RIP Chivas USA

it was either late 2004 or early 2005 somewhere in there but I remember sitting in the waiting room for my orthodontist appointment and then going to the magazine rack and picking up a Sports Illustrated for kids and the first page I opened - there was this tiny blurb on the bottom of the page that read MLS expansion to new teams Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA now we had taken a family ski trip vacation to Salt Lake City a few years back just before the oats who will Impa games and I thought it was awesome that Salt Lake City was getting their own soccer team but Chivas USA now that confused me cuz like Chivas what does that mean I've never heard of that city but then I remembered oh yeah Chivas they're a Mexican team and the MLS all-stars played Chivas one year now I was a kid back then and the way my stupid little brain interpreted it was that that Chivas team was joining MLS which I know it sounds dumb but like I was really confused back then actually all these years later I was still kind of confused because Chivas USA is one of the weirdest chapters of the MLS story you know what hold on a second this doesn't feel right okay that's better it all starts with this guy Jorge regatta I've seen Google described him as a Mexican businessman but that's really selling him short he went from selling tacos on the streets of Guadalajara to selling condominiums to smuggling Herbalife products across the border yet the same company on the front of the galaxy jerseys to founding his own health product company grupo Omni life to becoming a film producer wait hold on what yeah before he was owning and running soccer teams he was a film producer and like a pretty legit one being named by variety magazine one of the 10 movie producers to watch in 2002 after a success with the movie e tu mama tambien sidenote I had to watch that movie as part of a college class it's interesting I'll leave it at that if you don't want to watch the movie just read the plot synopsis and you'll know what I'm talking about and then in 2002 he bought Chivas a historic club in Mexico but one were the golden era of the 50s and 60s where they won eight titles in fourteen years were long gone since winning the league title in 1969 1970 Chivas had only won two more titles since then in 86 87 and Verano 1997 and the team was also badly in debt but vergata didn't just want to return to winning in Mexico no he had much higher aspirations for Chivas both on and off the field he wanted Chivas to reach levels they've never reached before he didn't just want to be the biggest brand in Mexico no I think he wanted to be mentioned in the same sentence as like Manchester United and Barcelona he want to achieve us to be among the biggest clubs in the world so one of the first things he did to promote the Chivas brand was enter MLS after his Chivas squad played in the MLS all-star game in o3 he announced at a for that Chivas would be forming a mr. Club that would be playing in Los Angeles dubbed Chivas USA now I think it's easy to fast-forward to the end and see that Chivas USA clearly doesn't work out and then laugh and cringe at that team and also over gotta but if we could just pause for a second and recognize his ambition I mean here's a local guy just trying to make the Chivas brand an international power yeah it didn't work out for Chivas USA but damn like you got to give the guy props for trying and I think a lot of people forget just how good this team was in the first five years of existence well okay not the first year 2005 they were legitimately awful that first season like in the discussion of worst MLS team ever with just four wins six draws and 22 losses their top goal scorer that year hector quadros with just four goals and a 21 year old Brad Guzan still with hair gave up 46 goals in 23 games which honestly given how bad the rest of the team was it wasn't horrible 2006 their second season the team hires Bob Bradley as head coach yeah that Bob Bradley he leads them to 11 wins a playoff spot and he wins coach of the year two years in they were doing better than their expansion brother RSL but they did get knocked out in the first round of the playoffs by eventual champs Houston Dynamo 2007 year three was their best year yet Bob Bradley leaves for the US Men's National Team and in comes MLS legend Preki as the new head coach they finished that season with 53 points which was not just first in the West but just two points behind the supporters shield winner DC United yes Chivas USA were just 2 points away from a supporter shield it also meant that when David Beckham joined the LA Galaxy at the time he joined the second best team in LA but once again chivas couldn't get it done in the playoffs losing in the first round 1-0 by a long-range free-kick goal to curtain all fo and the Kansas City Wizards now how do you finish second overall in the standings and then lose to Kurt annul foe like what chibok see what's able to make the playoffs again in