The ‘ChivaClasico’ took place at the Rose Bowl in front of an outstanding crowd of just over 20,000! Can you believe it? I can’t. Chivas have not been performing so it was surprising that people went to see them play. Nevertheless, the original Chivas won the game 2-0. As visitors the original Chivas wore the horrible orange away kits and let Chivas USA wear the traditional stripes.

Oh, and Marco Fabian made an incredible fool out of himself.

Unfortunately, videos of that incident are unavailable at the moment. Basically he tried to take it with his right foot, completely missed, and fell right in front of goal.

Guadalajara
1 Luis Michel
6 Omar Esparza
4 Héctor Reynoso
3 Aarón Galindo
20 Édgar Mejía
5 Patricio Araujo
7 Gonzalo Pineda
18 Sergio Amaury Ponce
18 Xavier Báez
8 Marco Fabián
99 Omar Bravo
DT Raúl Arias

Segundo Tiempo
1 Luis Michel
19 Jonny Magallón
2 Mario de Luna
4 Héctor Reynoso
11 Ramón Morales
20 Édgar Mejía
6 Omar Esparza
5 Patricio Araujo
8 Marco Fabián
9 Omar Arellano
99 Omar Bravo

Chivas USA
14 Jon Conway
12 Carey Talley
4 Shavar Thomas
2 Claudio Suárez
23 Bojan Stepanovic
10 Jesús Andrés Padilla
5 Paulo Nagamura
55 Marcelo Zaragoza
16 Sacha Kljestan
29 Maicon Santos
11 Maykel Galindo
DT Preki

So there were basically two different teams for both halves.

Here are the highlights:

Chicharo didn’t travel with the team because of the clash over the weekend. He’s still recovering and so far it’s been reported that nothing serious is wrong with his head.

And…..Chivas has some players called up for the friendly against Colombia!

Johnny Magallon
Pato Araujo
Omar Arellano
Javier ‘Chicharo’ Hernandez

I’m not sure how, but Aguirre saw something in these guys over the current weeks.

All I’ve got to say is…poor Magallon. He got married this summer and was immediately whisked away for the Gold Cup.

And…this would have been the PERFECT time for Michel’s call up to the national team. He hasn’t been doing too well lately, but why not give him the opportunity? This is one player that clearly deserves it.

So what has gone on during that time? Well, Panchito Mendoza will no longer be with Chivas. The former Chivas USA has gone to Jaguares despite being told that he was not on the transfer list. “Zully” Ledesma has loaned out to Necaxa who will be trying to get back into the Liga with the help from Omar Arellano Sr.

A few friendlies have been played, but there are plenty more coming up, as well as the full schedule for the Apertura.

June

27 Venados in Merida

July

4 Xoloitzcuintles in Tijuana
10 Heracles Almelo(Netherlands) in Beckhum(Netherlands)
12 Sivasspor(Turkey) in Deventer(Netherlands)
16 PAOK Saliniki(Greece) in Bocholt(Germany)

August

8 FC Barcelona in California at Candlestick Park(San Francisco)

Sooooo…if you happen to be near any of these places be sure to support Chivas. It’ll be interesting to play Barca with them being the top team in the world, so we’ll see how that goes. I might have to take a trip to that game.

This will be our schedule for the Apertura 2009. Every Jornada in order except Jornada 3

7/26 Toluca vs Chivas
8/1 Chivas vs Tigres

8/15 Chivas vs Queretaro
8/22 Atlante vs Chivas
8/29 Chivas vs Pachuca
9/6 Puebla vs Chivas
9/12 San Luis vs Chivas
9/19 Chivas vs Jaguares
9/27 Pumas vs Chivas
10/3 Chivas vs Monterrey

10/10 Estudiantes vs Chivas<—This is supposed to be Jornada 3 but was changed for the game against Barca

10/18 Santos vs Chivas
10/24 Chivas vs América
11/1 Morelia vs Chivas
11/4 Chivas vs Indios
11/7 Atlas vs Chivas
11/14 Chivas vs Cruz Azul

Guadalajara

1 Luis Michel
17 Amaury Ponce (Omar Esparza 46′)
20 Edgar Mejía (Javier Hernández 78′)
4 Héctor Reynoso
29 Juan Ocampo (Gonzalo Pineda 46′)
16 Edgar Solís (Francisco Mendoza 46′)
18 Javier Báez (Marco Fabián 60′)
5 Patricio Araujo
11 Ramón Morales (Sergio Ávila 60′)
10 Alberto Medina
27 Carlos Ochoa (Jesús Padilla 78′)

