Chivas USA bolsters defense by signing U.S. international Heath Pearce

Having lost starting left back Jonathan Bornstein to Tigres of the Mexican league during the Major League Soccer off-season, Chivas USA on Tuesday added some depth to the position by acquiring another U.S. national team defender, Heath Pearce.

Pearce, 26, assisted on six goals in 2010 while helping Dallas win the Western Conference title. Chivas gave up allocation money for the former University of Portland player, who will vie with Canadian international Ante Jazic for the starting role on the left side of the defense in 2011.

Pearce joined Dallas in 2009 after playing professionally in Europe, first with FC Nordsjaelland in Denmark and then with Hansa Rostock in Germany.

In other player moves Tuesday, Chivas USA released three players from its preseason camp in Arizona. They were goalkeeper Kevin Guppy, Canadian defender Curtis Ushedo, who was picked in January's MLS supplemental draft, and midfielder Norberto Ochoa.

Chivas USA lost its second preseason game in a row Tuesday when goals by Jamison Olave and Will Johnson gave Real Salt Lake a 2-0 win in a scrimmage at Casa Grande, Ariz. On Saturday, Chivas USA dropped a 1-0 decision to the Seattle Sounders.

--Grahame L. Jones

Photo: Heath Pearce. Credit: Gus Ruelas / Associated Press.

U.S. to host 2012 men's Olympic qualifying; Chivas USA and Galaxy add players

The U.S has been selected to stage regional qualifying for the men's soccer tournament at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, CONCACAF announced Tuesday.

Qualifying will take place in March in a city or cities to be decided.

Meanwhile, Chivas USA and the Galaxy both added players to their roster Tuesday when Major League Soccer held its 2011 Supplemental Draft.

Chivas USA Coach Robin Fraser selected 21-year-old Sacramento State midfielder Ernesto Carranza with the 22nd overall pick. Carranza, a Mexican citizen, had 113 goals and 114 assists at Oakdale High and then became the all-time assist leader at Sacramento State, scoring 18 goals and adding 20 assists in 82 games.

Fraser also selected Alabama-Birmingham central defender Curtis Ushedo with the 40th overall pick. Ushedo, 21, from Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, is 6 feet 4 and 195 pounds and has trained with Canada's under-23 national team.

Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena had the third overall pick and used it to land Dartmouth midfielder Daniel Keat, 23, from Wellington, New Zealand. Keat was a member of New Zealand's 2008 Olympic team. Arena also chose Stanford defender Ryan Thomas of Claremont (16th overall); North Carolina midfielder Dustin McCarty (34th), the brother of D.C. United midfielder Dax McCarty; and West Virginia goalkeeper Zach Johnson (52nd).

Two Southern California-based players were the top two selections in the Supplemental Draft, with both going to expansion teams. Defender Michael Boxall of UC Santa Barbara was the top player chosen and was taken by the Vancouver Whitecaps. The Portland Timbers made UC Irvine forward Spencer Thompson their first pick and the No. 2 overall.

The 18 MLS teams begin training later this week ahead of the season starting March 15.

--Grahame L. Jones

 

Chivas USA and the Galaxy spring two South American surprises in the MLS draft

 

Chivas USA and the Galaxy both sprung South American surprises in Thursday's Major League Soccer SuperDraft by using their first-round selections to pick up players from Ecuador and Uruguay, respectively.

After taking U.S. under-20 national team defender Zarek Valentin with its first pick and the fourth overall selection in the draft, new Chivas USA Coach Robin Fraser acquired the No. 14 pick in a trade with his former club, Real Salt Lake, and used it to pick forward Victor Estupinan, previously with LDU Quito in Ecuador.

Fraser sent allocation money to Real Salt Lake in order to land the 22-year-old, who was the leading goal scorer for Quito's reserve team last season.

Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena, after making a trade with FC Toronto to acquire former UCLA forward Chad Barrett, used its top pick, No. 16 in the three-round, 54-player draft, to select midfielder Paolo Cardozo, a 21-year-old from Montevideo who has been playing for Quilmes AC in the Argentine second division.

Chivas USA, which finished with the second-worst record in MLS last season behind D.C. United, normally would have had the No. 2 pick as a result, but the addition of the Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers to the league gave those expansion teams the top two picks.

Vancouver used the No. 1 pick to select 17-year-old forward Omar Salgado, who used to play in the youth system of Chivas de Guadalajara. Portland made University of Akron forward Darlington Nagbe its top pick with the No. 2 selection. In all, five Akron players were among the first eight players chosen, including Chivas USA's Valentin.

Midfielder Perry Kitchen, the captain of the U.S. under-20 national team and a player widely regarded as a likely No. 1 pick, along with Nagbe, was snapped up by D.C. United at No. 3.

For complete coverage of Thursday's draft, including reaction from Fraser and Arena, please see www.latimes.com/sports/soccer later today.

-- Grahame L. Jones

Photo: Fourth selection Zarek Valentin of Chivas USA poses for a photo with coaches and front office staff on Jan. 13 at the Baltimore Convention Center. Credit: Ned Dishman / Getty Images.

