Chivas USA opens the season with a new man at the top
On Friday night, Martin Vasquez moves from the warm seat to the hot seat.
His days as an assistant coach are over, and when Chivas USA takes the field in Carson for its Major League Soccer season opener against the Colorado Rapids, Vasquez will do so as the head coach.
So what advice did his longtime friend Jurgen Klinsmann give him? The German World Cup winner and former national team coach kept it short and to the point.
“Make decisions on what’s best for the team and you can always live with that,” Vasquez said Thursday after practice.
Vasquez, 46, already has made a few such decisions.
He has, for instance, brought on board highly rated midfielder Osael Romero, and the El Salvador national team player is expected to not only pull the strings in midfield for Chivas but also to bring new fans to the stadium.
Vasquez likes Romero’s talent but also his toughness and said the 23-year-old is fitting in well. “He’s a young kid, but I think he’s tough,” Vasquez said. “On the field he’s short in stature, but he plays huge.”
Vasquez has also brought in defender Michael Umana, a Costa Rica national team player who, during his only previous season in MLS, was a starter on the Galaxy team that won the league championship in 2005.
“At 27, he has World Cup and Olympics experience,” Vasquez said. “He has won championships in his country and he has MLS experience. So there are a lot of plusses.”
Vasquez has already had to make personnel and tactical decisions. For example, he named his two U.S. international players, Jonathan Bornstein and Sacha Kljestan, as Chivas’ co-captains. He also waived goalkeeper Jon Conway and defender Carey Talley.
Tactically, he has switched Bornstein from being primarily a left back who sometimes plays in the center of the defense to being primarily a central defender who can also play at left back. Bornstein said Thursday that he was satisfied in either role.
“The versatility helps me in terms of being on the field and making the rosters,” he said, pointing out that he has played in central defense for the national team as well, so the move will not hurt his chances of going to the World Cup in June.
Vasquez has also been forced to make some changes because of injuries. Zach Thornton, the league’s goalkeeper of the year in 2009, was injured while in camp with the U.S. team, so Dan Kennedy will start in the nets on Friday night.
Thornton is just about match-fit again, so an intriguing goalkeeper battle looms, especially with former Cuban international Juan Manuel Miranda waiting in the wings as a non-roster player.
In addition, Brazilian forward Maicon Santos has not quite recovered from a strained left knee and that leaves Cuban striker Maykel Galindo as the lone spearhead of the Chivas attack.
Vasquez said the formation is not as important as the reaction of the players on the field.
“You can play with three strikers, but if they don’t get in the box it’s not going to really help,” he said. “You can play with one striker and get in the box with your midfielders or even your outside backs.”
Galindo won’t be carrying the entire load. He will likely have Romero, Kljestan and Jorge Flores pushing forward from midfield, with Michael Lahoud and Marcelo Saragosa also capable of doing so when necessary.
Flores could be the breakthrough player in 2010, with Vasquez already having moved the U.S. under-20 international from a bench role into the starting lineup.
“It’s exciting to be starting,” Flores said Thursday. “Martin has given me the opportunity and I want to take advantage of it and show what I have.”
