For the first time, Club Deportivo Chivas USA will have a near-full complement of players on American soil.
The club's eight Mexico-based players will be formally presented to the media Thursday at The Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif., and will participate in two-a-day training sessions the rest of the week. On Saturday, the club will play a friendly against UCLA.
Arriving from Guadalajara on Wednesday night will be goalkeeper Martín Zúñiga; defenders Alfonso Loera and Armando Begines; midfielders Ramón Ramírez, Héctor Cuadros and Francisco Mendoza; and forwards Alonso Sandoval and Isaac Romo. Zúñiga, Ramírez and Loera will fill Senior International slots; the other five are Transitional Internationals.
The rest of the squad, including first-round SuperDraft pick Brad Guzan and expansion draft picks Arturo Torres and Orlando Perez, held its first training session the HDC on Tuesday. For the previous two weeks, the club had trained in Guadalajara. Chivas USA will play a friendly against USL side San Diego Gauchos on Wednesday at 6 p.m. PT.
Also, on Tuesday, the club announced a friendly against Mexican first division side Atlante. The match is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. PT, on March 8 at San Diego's Qualcomm Stadium.
"San Diego, which together with the neighboring city of Tijuana, is a hotbed of support for Chivas," president and co-owner Antonio Cue said in a statement.
Luis Bueno is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