oh wait no nine but again be knocked out in the first round so yeah this team never got it done in the playoffs but let's not totally discredit how much talent was on this team I already mentioned Brad Guzan but Chivas USA also started the careers of Sascha question and jonathan boards team and finished the careers of Jesse Marsch ante Razov Zach Thornton and Claudio Suarez we can't forget about Francisco palencia I mean dude was a beast he finished his career in Liga MX after playing for Chivas USA oh we can't forget about the current Chicago Fire head coach Rafael Wicky he played for Chivas USA even if it was only for five games after 2009 Chivas USA never made the playoffs again and there was a noticeable drop in talent on the roster it seemed like every big name they tried to bring over ended up kind of flopping in the end Juan Pablo on hell Juan Agudelo yes he was a big name back in the day Alejandro Moreno I mean that's kind of a big name okay so there weren't that many big names that came over but even still the ones that did come over none of them really panned out but they did have Kubo tourists at the end and he was awesome the managers yeah none of them really worked out either after Preki in the ten years that Chivas USA was a thing they had eleven different managers now actually mikata had the same issue with Chivas de Guadalajara he changed coaches 28 times in 17 years yeah Chivas coach not exactly the most stable job out on the market and that's a very legitimate gripe on Vergara as an owner there's a reason he only won two league titles with Chivas Guadalajara a pitcher of 2006 and closed Ohta 2017 and a couple Copa MX titles ana Kaka have Champions League but Chivas they were never the powerhouse the true Giants of Mexico as he added visioned because I mean how can you possibly be consistently good when you consistently change managers it just doesn't work same deal with Chivas USA but a couple losing seasons in a revolving door of head coaches that's not why Chivas USA folded I believe this team was doomed from the start because their whole concept was flawed and it's not for lack of effort by Vergara I mean he hung up multiple billboards across Los Angeles advertising for Chivas USA but it didn't matter and it wouldn't have mattered if Chivas won an MLS Cup or a couple supporter shields or whatever because Chivas was always going to be the second most popular team in LA after the galaxy and they would have instantly become the third most popular team if LA would have gotten a third professional soccer team yeah it's announced as a sister Club but come on we all know what it really is it was a minor league team and finding support for a minor league team and a top division league well that's gonna be pretty tough to do I know NYC FC and Manchester City they have similarities to Chivas USA and Chivas Guadalajara but at least NYC FC still have their own identity and it is important to note that Chivas wasn't that bad in attendance as far as MLS is concerned in the years they made the playoffs oh six 209 they averaged over 16,000 fans for the regular season and over 19,000 fans for playoff games it wasn't until 2013 that the attendance started to freefall and after that season MLS bought Chivas USA from vergata and began looking for buyers but there weren't any takers honestly I don't think they were look too hard on October 27th 2014 Chivas USA had officially ceased operations and went out of business the last season they only averaged over 7,000 fans and that's if the numbers are accurate which well we all know they're not accurate all the time that's kind of the last image we see of them that's how a lot of us remember Chivas USA a bad team playing in an empty stadium but it wasn't always that bad however do I think they hit their peak yeah I do there is absolutely no shot this team would have ever overtaken the galaxy in LA and there's no chance they would be filling up that Stadium you see Chivas USA had a philosophy they wanted to win over the Latino population in Los Angeles that was their target audience coming from Chivas it's really not that big of a surprise because Chivas Guadalajara only has Mexican players on their team and Chivas USA while it's not as strict as only having Mexican players they did tend to feature more Latino players than other clubs in Major League Soccer now I know this is gonna be my controversial hot egg for the video and I really hope I don't lose any subscribers over this but I'm just gonna come right out and say it Chivas USA specifically targeting the Latino population for their fan base is not that bad of an idea the Hispanic and Latino populations make up nearly 50% of the total population in Los Angeles winning over that demographic and you can be the most popular team in LA now firing youth coaches for not being Latino saying if you don't speak Spanish go coach the galaxy and causing a big lawsuit uh no I am NOT for that I don't think it's a bad strategy by either vergata or MLS to