Sometime early in the season, when the newness had not worn out yet, it became painfully clear that Chivas USA needed an injection of talent and experience.
The club got just that in Juan Pablo Garcia, who signed on July 2 but was not able to play until Aug. 22. The first of the club's four reinforcements, Garcia was hailed as a coup for the club and gave Major League Soccer another talented foreigner to raise the league profile.
With the expansion team's first season nearing its finale, Garcia has wet his lips and whet his appetite for success. The season was all but a lost cause by the time "El Loquito" stepped onto an MLS field for the first time, so in essence the eight games he has played so far served both as a crash course in MLS 101 as well as an extended and early 2006 training camp.
"Next season is our motivation. We know that in soccer you always get a chance for revenge and next year we'll get it," Garcia said. "We'll learn from this season. We'll carry it over into next year and we'll be the protagonists then."
Garcia said he did not feel any extra burden from being a big-name reinforcement who many had hoped would help turn the season around.
"This is a team and as such we all win or lose together," Garcia said. "We are trying to do the best possible for this team but we are really frustrated because the team has played well, we have gotten scoring chances and something happens and we're left with a bad taste in our mouths."
Like most who have donned the Red-and-White, Garcia has had some time to adjust. While in Mexico, Garcia was no stranger to goals, having scored 25 goals since becoming a fixture in the lineup for CF Atlas in the Clausura 2003. In MLS, however, he has scored just one goal in eight starts.
An adjustment period was to be expected however, given the change of systems and responsibilities and, most importantly, leagues.
"It's not like in Mexico," Chivas forward Antonio Martinez said. "In Mexico, he was (freer) to stay up there and be the last guy in the attack and now Paco (Palencia) is that guy. He's still going to score his goals and everything. I think the biggest thing that he has to learn is that teams don't give you anything in this league. You've got to take it from them."
Garcia, 23, has been learning the ins and outs of the league and his time here has not been spent in vain.
"I am happy here," said Garcia, who reportedly joined the club on a five-year deal. "This is a learning process. We need to take the good with the bad. I am learning a lot here. For me, it is valuable to be here."
Garcia, who made his Mexican national team debut during the CONCACAF Gold Cup in July, has learned from his teammates and the coaching staff. Club officials point to him as one of the building blocks, someone to help carry Chivas to the next level.
Though success has not come at a geometric rate, it will come in due time, teammates said.
"He has that mentality that he wants to come here and tear this league apart. He wants to score a bunch of goals and do great things," Martinez said. "It's also up to us to teach him a little bit that this league is very physical, that you've got to do a lot of running especially in the position he's playing right now."
Something that has frustrated Garcia has been dealing with the losing. Chivas sits with 21 losses in 31 games, and just four wins and six draws. A win in the season finale Sunday against the MetroStars could help the Red-and-White pass Real Salt Lake in the table; otherwise, Chivas USA will have gone close to the entire season in dead last.
Still, Garcia does not see the gap between Chivas and the rest of the league as immense.
"We have not lost because we are worse than our opponents. We are absolutely not worse than our opponents," Garcia said. "We've been playing good soccer lately. We've been creating offense. We've had numerous chances. It's been a little difficult knowing that we've played good enough to win but for some reason or another we haven't."
A year from now, it might well be a different story for Chivas and Garcia might be the one to lead them to glory.
"I will raise my level of play. I have to," Garcia said. "This is a competitive league and it's all new to me. Sooner or later I will get there."
Motivation also comes in personal goals, as Garcia has never kept his dream of playing in the Old World a secret.
"I have it as a personal goal to improve here for my sake as well as the team's sake," Garcia said. "I need to improve so I can get to Europe. I have learned a lot here. I am learning a lot here so that when the time is right I can play in a different country."
Luis Bueno is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
