MLS Playoffs: Canales Corner: Galaxy And Chivas USA Competition Runs Deep

By Andrea Canales

As local columnist Jim Alexander pointed out, never before in sports history have two Los Angeles teams met in the playoffs, as Chivas USA and the LA Galaxy are destined to do this Sunday.

Only two LA Galaxy players remember what the Home Depot Center sports complex was like before Chivas USA moved in to share the stadium and the practice grounds, Jovan Kirovski and Alan Gordon.

Only one, Gordon, has stayed with the Galaxy straight through to where the original Los Angeles team meets the new squad in a match that really matters - the first round of Major League Soccer's playoffs.

"It was a little weird at first," said Gordon of the expansion team's arrival in 2005. "It kind of, in a way, seemed like an invasion, taking over what we claimed to have."

Though Jorge Vergara, the owner of Chivas USA, had looked at cites who lacked a Major League Soccer team, including nearby San Diego, he eventually decided on Los Angeles, intending to appeal to the numerous fans who were already loyal to Chivas Guadalajara, a popular club in Mexico also owned by Vergara.

The deal to put Chivas USA in L.A. depended on a a stadium share with the Galaxy, who had opened up the new complex only two years before.

2005 was also Landon Donovan's first year with the club, and though the numerous derby matches had blended into a swarm of memories, he recalled specific moments of that very first game, when now-assistant-coach Cobi Jones became the first player to score in the intra-city rivalry.

"The volley he hit from the 18?" said Donovan admiringly. "Oh, that was a good game. It was different than most MLS games. I think the league in general has grown in a lot of ways, but really in fan support and the ways fans understand the game. That for us was the game in which you felt, wow, this is a real game, this is intense."

Not a single player remains on Chivas USA's roster from 2005, but since that first difficult season, the club has made the playoffs without fail.

Yet even in the depth of their playoff exile, and their own rotating cast of players, the Galaxy mustered the will to claim the series between the two clubs in every season but 2007. In fact, the Galaxy have not lost to Chivas USA since that year and did not allow a goal in their three meetings this season.

Alan Gordon |Galaxy player since 2004

"It's a little bit more of an issue for us, because we were here first and we always want to claim this as ours," said Gordon. "They built (the Home Depot Center) for the Galaxy, so we always want to have that extra motivation because we feel it is the Galaxy's stadium and they're just renting it from us."

Indeed, Chivas USA administrator Shawn Hunter has reportedly investigated other sites to develop into a stadium for the club, but one is not currently in the plans for the next five years.

The changing rosters of MLS squads being what they are, Chivas USA currently has two players who played in 2005 for the Galaxy - midfielders Paulo Nagamura and Marcelo Saragosa. Defender Ante Jazic also played with the Galaxy for years, but moved to the club down the hallway in January.

"We always say 'Hello' when we run into each other," said Galaxy star David Beckham of the close proximity of his former teammate. "He's a good guy, a good player. I wish him all the best, but not for this weekend."

It's a little tricky to keep opponents at bay when the overlap is high. The squads share weight rooms, and the players will end up working out together at times. Since both coaches hold team practices at identical hours, players will often return to the locker rooms at the same time, walking most of the same hallways.

Yet the rivalry is ever-present.

Beckham shook his head when asked about getting to know many Chivas USA players.

"With Ante, I played with him," said Beckham. "I know of them, but that's as far as it goes when they're rival players."

Beckham's first season in the league was especially memorable for a Chivas USA match in which he was kicked in the midsection by Jesse Marsch, touching off a mini-melee between the squads.

David Beckham |First time in MLS playoffs

"Certain things happen on the field where you might feel bitter," Gordon explained about the hard-fought games between the squads. "But there are some players on the team that you talk to and it's fun."

For Donovan, who counts certain players on Chivas USA's roster as USA teammates, as well as Saragosa, Nagamura and Jazic as past club teammates, there's more familiarity. "A lot of the guys we know well," Donovan said, adding. "We enjoy the games. They're more intense because of the situation."

The current context is one where the past games don't matter, as both teams have an equal chance of moving on in the blank slate that is the MLS playoffs. With the road factor of travel being canceled out for both squads, a new, more important chapter in the rivalry awaits.

"This is just another step that we need to take to put them behind us a little bit," Gordon said. "There's mutual friends between the teams, but when it comes to game time, there's no friends. I think that's clear through the yellow cards and the personal rifts on the field. It's all business on the field."

Donovan was eagerly anticipating the encounter.

"It's an opportunity to showcase two very good teams in the same city who don't like each other very much," Donovan said. "It's going to be a lot of fun."

Andrea Canales is Chief Editor of Goal.com North America

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