Galaxy to open 2011 MLS season March 15 at Seattle

The Galaxy, which has never won a season-opener on the road in four attempts, will open the 2011 Major League Soccer season in Seattle against the Sounders on March 15. The team will play its home opener on March 20 in Carson against the New England Revolution.

The league, now at 18 teams with the addition of the Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps, released its list of home openers on Monday.

Each team will play a 34-game schedule, with Portland making its debut on the road in Commerce City, Colo., against the defending champion Colorado Rapids on March 19 and Vancouver playing its inaugural match on the same day at home against Toronto FC.

Chivas USA will open at home on March 19 against Sporting Kansas City, with that day's other home openers featuring Columbus at D.C. United, Seattle at New York, Chicago at Dallas, Philadelphia at Houston and Real Salt Lake at San Jose.

The rest of the home openers feature Kansas City at Chicago, New York at Columbus, Vancouver at Philadelphia, Portland at Toronto, D.C. United at New England and the Galaxy at Real Salt Lake, all on March 26.

Portland's home opener against Chicago at PGE Park will not be played until April 14, while Kansas City will make its home debut in its new KC Soccer Stadium on June 9 against Chicago.

The full MLS scheduled is scheduled to be released in February.

-- Grahame L. Jones

Chivas USA fires coach

Chivas USA has fired coach Martin Vasquez, the team said Wednesday. The decision was made just days after Chivas played listlessly in a season-ending 4-1 loss to the Chicago Fire, its sixth loss in its final seven matches.

In Vasquez's first season as coach the team finished last in the Western Conference with a record of 8-14-4. Chivas also scored a conference-low 31 goals and had the conference's worst goal differential of minus 14.

Vasquez, a high school All-American at Alhambra High who played with both the U.S. and Mexican national teams, was a college assistant as well as the coach at Damien High School before serving as an assistant for both the Galaxy and Chivas. He later worked under Jurgen Klinsmann at FC Bayern Munich before returning to Southern California to take over at Chivas 10 months ago, making him the team's sixth coach in six years.

But the club never found traction under Vasquez, winning just three of its first 13 matches and suffering through a franchise-record six-match losing streak while failing to making the playoffs for the first time in five seasons. A search is expected to being soon for Vasquez's replacement.

--Kevin Baxter

 

 

Chivas USA's Alan Gordon gets two-game suspension

Chivas USA forward Alan Gordon has been suspended for two games and fined $1,00 by Major League Soccer for violent conduct during Saturday night's 3-0 victory over Toronto FC at the Home Depot Center, the league announced Wednesday.

Gordon received a caution from the referees for his actions against Toronto defender Adrian Cann during the 72nd minute of Saturday's game. But the MLS disciplinary committee determined it was violent conduct and a red-card offense.

He will miss the next two matches, Saturday at Seattle and Oct. 20 at San Jose, but should be back for the season finale Oct. 23, when Chivas USA hosts Chicago.

-- Chuck Schilken

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Photo: Alan Gordon of Chivas USA reacts as time expires on a 3-0 loss to the Colorado Rapids on Sept. 4. Credit: Marc Piscotty / Getty Images

Chivas to play Chivas in San Diego as MLS team takes on Mexican power

In a move intended as much to fill its financial coffers as to introduce the two brands to a wider Southern California audience, Major League Soccer's Chivas USA on Thursday announced that it would play Chivas de Guadalajara at Petco Park in San Diego at 8 p.m. on  Sept. 14.

The so-called ChivaClasico is being jointly presented by Soccer United Marketing, an MLS offshoot, and the San Diego Padres.

Guadalajara, an 11-time champion of the Mexican league, features such Mexico World Cup 2010 players as Jonny Magallon, Adolfo Bautista, Alberto Medina and Luis Michel. The game will be the second edition of the ChivaClasico. The teams played at the Rose Bowl last year, with Chivas de Guadalajara winning, 2-0.

-- Grahame L. Jones

David Beckham tops MLS money list ahead of Thierry Henry and Rafael Marquez

Even though he has not played a single second for the Galaxy this season, midfielder David Beckham still tops Major League Soccer's money list with a guaranteed salary of $6.5 million a year.

But Beckham, who is recovering from an Achilles' injury and is unlikely to play a game before next month at the earliest, now has company at the top of the MLS heap, with the recently signed New York Red Bulls pair of Thierry Henry and Rafael Marquez not far behind him.

French forward Henry, a 1998 World Cup winner and 2000 European champion, earns $5.6 million, while Mexican defender Marquez makes slightly less, at $5.56 million.

Those three hold the high ground, with Galaxy forward Landon Donovan fourth on the list released by the MLS Players Union, with a guaranteed annual income of $2.12 million.

