CARSON, Calif. - To a man, Chivas USA's players are fairly confident at the start of the 2007 campaign. They point to progress made this preseason and to a strong foundation of players who returned from last year's playoff team.
While the beginning of the season takes precedence, the club also has some idea of where the team wants to be in come October.
"Little by little we need to continue improving," Chivas USA captain Claudio Suarez said. "We need to continue making strides and taking positives from each game we play in order to maintain ourselves at the top of the table. Our first objective is to reach the playoffs and then fight for the championship because I think we have a good team."
Chivas USA made monumental strides last season. Following a four-win effort in 2005, Chivas USA built a team essentially from scratch and pieced together a solid 10-9-13 record. The club reached the playoffs, won its first-ever playoff game but collapsed in the return leg at Houston and was eliminated following a 2-0 loss to the eventual league champions.
This season, faces have changed, as Juan Pablo Garcia, Francisco Palencia and coach Bob Bradley are all gone. With a new batch of reinforcements, including former league MVP Amado Guevara, the club begins the process of building a playoff contender anew against Toronto FC on Saturday.
Chivas USA coach Preki will make his debut against former Kansas City teammate Mo Johnston's expansion side. From the start, Preki look forward to getting results.
"It's expected to win. In my opinion, that's why we're here, to win," Preki said. "I've been saying it for weeks: just making the playoffs doesn't cut it for me. Yeah, making the playoffs is great but can we make another push? Can we challenge for trophies? That's going to be our goal."
Thus, as some faces have changed, the goals remain unchanged.
"The bar is always high," Preki said. "The bar was high last year. The bar is going to be high this year. There are not a lot changes in terms of that."
While he's in line with the club's goals, midfielder Jesse Marsch has a bit of a different outlook.
"I've learned over the years not to set goals on winning things. For me, it's a step-by-step process," Marsch said. "Every week, it's almost every day you have to shoot to be a little bit better as an individual and as a team and hope that every week you can build on last week's performance and the week before that."
Marsch has learned how to be a part of winning clubs in his 12-year career. Marsch has been a member of five clubs that reached MLS Cup and he's walked away with three championships.
A year ago, Marsch played a pivotal role in bridging the gap between the young players and the experienced veterans. Though the process won't be the same this season, the club will go through another team-building process with the ultimate goal of fighting for MLS Cup. As long as the club is playing its best in October, Marsch said Chivas USA will be fine.
"It's almost like you're slowly building a house until at the end you have something you feel is really sturdy, really solid, has a good foundation," he said. "That's what my goal is for this team, to get better every week, every month until at the end of the season we feel like we're really playing our best football."
Luis Bueno is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
