Chivas shows its defensive cards in win over Vancouver

The Vancouver Whitecaps are still a month away from their first regular-season MLS game, so it’s early to even call the club “a work in progress.” But Chivas USA, trying to recover from a disastrous season under former coach Martin Vasquez, is showing strongs signs of what we should expect from the club in the regular season. Chivas beat the Whitecaps 1-0 in a training match in Casa Grande, Ariz. on Friday, as Jesus Padilla beat Vancouver keeper Jay Nolly with a last-gasp strike. While Whitecaps coach Teitur Thordarson used a lineup that likely won’t come close to what fans will see March 19 when the club opens the season at home to Toronto, new Chivas coach Robin Fraser is going to put substance over style— after Vasquez tried to up the entertainment value last season, but ended up creating a team that bled goals. He will likely try to revert to the defence-first club that it was under Preki’s reign. Fraser deployed a 4-1-4-1 formation, and the key is the rebuilt backline — which is likely close to what we will see the Goats use in the regular season. University of Akron first-rounder Zarek Valentin, MLS veteran Jimmy Conrad, Canadian Ante Jazic and new right back Heath Pearce started the game.

Of the four, only Jazic was with Chivas last season. The majority of Chivas’ moves were made to shore up the backline. Pearce, who played in the 2009 Gold Cup for the U.S. and was part of the U.S. camp for the 2010 World Cup, but didn’t make the roster. But, in a cost-cutting move, he was traded by FC Dallas to Chivas earlier this week for allocation money. It doesn’t take long to rebuild in MLS; and it looks like Chivas is moving towards being the kind of club that wants to play 1-0 soccer that we knew and didn’t necessarily love when it was a playoff team in 2007, 2008 and 2009. Friday’s preseason game was likely more illuminating for Chivas supporters than it was for Whitecaps fans.