Rounding out the top 10 are New York's Colombian forward Juan Pablo Angel at $1.91 million; the Chicago Fire's Mexican midfielder/forward Nery Castillo at $1.78 million; Toronto FC's Canadian midfielder Julian de Guzman at $1.71 million; Chicago's Swedish midfielder Fredrik Ljungberg at $1.31 million; Toronto's Spanish forward Miguel "Mista" Martinez at $987,337, and DC United's Montenegran midfielder Branko Boskovic at $516,200.

The highest-paid American players on the list after Donovan are forwards Taylor Twellman of the New England Revolution at $459,500, Brian McBride of Chicago at $403,333, and Brian Ching of the Houston Dynamo and Conor Casey of the Colorado Rapids, each at $350,000.

The top-earning Chivas USA player is Mexican midfielder Rodolfo Espinoza at $218,500.

-- Grahame L. Jones

Photo: David Beckham. Credit: Mike Stobe / Getty Images.

Chivas USA goalkeeper Kennedy to undergo surgery Friday

Chivas USA goalkeeper Dan Kennedy will have surgery to repair a torn long-head tendon in his left biceps on Friday.

Kennedy was injured Saturday during a 2-1 loss to Toronto FC but finished the game. He was not at practice Thursday and is expected to be replaced by Zach Thornton, who started in Chivas’ first 12 games this season and has been recovering from an ankle injury. 

Earlier this season, Kennedy replaced the injured Thornton to start six games and tally 22 saves.
 
An injury also cost Kennedy an opportunity to challenge Thornton for a starting spot last season when he hurt his knee during a preseason game. Thornton went on to be named MLS goalkeeper of the year.

Chivas USA Coach Martin Vasquez said he was disappointed by the loss of Kennedy.

“Here’s a guy that has contributed a lot to the team, and he was on top of his game and he goes down,” Vasquez said. “Very, very unfortunate.”

-- DeAntae Prince

Bornstein speaks on move to Tigres, Mexican League

Chivas USA defender Jonathan Bornstein tried to answer a reporter’s question in Spanish.

“Yo siente bien para jugar en Mexico (I feel good about playing in Mexico),” Bornstein said. “Umm, I’m looking forward to it.”

He’ll need to work on his Spanish.

After Chivas’ MLS season ends in October, Bornstein will transition into a new role with Mexican First Division club Tigres UANL. Tuesday he spoke about his motivations for signing a four-year pre-contract that will keep him with Tigres through January 2015.   

“I think the level is very high, and that’s one of the reasons I wanted to go there,” Bornstein said. “I want to prove myself and prove my game."

Talks between Bornstein and other clubs began only weeks ago, though the idea of playing in Mexico was one Bornstein said was an option because his mother is from Juarez, Mexico, and it is easy for him to become a citizen of the country.

“I never wanted to close any doors on myself," Bornstein said. "Over the years of my career, Mexico has always been somewhere I spoke with other clubs about interest. There were always ideas of going there.”

In the move, Bornstein will receive an increase in pay from the $100,000 he makes with Chivas, which will be paid to him in American dollars.

Bornstein spoke with a number of players who have participated in the Mexican League before he made the decision. Two he called on were Chivas teammates Paulo Nagumara and Mariano Trujilla, who previously played with Tigres and Atlante.

“They all have enjoyed playing down there, enjoyed the lifestyle, just enjoyed everything about it,” Bornstein said. “That was definitely influential in my decision to go play over there.”

Bornstein said he was excited to start something new, but made it a priority to close the season for the team he has spent the last five years with.

“I wanted to stay to finish out my contract to show Chivas I was committed to the end; I had committed for this long,” Bornstein said.

His career includes time at Cal Poly Pomona,  UCLA and Chivas. It has never led him out of California, with a lengthy stay in Johannesburg, South Africa, for U.S. Soccer's participation in the World Cup being the lone exception.

Bornstein doesn’t believe he has any family who now live in Juarez. He remains interested in his heritage and learning the culture of Mexico. Bornstein also says he’s a lot better at Spanish when reporters don’t pressure him to speak it.

“I can read and write way better because it gives me a chance to think about it,” Bornstein said. “When you’re put on the spot in interviews, it doesn’t bring out my best quality of Spanish.”

-- DeAntae Prince

Photo: Jonathan Bornstein. Credit: Stephen Dunn, Getty Images.

Angels recall pitchers Sean O'Sullivan and Trevor Bell

The Angels have recalled right-handers Trevor Bell and Sean O'Sullivan from triple-A Salt Lake.

O'Sullivan, 23, is expected to start Tuesday night against the Yankees. He has appeared in four games of relief for the Angels this season and has a 1.29 earned-run average in seven innings. For the Salt Lake Bees this season, he started 15 games and has a 5-5 record with a 4.76 ERA and 58 strikeouts.

Bell, 23, has appeared in 14 games of relief for the Angels this season and has a 1-1 record with a 6.38 ERA and 16 strikeouts. He has started six games for the Bees and has a 2-0 record with a 3.00 ERA and 19 strikeouts. 

To make room for them, the Angels designated infielder Paul McAnulty for assignment and optioned outfielder Cory Aldridge to Salt Lake.

-- Debbie Goffa