he wasn’t working hard.”
Guevara, who turned 32 on Wednesday, has not trained with Chivas this week in expectation of a trade, although just where he would end up and what Chivas would receive in return remained unresolved Thursday evening.
“As of now, the league” which handles all player contracts “is dealing with the issue of Amado Guevara,” Preki said. “We’re just sitting tight and waiting to see what’s going to develop.”
Despite his criticism of Guevara, a three-time MLS all-star and the league’s MVP in 2004, Preki said he had no grudge against the Honduran national team captain.
“We didn’t have any personal problems,” he said. “It’s just one of those things where I felt he doesn’t fit in with the way I want to play here. I just felt that instead of changing at the end of the year, we might as well do it right away and go forward.”
Chivas acquired Guevara on Nov. 22 in a trade with the New York, giving the Red Bulls its designated player spot and a third-round draft pick in exchange. Guevara played only four games for Chivas and did not stand out in any of them.
Chivas did complete one move Thursday, acquiring Jamaican national team defender Shavar Thomas from the Galaxy in exchange for a second-round draft pick in 2009. In addition, Preki said Chivas was “on the verge of closing the deal” to land Nagamura from Toronto even without Guevara being a part of the equation.
“I knew Shavar when he played for Kansas City,” Preki said. “He’s a solid guy and he’s a good guy in the locker room. We felt like we needed help because Carlos Llamosa went down” with a season-ending left knee injury. “We needed to strengthen ourselves at the back.”
