Chivas USA needs a makeover before next season
If there is one thing that Chivas USA has learned in 2010, it is that the team needs to be better in 2011.
Year-end awards, in other words, will be thin on the ground when the Major League Soccer regular season comes to a close in two weeks.
Having failed to reach the playoffs for the first time in five years and having won only eight games, including Saturday night’s 3-0 victory over Toronto FC in Carson, Chivas USA requires a substantial makeover.
Part of that will come about naturally, with the departure, for instance, of U.S. national team defender Jonathan Bornstein, who is joining the UANL Tigres in Mexico, and the likely retirement of a player or two.
The team features a trio of 30-somethings in all-star goalkeeper Zach Thornton, 36, and defenders Ante Jazic, 34, and Alex Zotinca, 33. Any or all of them might decide to call it a career.
Others will have to be shown the Home Depot Center exit.
Still, there is a core of players for Coach Martin Vasquez to build a team around in the coming year if he remains in charge, as expected.
The midfield features a couple of solid players in Paulo Nagamura and Rodolfo Espinoza, the latter by far the most accomplished all-around player on the team. The defense also has a reliable pair in Mariano Trujillo, at 33, and Michael Umana.
Lively midfielder Michael Lahoud shows some speed, some skill, some promise, some potential. This was his sophomore year and next season he could blossom if he learns to focus his energy. The same goes for young midfielders Ben Zemanski and Blair Gavin.
Jesus Padilla has had an up-and-down season and is capable of more than he has delivered so far in a Chivas jersey.
If Thornton decides to call it quits, goalkeeper Dan Kennedy has to once and for all prove that the injuries that have sidelined him for much of the last two seasons are an aberration. He needs to be healthy, fit and a starter or he is surplus to requirements.
Striker Justin Braun has enjoyed the best season of his career, but he can still look awkward on the ball and his finishing -- despite this season’s team-high nine goals -- needs a great deal of improvement. But he is only 23 and there is time.
Dario Delgado, Marcelo Saragosa, Jorge Flores? Who knows?
Flores did not harm his cause on Saturday night by stabbing home a cross from Espinoza in the 51st minute for his fourth MLS goal and his first since May 2008.
Padilla bagged his fifth goal of the season in the 88th minute and Espinoza scored two minutes later to seal the victory for Chivas, which is 8-15-4 with two road games and an Oct. 23 home finale remaining.
grahame.jones@latimes.com
