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Chivas USA add former Charlotte Eagles defender Okiomah

FejiroOkiomahCharlotteEagles1-USLProFinalOrlandoCity (OrlandoSentinel)

By DAN KARELL

With four defenders gone from last year’s squad, Chivas USA has inked their third new defensive signing in the last five days.

Chivas USA announced on Monday that they’ve signed defenderĀ Fejiro Okiomah to their squad for the upcoming season. Okiomah signs as a free agent and spent last season with the Charlotte Eagles of USL Pro, leading the club to the USL Pro final.

Per league and team policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The 23-year-oldĀ Okiomah joins New Zealand international Tony Lochhead and Andrew Ribeiro as defensive signings in the last week. Chivas USA also traded for Andrew Jean-Baptiste in December. Defenders Mario de Luna, Jaime Frias Jr., Edgar Mejia, and Steven Purdy Ramos all left the club since the end of the 2013 MLS season.

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What do you think of this news? Do you see Okiomah fitting into Chivas USA’s starting lineup?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. Facepalm.
    For the umpteenth time, MLS is working inside the Chivas USA front office to help it sign players and build attendance.
    Just listen to What the Flock” or follow @eastlachiva on twitter.

    Reply
    • Lochhead has a nice CV from playing for NZ and being down in the A-League. But I recall the rap on him here was he was glacially slow. He appeared rarely for NER for three years and then left. This is not like Simon Elliott or we just signed Shane Smeltz or something.

      He reminds me of his fellow Kiwi (taller mind you) Andrew Boyens, who somehow fooled a sequence of MLS teams into employing him, which was then re-enforced by NZ callups, except both sets of coaches were buying into a slow, scrawny mirage who couldn’t defend to save his life.

      Reply
      • IV, I gotta say, the fact that you have knowledge of A League player CV’s – not to mention tracking the NZ national team, is humbling. While you’re at it, if you can keep us updated on how the rest of the Guam roster is doing now that AJD has joined them, we’d all appreciate it.

      • They used to show highlights and games on FSC, half hour show, not hard to keep up with the league. It interests me as a sort of incipient MLS with similar pay and roster rules, similar stadia, etc.

        But Boyens, Elliott, and Lochhead have all played here so it’s pretty much MLS knowledge. If the old MLS mock drafts from Lochhead’s time exist on the net still, they’d say what I am saying. Anyone who saw Boyens play for NYRB would say he’s slow too. Not every Kiwi is Simon Elliott, and there’s a reason Mexico drubbed them.

  2. Dear Soccery By Ives,
    Thank you for reminding me that Chivas USA is a thing. I now feel better as a New England Revolution fan.

    Reply
    • Dear Adrian,
      Thank you for reminding us that New England Revolution is a thing. Hard to tell when they play on a field with american football lines.

      Reply
  3. I’m confused with Chivas USA. Have they completely abandoned their idea of fielding Mexican and
    Mexican-American players? What is the point now if they are still called Chivas USA? Just re-brand will you.

    Reply
    • For whatever reason they do seem to be abandoning the racial approach. I’m not going to make fun of that because it’s supposed to be what most of us want.

      That being said, over their history they have gone back and forth with this a few times. The team appears to be more competitive when it’s not closed off; there was a point under Bradley and Preki where it had some talent and bypassed LAG in the city superiority sweepstakes while the other team in town figured out how to win with Beckham and lobbied for rules changes.

      But, the fact that the team has some positive history ignored by the critics doesn’t fix the fact that “Chivas USA” was always a contradiction in terms, as much as Athletic Bilbao USA would be. Particularly with our roster rules how do you have a team whose premise is exclusivity, and the exclusive group is non-USA? You could call them Club America or any other Mexican brand but the idea of an exclusively Mexican brand playing in a US league that limits foreign players was Doomed From The Start. They can never be fully Latin here under our labor laws, discrimination laws, and league rules, but if they bring in Americans or others it’s a compromise of the parent club’s premise. Untenable.

      I’m not a fan of re-branding for the heck of it, but trying to implement this concept here is rising to a legal level in terms of problems and the team’s competitive and fanbase situations are teetering towards terminal.

      Reply

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