Chivas USA Defeat Loyola Marymount 4-0

Chivas USA suffered a pretty bad loss a couple days back against Club Tijuana, but they got back in the saddle during their preseason training and hosted Loyola Marymount University this morning at the Home Depot Center. The Goats defeated the Lions 4-0. Casey Townsend opened the scoring in the 10th minute, followed by trialist Alan da Silva Souza in the 19th minute. Townsend got his second goal of the match in the 40th minute, and new signing Cesar Romero finished the scoring off in the 48th minute on a penalty kick.

On one hand, the fact that the two newest forwards on the team have been scoring pretty regularly in preseason is a promising sign for Chivas. Counting on Alejandro Moreno and Juan Pablo Angel for the bulk of the scoring load is rather risky, so if Townsend and/or Romero can get off to a hot start it will be useful for the team. On the other hand, it's one thing to score freely against college teams and lower league teams in friendly scrimmages - making the step up to competitive league matches is a different matter.

Here was the starting lineup for Chivas today: Patrick McLain; Matt Dallman, David Junior Lopes, Rauwshan McKenzie, Mario Ledezma; Ben Zemanski, Alejandro Moreno, Jose Manuel Najera, Alan da Silva Souza; Casey Townsend, Cesar Romero

As you can see, this was a trialist-heavy lineup today, which isn't surprising as the front office needs to make roster decisions soon. We were aware of McLain, Ledezma, Najera, and Souza already, but the newest trialist is Dallman, who as far as I can tell, has bounced around Europe and played for Arminia Bielefeld in Germany at one point. It is a familiar story for American players, who have skills but fall through the cracks abroad and have to restart their careers back home. We'll see if Dallman sticks beyond this, but the team could use some fullback depth.

Subs in the match were Brian Rowe for McLain at the break, Chris Cortez in for Romero in the 52nd minute, Marky Delgado for Zemanski in the 69th minute, Assistant coach Greg Vanney in for Najera in the 72nd and Eric Gonzalez in for Townsend, also in the 72nd.

It seems like Townsend and Romero are both ahead of Cortez in the pecking order at this point. But once the games start to count, that depth chart order may change.

Looking ahead, Chivas will travel up to Portland for the Timbers' preseason tournament. Their first match will come against Swedish side AIK Monday at 5 pm. From what I understand, MLS' website will offer a stream of matches from the tournament, but I'll get confirmation of that and the details of it.

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