DT Efraín Flores

Necaxa

1 Ivan Vázquez
14 Mario Pérez (Omar Hernández 46′)
2 Pablo Quattrocchi
19 Fernando López
11 Diego Cervantes (Edgar Solano 80′)
8 Germán Villa (Alejandro Castillo 86′)
6 Joel González
23 Eduardo Coudet
20 Pablo Gabas (Marco Gómez 28′)
9 Alfredo Moreno
10 Víctor Piriz
DT Raúl Arias

There were about 10,000 people there to watch the game but the atmosphere was still great.

Michel’s refelxes are still ever present even after the injury that kept him out all of the Apertura. The new boys work well too. Ochoa scored a goal in the 11th after a bad clearence from Nexaca gave us the opportunity to control the action.

In the 20th Necaxa scored putting the game on level terms and ressuring Las Chivas more.

The second half saw many changes and the game was underway again.

In the 58th Victor Piriz elbowed Reynoso in the head and that gave him a red card. The Necaxa player wasn’t to happy with that decision and refused to leave the field for several minutes and the crowd became restless as the action was stopped.

Then in the 69th Marco Fabia shot the ball with a lot of force into the top left corner of the goal and Chivas were 2-1 up.

Not much happened in the rest of the game. German Villa of America fell down with leg cramps and the crowed produced loud ‘boos’ while he was being treated. But, did he expect any other treatment?

Amaury Ponce played well the first half until he was taken off.

Carlos Ochoa was ok and scored the first goal but besides that he wasn’t connecting much with the ball up front.

Francisco Mendoza(the man from Chivas USA) impressed me the most. He played with alot of heart and went after every ball. He didn’t give up on challeneges and provided some good crosses. He’s not up to full fitness yet and that’s not surprising since MLS finished in October but if we end up keeping him he’ll be a very good addition to the team. Hopefully, he impressed Efrain Flores as much as he impressed me. Plus, he has very bouncy hair.

I’ll try to put up pictures and videos up when I get back home as I am on vacation right now, but you’ll be able to hear all the fans as they scream at the goalie, clap, sing, and do the Mexican wave.
The next game will be against Tecos on Tuesday 30th in the 3 de Marzo Stadium.

First, on Tuesday it was announced the Carlos Ochoa would be joining Chivas on loan from Monterrey for the InterLiga, Clausura 2009, and Apertura 2009. For Ochoa this would be the 8th shirt he wear in Mexican futbol. We’ll see how it goes and at the end of the year we have the option to buy him.

Guess what?! Arellano is joining the team. We already have him, you say? That’s crazy. Well, you’re right. I’m talking about Omar Arellano Nuño, the current players’ daddy. He’s spent some time in Spain with Atleti and Javier Aguirre and now he’s come back to join the technical team. Mini-Arellano said that the relationship on the team would not be of father and son, but of two professionals. He also said he is happy to have his father there because they have never been able to work together. This will be an interesting relationship to watch develop.Hopefully, Mini’s goals will increase thanks to help by Dad. Besides, two Omar Arellano’s can always be better than one, right?

On December 22 there will be a charity match for the young kids of Iraq in Milan, Italy organized by La Organización Mundial por la Paz. Omar Arellano and Guillermo Ochoa of America were both invited to play in the match and Arellano was guaranteed 10 mins of playing time. The reason for inviting these two was to show that the football rivalry can transcend and help those in need and they were both chosen as the Mexican representatives. Efrain, told him no. The reasoning? Chivas are in preseason training and allowing Arellano to go would ruin some of the work planned and both agree the team comes first. Some of the world’s greatest stars will be at the match and an oldies game played by the stars of the 90’s will be played beforehand and will feature Jorge Campos. Some of the current stars set to play?
Carles Puyol, David Beckham, Iván Córdoba, Alessandro Nesta, Roberto Abondanzieri, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Alessandro del Piero, Drogba, Ronaldinho, Ronaldo, Raúl González, Steven Gerrard, Carlos Tévez, Francesco Totti, Javier Zanetti, Álvaro Recoba, Paolo Maldini.
Too bad, it would have been a great opportunity.