The Chivas USA Goats are in utter turmoil under the eyes of Jorge Vergara and wife Angelica Fuentes, and are in desperate need of an overhaul in how they operate.
As the 2014 MLS season approaches, The L.A Galaxy and Chivas USA Los Rojiblancos (The Red and White and they are known by many of their fans) engaged in a closed-door scrimmage, ending in a 2-2 draw yesterday.
But there is far more than just a scrimmage to discuss. From a general standpoint the Galaxy and Chivas USA represent two different spectrums for soccer in the City of Angels.
The Galaxy, rich with talent, star power, national recognition and most importantly, championships (5).
The Goats on the other hand (rather fitting nickname the last three years), constantly mired in levels even below mediocrity, a revolving door for doomed coaches, lackluster on-field products and even civil suits lashed against the controversial club.
It has been a steep, slippery slope for Chivas USA under Vergara and Fuentes, having not won more than eight games in a season in over four years, missing the playoffs each time.
Which leads into the three reasons why Los Rojiblancos needs to find new ownership and fast before they completely fall off the L.A map entirely.
1) Continued failure on the pitch/Extremely short leashes for coaches.
With Chivas finishing last year with their lowest win total (6-20-8) since their inaugural season in 2005, along with mounting cases of civil suits labeled against them, the Goats are about as attractive to a free agent as it is spending a week in those makeshift hotels in Sochi for this year’s Winter Olympics.
There have been 10 head and interim coaches that have led the Goats and have been removed in only nine seasons (not counting this year’s coach Wilmer Cabrera). No Manager has escaped Vergara’s wrath.
2) Embroiled in civil lawsuits for alleged personnel discrimination.
There have been three different civil suits against Chivas USA, specifically around the accusations of the plaintiffs not being Latino or having the ability to speak Spanish.
The lawsuits began last May when two white academy coaches Daniel Calichman and Theothoros Chronopoulos were fired by Chivas because they weren’t Latino or specifically Mexican.
The third lawsuit came in August of 2013 when former human resources manager Cynthia Craig, who is black, cited harassment from Vergara and Chivas President Jose David due to her not being able to speak Spanish.
Craig also accused Chivas of hiring four coaches who were Mexican and were not legally authorized to work in the United States.
Now it’s one thing to get one disgruntled employee trying to make a buck from a major organization, but with three different people filing accusations of discrimination in the workplace, that’s a big problem.
3) Too much emphasis on Latin personnel/culture.
This is a huge problem that would make anyone who isn’t Latino or speak Spanish run far away from The Goats and go elsewhere. Vergara and Fuentes are singlehandedly eliminating other ethnicities on their personnel except bilinguals or full-blown Latinos.
That takes away so many candidates who might have been interested in turning around this failing organization who doesn’t know how to check their pride at the door and be willing to work with non-Latino personnel who could help them win.
It be like the Boston Celtics only signing and playing white players. It would be nearly certain that would cause a major uproar throughout the U.S. The same applies here.
So until there is change, Vergara’s so-called “little brother” to C.D Guadalajara (who only field Mexican players) will continue to flounder in the bottom of the MLS in the standings and in national relevancy.
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