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Chivas USA’s Real exits to coach Chivas in Mexico

Jose Luis Real Casillas

By CAITLIN MURRAY

Chivas USA continues to hemorrhage personnel. Coach Jose Luis Real Casillas is leaving Chivas USA to coach the first team in Guadalajara, Mexico, the club announced Monday.

With this latest personnel change, Chivas USA is now without a coach and sporting director.

Real had been appointed to the Chivas USA coaching job in May 2013, but the Goats struggled, going 3-12-6 under his leadership and 6-20-8 on the season. They finished last in their conference.

The club’s previous coach, Jose Luis Sanchez Sola, had been fired in May after leading the team to a troubled 3-7-2 start. Sanchez Sola’s firing was allegedly also the result of disrespecting players and engaging in misconduct, according to reports.

Real’s exit to join the first team in Mexico comes just days after the club announced one of Chivas USA’s most prominent front-office staffers, Director of Soccer Paco Palencia, was leaving for the same reason. Just as with Real, Palencia will do the same job, only for the Mexican squad going forward.

Chivas USA are clearly rebuilding. Their latest front office moves come on the heels of the club cutting 10 players last week.

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What do you think of Real leaving to coach the Mexican squad? Will the club’s recent changes be enough to improve performance next year? Who would you like to see hired as Chivas USA coach?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Also, if Chivas USA were to have a good draft in January, make a few good trades in preseason, sign 2 effective DP’s and play good enough soccer that would have them at least 2nd in the West, would that be enough to put asses in seats?

    Reply
    • Freddy, your views are off the mark on several points:

      1. Chivas USA is one of the few MLS teams that has *never* signed a DP.
      2. You’re assuming that other teams would want Chivas USA players *not* named Bocanegra, Kennedy or Torres, who are the only tradeable commodities — and they’re not going anywhere. Chivas USA could move Burling but he’s an average defender, at best. What could they get for him?
      3. The only attendance figure worth anything is the figure from 2006 (19,840), the only year Bradley coached the team. Since 2011, the club has tarped off the upper section of the eastern stands and the northern stands at the Home Depot/StubHub Center.
      4. If Vergara is reluctant to spend money on players or a front-office staff, what makes you think he’ll spend money on a scouting staff?

      Reply
  2. I think the question that needs to be asked (and it probably already has) is how bad of a drain is Chivas USA on MLS?

    One would think that if Chivas USA was doing that terribly under Vergara (and to an outsider, based on the attendance I see on TV and pending lawsuits I read about, it really seems like it is), MLS would find cause to remove Vergara and absorb the team. That hasn’t happened (yet) so are they really doing *that* bad?

    Another thing to look at is their yearly attendance average (according to Wikipedia)

    2005: 17,080
    2006: 19,840
    2007: 14,305
    2008: 15,114
    2009: 16,107
    2010: 14,575
    2011: 14,830
    2012: 13,056

    (Have they released the 2013 figures yet?)

    Stub Hub is a 27,000 seater stadium. These aren’t *horrible* attendance figures and they are a solid foundation to build on. IMO, if they re-branded they could be a success in LA.

    What I would like to know, Chivas USA supporters, is what would you like to see happen to the team?

    Reply
  3. Aside from all the rebrand, relocation, and sell the team talk (trust me, I’m 150% behind this), the question remains — who will the next coach be? I feel like it is going to be a coach who is currently out of the coaching carousel that is Liga MX instead of an assistant here in the MLS or a college coach.

    Jesse Marsch would be a great hire for this team. A disciplined coach who worked for the American Pharaoh in 2010, is loved by the Chiva fan base, has an MLS mind and will place his own stamp on the team the same way Bob did and Preki continued before the team decided to suck… or they can always hire Chiva Fighter.

    Reply
    • i still don’t know why they fired Chelis.. can’t blame him for the less than good 3 months he was there, plus he was in the media a lot. Give him a year or so they could have been something..

      Marsh would be good too. it will probably be the next Chivas Guadalajara journey man youth coach.. again starting out with the worst 16-19 players in MLS + Bocanegra..

      they should just make Carlos the coach!

      Reply
  4. Yes, hire the head coach of an, at best, mediocre league’s second worst team, then hire their personnel director who has gathered the roster for said team by trading away anyone with a European sounding name. I can’t see this going poorly.

    Reply
  5. if you think Chivas USA is a mess, Guadalajara is basically the same thing but with top of the table expectations! good luck all involved. personally i hope to see Guadalajara relegated soon and CUSA, well just move on from this train wreck.

    Reply
  6. Please let this be the beginning of the end of Chivas USA! They’re clearing house to :

    a. rebuild for next season and the perpetuate their mediocrity, or

    b. Move the franchise! Cross ya fangaz.

    Reply
  7. The current mess is also due to the inaction of the MLS and it’s owners as well as the MLS hierarchy.

