Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Chivas USA update

The rumors in Mural about changes with Chivas are just rumors, a source clarified. Nothing is certain but there could be some players headed this way.

Now, as often happens when there are reports breaking from Guadalajara about movements at Chivas USA, it is seemingly only confirmed when either the player shows up here in person. There have been so many players who were reportedly joining the club or on their way only to have nothing transpire.

With that, the names tossed out were Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez, Arturo "Zulito" Ledesma and Jesus "Gringo" Padilla. On an aside, it's kind of funny and ironic that part of this move is to help give Chivas USA more Mexican players and Padilla is included in the mix, and although Padilla is, by his own admission, more Mexican than cactus he is also an American.

If they do come, you may need to know more about them. So here's a quick tidbit on each player.

Javier Hernandez was on Mexico's Under-20 team at the 2007 U-20 World Cup. Hernandez has played in 21 games for Chivas and has one goal in that time. He's never really piled up the goal scoring stats but did have four goals in nine games for Tapatio a couple of years ago. Hernandez has played in InterLiga, SuperLiga, CONCACAF Champions Cup, Copa Sudamericana and Copa Libertadores games as well as regular-season games for Chivas.

Arturo Ledesma was a teammate of Hernandez's in the 07 Under-20 World Cup. Ledesma is a six-foot-tall defender who comes from proven bloodlines. His dad Javier was a longtime goalkeeper for Chivas and served as goalkeeper coach for Chivas USA in 2005. Ledesma has also played in Copa Sudamericana and Copa Libertadores for Chivas.

Jesus Padilla is possibly the most interesting and likely one of the bunch to join and possibly stick around. Chivas USA brass - a group that included Preki - was after Padilla a year ago, before the start of the 2008 preseason, but Chivas chose to keep him in Guadalajara. However, with the arrival of Jared Borgetti as a Libertadores ace, Padilla's stock and demand have fallen and the club might be willing to loosen their grip on the San Jose, Calif., native.

As far as the coaching stuff goes, there seems to be no truth to the part about Preki leaving. As I said last night, the coaching moves that happen here, happen here. Those sorts of decisions are made in Carson, and as far as anyone can tell such a decision to let Preki go hasn't been made and probably won't be made anytime soon.

I'll do some more digging and see if I come up with anything more.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

the only good thing about this update for Chivas USA Finally Jesus "El Gringo" Padilla will be playing in American Soil and probably Bob Bradley can see him play and maybe call him for later on to the USNMT. Other than that I don't care and I don't give a F about the other guys, I'm a Galaxy. But the good thing is that they are young Mexican and not a wash up players.