Ante Razov told me on Saturday that he thought he'd be able to play against New York this week. So far, he hasn't been playing in any preseason scrimmages because he's been kept on a slower pace than the rest of the team. Still,he's not exactly sweating it.
One interesting thing he said was that this team is better at this point of the season than it was a year ago. At first, I didn't pay any attention to it because it seems like they lost a lot in the offseason. But when I thought more about it, I think he's right. A year ago, there was so much uncertainty that most people around the league were thinking Chivas would be a failure yet again. They had stupidly traded away Marvell Wynne and had big holes everywhere on the field. And Jonathan who-stein? Huh? Who's that?
Now, the team is much more stable than in the 2006 preseason. Claudio Suarez knows the league now. Jonathan Bornstein and Sacha Kljestan both have a lot of room to grow and develop. Panchito Mendoza will emerge as one of the league's better players. And there are signs that depth will be far improved than in 2006.
There are question marks about the forward pairing but there were question marks last year as well.
I think Chivas is going to be alright this year and with the Galaxy looking like a title contender it should be a great year for soccer out here.
2 comments:
I might be giving Paco Palencia and too much credit, but I can't share your optimism about Chivas USA yet. I think Amado over Loquito is an upgrade, but I don't think they've found anyone to replace Paco as a consistent strike partner for Razov. That puts a lot of pressure on Razov, and that's a lot of ask of slightly older and injury-prone forward.
Ah, A.C. I guess life would be boring if our sideline views were the same.
I think everyone has to consider that Sacha Kljestan, Jonathan Bornstein and Francisco Mendoza will be better than they were a year ago, especially the first two. Klejstan had zero goals a year ago. Once he scores a goal or two he could take off like Bornstein did last season.
For all his worth to the team, Paco only scored four goals. Yes, he helped lure defenders away from Razov and the team didn't find a replacement for him when Paco was hurt last year but Maykel Galindo and John Cunliffe weren't around a year ago. Between the three of them, they could score 18 goals.
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