    All Vergera does is keep shuffling personnel; players, coaches,front office. etc between C_USA and C-Gua, with no continuity and not a care in that these “rebuilding” efforts seem to last forever. Chivas USA is in a continuous state of “rebuilding”. The problem is; they are not really rebuilding. They rotate in from C_Gua, players on the reserve or youth team, or Hispanic players from the US that have little or no experience at a top level.They complement these players with some journeymen MLS players to continue to field a “team”

    What is disturbing is that everyone sees through the charade and the people who can do something about it, either C_USA or the MLS, continue to do nothing.

    The MLS should slap a “distressed franchise” tap on Chivas and do one of several things:

    1) bring in a troubleshooter to make recommendations to Chivas and the MLS on how to straighten up the franchise, and bind Chivas to the recommendations OR

    2) bring in someone to help Vergara sell the team. Forbes has put a book value at 67 M US for the franchise. I’m sure there could be a buyer for , let’s say 70-75M US that would keep the team in the So Cal area OR

    3) Have the MLS “buy back” the franchise for about 70-75M US or about 3.5 to 4M per MLS team, to be payed back when the franchise has a new owner

    Clearly Vergara is unable to field a competitive MLS team using strategies and players from the Liga MX. Even though a lot of the strategies and policies have long been discarded, Chivas USA brand has little or no value in the US market. It is time for a major rebranding of the team that was once called Chivas_USA>

    Reply
  8. Wow crazy stuff. I dont know what to say about chivas usa…..wait i do know what to say.
    How about:
    1.sell the team, but that wont happen because vergara is greedy and evil and stupid
    2. relocate the team, but MLS is to afraid of talking to him close doors. Show up with a gang of lawyers 😉
    3. stay in LA with new owner and rebrand
    4. MLS takes over Chivas USA
    5.I guess stay with vergara and rebrabd in LA
    Facts about the LA soccer market:
    1. LA galaxy do not market the team well and beckham left a hole in their organization
    2. LA does not market to the hispanic,latino, asian, whatever other culture,besides the rich. So bust a ManU roster or real madrid, but with MLS parity good luck.
    3. LA galaxy do no sell out and their stadium is definitely kinda old school and cookie cutter and they need to remodel their stadium or move into downtown, since they got money and need more fans.
    4. LA galaxy dont need a city rival, since they own LA, since no 1st or 2nd, or 3rd generation hispanic or latino will go to their game.
    Crazy question, why not sell chivas usa to that asian smart man who wanted to buy galaxy and AEG. whats the difference.

    Reply
    • You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. The galaxy do a fine job of marketing to all markets in la, from the billboards to the community outreach they do and soccer camps they put on. I along with many other first generation latino /Hispanics are a huge percentage of the fan base.

      Reply
      • Nope, every time i go to vacation to LA and surrounding areas, i dont see nothing of Galaxy or Chivas USA.
        Chivas USA is basically for latinos,hispanics, so it does itself the marketing job.
        LA Galaxy, are like the lakers of soccer in LA, but i dont see nothing when I go.
        For instance, every time i go, i take the double decker from chinese theater to santa monica and back, i dont see practically nothing. I have also been to redondo, hermosa, manhattan, anaheim, orange beach which is close to anaheim and many downtown surrounding areas and the tourist attractions, but i see nothing.
        LA could easily get 30,000 every game but there is no sign or directions of their stadium for tourist. There is no images of galaxy stadium or players.

      • Come on dude. You can’t judge the entirety of both organizations based off of how many billboards you see in the tourist sections of the greater LA area. Well I guess you can, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

      • Hahahahaha.

        The galaxy are lazy and complacent. They sell probably 18-20k tickets each week, and that’s good enough for them. If they can add another 3k in discounted group sales to AYSO and CalSouth, and get another 2k in walk ups…. that’s 24 or 25k… “sweet, lets call it a sellout”

        The Galaxy will never grow until they move past selling tickets and get into selling the brand.

  9. Wow what a train wreck this club is. How does MLS let this continue? Reports of under 500 paid attendance for their final home games. Five HUNDRED.

    Reply
  10. I don’t want the club to leave LA. I just want a completely new ownership group, and for the club to rebrand everything. No more association with Guadalajara…

    Reply
      • David, Los Angeles can’t support two MLS clubs. Chivas USA has *never* drawn particularly well, even during its playoff years. New York might be able to support two clubs, especially given the distance between the Red Bulls and the Manchester City expansion team.

    • I forgot who wrote the article a few months ago, but basically, because of the single-entity nature of the league, Chivas will make money from the Portlands, Seattles, SKC’s, RSL’s, etc who but their asses to make MLS a solid league.

      They just don’t have any incentive to sell at this point it would seem.

      Reply
    • Eugene, perhaps this is what’s happening. Vergara has been stripping the club down to its barest essentials, at best, for the past yar. He’s talked about getting $100M for the team but what potential owner would, in his right mind, pay that much? I think Vergara wants to unload and is trying to make it as appealing as possible for a new owner to bring his own people in.

      Reply

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