Chivas USA remains optimistic about making playoffs
Despite his team being stuck in last place in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference, Martin Vasquez continues to exude confidence.
Chivas USA’s first-year coach thinks that with just under half the MLS season still to go, and with a trio of new players in the mix, he and his squad can turn things around and still make a run at the playoffs.
“We were in a hole, we hit rock bottom, but little by little we’ve been trying to get out of that hole,” Vasquez said Saturday evening before Chivas’ game against the Columbus Crew at Home Depot Center.
The recent addition of Venezuelan forward Giancarlo Maldonado and midfielders Paulo Nagamura and Rodolfo Espinoza, from Brazil and Mexico, respectively, should help.
So, too, should the fact that even though Chivas had a miserable 4-9-3 record going into Saturday’s match, the players have remained upbeat.
“It’s positive,” Vasquez said of the mood in the locker room. “The work habits, the attitude, the disposition, has been professional and positive.”
The loss of U.S. national team players Sacha Kljestan, who left to play for Anderlecht in Belgium, and Jonathan Bornstein, sidelined by a knee injury, has hurt, but the players have responded.
“Our young guys are stepping up,” Vasquez said, pointing in particular to the play of Michael Lahoud, Blair Gavin, Justin Braun, Jesus Padilla and Ben Zemanski. “That is helping us turn this around.”
The loss of such veterans and team leaders as Claudio Suarez and Jesse Marsch in the off-season was always going to leave Chivas with a void to fill, and it has shown on the field.
“I think we’ve had some cruel results,” Vasquez said. “I think we’ve had a couple of [bad] results because of a lack of concentration. When we’ve been good, we haven’t put our chances away or the other team has scored a late goal. It’s a combination of things.
“We’ve been in games against everybody, and we’re learning from our mistakes.”
It has not escaped noticed that while other MLS teams such as New York, Chicago and Seattle have added high-priced talent in the shape of France’s Thierry Henry, Mexico’s Nery Castillo and Uruguay’s Alvaro Alvarez, respectively, Chivas has opted not to seek help in that direction.
Vasquez said the ownership has not shut the door to the possibility, however.
“Talking to our upper management, our investors, if there’s somebody out there we feel is going to help us, they have been supportive,” he said. “But it has to make sense.”
