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BREAKING- Llamosa fired by Chivas USA

By IVES GALARCEP

A week from today Chivas USA will have an important decision to make at the 2013 MLS Draft, with the club boasting the No. 2 overall pick in the draft.

The man who has spearheaded preparations for that selection, and has handled running the team’s technical side since the firing of former head coach Robin Fraser, has now also been given his walking papers.

Chivas USA has fired lead assistant coach Carlos Llamosa, sources with knowledge of the move told SBI on Thursday.

Llamosa spent the past four years as an assistant with the Goats, and fully expected to be a part of the coaching staff under new head coach Jose Luis Sanchez Sola after being told he would be a part of the staff in 2013. But just a day before he was to head to Florida for the MLS Combine, Llamosa was instructed to go to Los Angeles instead. On Wednesday, Chivas USA fired Llamosa.

The move comes less than two weeks after Dennis te Kloese was brought in to be Chivas USA’s new Sporting president. Te Kloese will lead Chivas USA’s draft preparations and the rest of an off-season that has been full of surprises.

Llamosa leaves Chivas USA after spending two seasons with the club as a player before transitioning into the coaching side. A former U.S. national team defender, the 43-year-old Llamosa won two championships with D.C. United as a player.

What do you think of this development? See Chivas USA botching their draft without Llamosa? Think it’s questionable for the club to part ways with Llamosa at this point in the off-season?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Cairo, Mexican fans in the U.S. support Liga MX (and the national team) for the same reason that Mets and Cubs fans in L.A. root for those teams when they come to Dodger Stadium, and Yankees and Red Sox fans root for those teams when they come to Angel Stadium: They’re links to their former homes.

    Unless Chivas USA fills its roster with Mexican stars in their prime — which won’t happen, given MLS’s structure — Chivas USA will always be an ersatz Mexican team, and Mexican soccer fans know that far better than you realize.

    The Spanish language has a perfect word for the situation at Chivas USA: fracaso.

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    • I wonder how much Vergara would sell Chivas if the price were right. I think we should all MLS fans should buy into the franchise through a website where people donate money and relocate it where it can have some sort of identity. Anyone know how much he paid for the franchise fee back in the day?

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  2. I am rooting ffor chivas usa to be successful in mls for three reasons:

    1. A good team with a Mexican identity would make for great rivalry games with virtually every other team in the league. See all the concacaf matches for evidence

    2. If done proerly,it could attract some Mexican fans away from the Liga mx teams the noe support

    3. I hate the Galaxy, and for this reason alone i am a Chivas USA fan three times a year

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    • So you think to specify a team to a culture will be good?…sorry wrong to do. First you are in USA so fan base is very small, now your in southern California with one team already plus very successful other sport teams (fan based just became very small) and now you think making it a Latin based team will draw fans??? Umm no…and already proven not to work…season ticket holders for the galaxy have to buy for Chinas too. Plan did not work and mother chivas knows it…time to relocate, even if it’s to the inland empire…

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  3. I’m no fan of ChivasUSA. I think they’ve made a lot of mistakes since the team has been in MLS and the quality of play isn’t very good. However, I am a fan of MLS and I enjoy watching the league grow year after year. Maybe MLS doesn’t need Chivas, but Chivas is part of the MLS and because of that I would like to see Chivas succeed. The better Chivas is the better competition it provides all other teams in the league which helps the other teams to improve. The better all the teams in the league are the better the quality of play gets throughout the league. This forces players to get better, those players that don’t get better get replaced by better players, and the same goes for coaching staffs. Therefore the success of Chivas helps to improve the quality of the league. The same goes with Toronto. Also the fans for both of these teams deserve for both teams to succeed and become competitive. Both Chivas and Toronto have passionate fans that want what the rest of us want – for our teams to win and our league to be successful.

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    • What I cannot understand is why folks can’t see that the best way to motivate ownership to put together the best possible team is the threat of being relegated to a second tier league and the loss of revenue that comes with. It is the most competitive and “winner take all” format of competition, a thrilling ride for fans and terrific motivation for players hoping to avoid the drop, yet there is this idea out there that American won’t go for it (even though viewership of European teams in the US is at an all time high).

      I want to see MLS grow and thrive as much as the next fan of the league and Si think the league has made terrific progress. I just happen to think there are wheels that don’t need to be reinvented, and promotion and relegation are terrific parts of league soccer that MLS should adopt.

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      • okay PD, find someone who is willing to build a soccer specific stadium when the threat of relegation looms. All soccer fans love relegation/promotion. The MLS executives love relegation/promotion, but if they adopted it that would be the end or at least the end to the growth of MLS.