target this demographic I don't think it's racist or disparaging I mean again like firing youth coaches for not being Latino yes that discriminatory no I don't agree with that but just targeting a fanbase no I don't think there's anything wrong with that in fact I think that's a good business move but the problem with this strategy is what you call yourselves Chivas USA because what happens if you're a club America supporter or a Toluca supporter or a Pachuca supporter or a Monterey supporter or a tigress supporter or a chrome guy you get my point it's not a stretch for me to say if you are Mexican and you are a soccer fan there's a good chance you're already a supporter of a Liga MX team and that's fine people follow multiple leagues people support teams from different leagues all the time but if you are interested in supporting an MLS team are you gonna support one of your rivals from Liga MX oh probably not Chivas USA could not possibly win over the Latino population because the name Chivas alienated every other fan base of Liga MX teams and even though Chivas de Guadalajara has a massive fan base all across the United States it's not guaranteed that they would all be Chivas USA fans because again Chivas USA is a minor league team it's like okay I'm a basketball fan I'm a huge Milwaukee Bucks fan Yanis is to go knuck if you buck let it fly fear the deer but like I have never once watched the Wisconsin herd the NBA d-league affiliate for the Milwaukee Bucks because like I don't know I've never wanted to like I don't I guess I've just always had all the things to do than to watch minor league basketball and I know I'm not the only one like this just look at the attendances for MLS two sides in USL they're not exactly spectacular but for goddes whole plan was to promote the Chivas brand so of course it wasn't gonna be called anything else you know it's one of those things where you say it out loud it doesn't sound like that bad of an idea yeah form a sister Club in the region's next biggest league but then you see the plan in action and then you see it's really obvious that this wasn't a good idea at all and was destined for failure now vergata has done a lot of things right with the Chivas brand I mean since taking it over he has quintupled the value of this team but if you don't know what quintupled means don't worry I had to look it up to basically the brand is now worth five times as much as when he first bought the team in 2002 so yes he has succeeded in elevating this bread he has succeeded in making Chivas bigger than it's ever been before honestly I don't know if Chivas USA had any impact on that number I don't know if Chivas USA really made any new fans of Chivas Guadalajara with that being said do I feel bad about the fans of Chivas USA that lost their team yeah I do I feel awful for them but it's kinda awkward I mean any time a city is threatened with losing a team whether it be by contraction or by relocation it's gonna cause a lot of drama I mean think about the absolute firestorm that Anthony Precourt phase from matches Columbus fans not just fans from every other MLS team but also all of the media members when he tried to move the crew to Austin it's incredibly controversial any time a city might lose their team but Chivas USA was the only time I have ever seen in any sport where the overwhelming majority of fans across the league were in favor of contracting the club people did not want Chivas USA in MLS and I think it's because most people just didn't like the feeling of having a minor-league team in the top division playing in front of less than 8,000 fans in the same stadium as another team that averages over 20,000 fans in the second-largest market of the US I mean how is MLS supposed to catch up to Liga MX when MLS has mightier league teams of Liga MX I'll say it again Chivas USA was a weird chapter in MLS the superclásico pretty entertaining it had its moments I think el tráfico is better as I think pretty much everything else about LA FC is better than Chivas USA so yeah I think it was definitely the right call to close up shop on the goats and so I say rest in peace Chivas USA but also rest in peace Jorge Vergara he passed away November 2019 in New York City from a heart attack while his experiment in Major League Soccer may have fallen a bit short no one can deny the impact he's had on Chivas Guadalajara and he will be remembered forever I hope you enjoyed the video said starting this YouTube channel about a year ago recipes Chivas USA has been the most requested video topic so I'm glad to have finally gotten to it and remember if you're an MLS fan or just curious to find out more about the league subscribe for more MLS content and let me know what you want to see what do you want in the future and thank you for watching you

Channel: DannyTRadio

Views: 86,140

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Id: cWl88ydb4eo

Length: 18min 29sec (1109 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 13 2020