Chivas USA ties game on day of changes
Chivas USA didn’t get the result it needed on the field Wednesday, rallying from a three-goal deficit to tie the New England Revolution, 3-3, at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Mass.
And although that left the team’s playoff hopes in doubt — Chivas is nine points out of the Western Conference’s final postseason berth with 10 games left — that was nothing compared with the uncertainty the team faces off the field after Mexican businessman Jorge Vergara and his wife, Angelica Fuentes, assumed control of the franchise Wednesday by buying out partners Antonio and Lorenzo Cue.
Vergara, founder of the nutritional supplement company Grupo Omnilife and owner of the Mexican first-division club Chivas de Guadalajara, joined the Cues to found Chivas USA in 2004. And although the Major League Soccer team has shared a name and a uniform design with its Mexican cousin, the anticipated synergy between the teams has waned over the years.
Now the famously impatient Vergara takes sole ownership of a team in steep decline. Aside from its slide in the standings — Chivas USA hasn’t made the playoffs or finished with a winning record since 2009 — the team’s average attendance has fallen more than 11% from last season, to 13,127, 18th in the 19-team MLS.
That could make things uncomfortable for Coach Robin Fraser and General Manager Jose Domene given Vergara’s history in Guadalajara, where he has gone through 16 coaches since 2002, winning only one championship in the process.
It has been two years since Vergara and the Cues last cleaned house in Carson, firing coach Martin Vasquez and forcing out Stephen Hamilton, the vice president of soccer operations, and Shawn Hunter, the president and chief executive, and hiring Fraser and Domene to replace them.
Baxter reported from Los Angeles.