        And they have promoted teams before. When Seattle moved to MLS, they promoted the Cleveland City Stars to USL div1. You know what happened? One year later City folded even though they had been very successful as a USL Div2 team

      • That’s an interesting point and example, but I’m not convinced that investors would see it as a deal breaker. I’m not saying it should happen right away, but it should be a long term goal, you could even have a tournament amongst the bubble teams at the end of the season that gives clubs one more chance to stay up. But I’m not so sure the prodpect of relegation would be a deal breaker for ownership. Soccer is the last sport that has double digit growth potential in the US, folks who are motivated to invest won’t be scared off by relegation.

      • I believe relegation/promotion is a long term goal but Garber say it’s very far off. I dont know about relegation and promotion in the rest of europe but it started in england back when the football league was strictly amateur so it was no big deal. To start it today in the world of big money sports is a lot bigger deal. I think the lure of the play-offs and the competitiveness of MLS from top to bottom (no big four as of yet) is enough to replace what relegation provides.

    • Javier while I like your thinking, I think the reason people want teams like Chivas, NYRB, and Montreal to fail is that they are constantly disrespecting the league they play in. The league has shown continual growth and improvement in a horrible economy and deserves respect for that.

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      • What?the NYRB had 57 points in the east,thye same as RSL that finish second in the west. NYRB spends money, most likely your team don’t. Stop hating, bringing in better coaches who aren’t american is a good idea.

      • your last coach wasnt American and he sucked. He also upset your fans because he said he didnt care about the MLS Cup but only cared about the supporters sheild. Ha what an idiot. All the most successful coaches in MLS have been American or come from MLS not Europe

  4. I guess having someone who has been associated with MLS since its second season AND spoke fluent Spanish made too much sense.

    Carlos Llamosa always played with a quiet dignity; clearly there’s no place for that at Chivas USA.

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    • Why do we have to give Wynalda credit for that?? He wants to join that coaching world.
      If anything he’s so insane that even the insane coaching world doesn’t want him.

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  5. Who cares about Chivas USA. Seriously. They bring nothing to the MLS table. Someone will argue a point, and I will just laugh at you.

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    • The problem isn’t Chelis (yet). The problem for the Baby Goats is the same problem their Mamas have: Vergara.

      I do love watching a train wreck and under Chelis it should be entertaining instead of cringe-inducing.

      I still think by the All-Star game Chelis will give up on this and resign. Which, coincidentaly, is when TFC’s coach will probably take over (what a mess up there)

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  6. I would expect all the teams to have their draft plans prepared at this point. If anything this simplifies Chivas USA’s draft strategy. Now it’s as easy as ‘draft the best hispanic player available’.

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  7. Everyone already views Chivas USA as a disaster. I think that Montreal is trying to catch up with them. Just replace Latino fetish with the Euro one. Hard to imagine either one making the play-offs

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    • The league 25 drafts and convoluted (and non-transparent) transfer policies did that long before Chivas and the like started firing coaches.

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      • Chelsea’s firing of their coach was seen as okay? Just the opposite: the firing of Di Matteo was widely questioned and criticized by the press, fans and just about everyone else involved or interested in football.

        Chivas USA is the Clippers of MLS. They have new ownership, however, so I suppose there’s hope. And even Donald Sterling has a winner this year (after 30 years of poor/questionable management).

      • To suggest that this is new ownership is a gross mischaracterization. Vergara has been part of the ownership group for as long as the club has been in existence. If anything, this represents the Cue brothers jumping off a sinking ship than Vergara making a big investment in the club.

      • I stand corrected — it’s a new ownership structure. My understanding is that the change in ownership will allow Vegara to have full control, allowing closer alignment with Chivas de Guadalajara. Like you, I’m not optimistic this will make a difference.

    • And yet,MLS isn’t losing nearly as much $$$ as European clubs do. This league gets stronger each year, in terms of income, gate receipts, and constantly-improving quality of play.

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      • Very good point. For all the criticism we lob at MLS, it is in much better financial standing than most leagues in Europe BECAUSE of its single entity structure.

      • Some people will NEVER be satisfied.

        I remember all the “MLS teams take too long to fire coaches and it makes the league look like a joke” folks from just a few years ago…

    • As has been said, if you think decisions like this makes MLS look like a joke, you must think European leagues are beyond farcical then, considering how quickly coaches/managers get fired there. I guess La Liga is a useless league run by people who don’t care about the sport.

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  8. why am I not surprised by the fact that a Mexican coach (and Euro coach in Montreal) fires an american coach that understands the MLS way… lets see how long the coach will last!

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    • My problem is not so much that they fired Llamosa — in theory a foreign coach should have a MLS Guy on staff, but Llamosa was Fraser’s Guy so it’s Sola’s prerogative to run him out of town along with Fraser — as that Sola and Co. took a month to do this, and completed it right on top of the draft. Even if Sola is a genius the organization looks like a mess; if drafted you might consider Pulling an Elway.

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