Cubo picks up Chicharito's mantle at Chivas

It's hardly a secret that Guadalajara Chivas have missed a real goalscorer since Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez left for the cold climes of Manchester in April 2010. It's taken a lot of shuffling and trying out different players but Chivas fans around town believe Erick 'Cubo' Torres, an 18-year-old striker from Guadalajara, is showing all the right signs of filling the huge hole.




In last Saturday's game against Queretaro, Torres scored both goals for Chivas in a 2-0 victory taking his tally up to five with the first team. The first goal showed a great deal of composure. Torres took down a cross on his chest taking it past the last defender and, as the ball fell, he coolly slotted it inside the Queretaro goalkeeper's near post.

His second goal was class too: an unlikely header from the 1.83 meter striker that he guided into the top corner despite sustained pressure from a defender. After it, Torres ran over to the Chivas fans kissing the badge.

The week before against bitter city rivals Atlas, another gesture to the crowd got Torres sent off. After scoring the opening goal in the game early on Torres made a hand sign to the crowd that the referee interpreted as raising the middle finger to the Atlas fans. In fact, Torres gave the sign of a Chivas porra (fan group) to the Chivas fans in celebration and his ban was later revoked.

The incident combined with scoring against Atlas has turned him into a supporter favourite already for Guadalajara Chivas.

Inside the club there are those who think Torres can be even better than Hernandez and that he is even more focused on what he wants to achieve. His youth record speaks for itself. Torres entered the Chivas U-17 team when he was just 15 years old and was always one step ahead of his contemporaries. He has scored bucket-loads of goals at every level since joining Chivas as a small child. Fast, good with both feet and in the air, a natural finisher and down to earth, it's no wonder Torres gets the Chicharito comparison a lot.

"It's very early (to say I'm the heir to Chicharito)," Torres told the press after the Queretaro game. "I'm only just starting."

As he said, it is early days in Torres career but you can bet European scouts are already sniffing around Guadalajara's latest striking talent. A call up to the Copa America squad (where Mexico will play with mainly U-22 year-old players) and Torres' stock is likely to rise yet more.

The Guadalajara Chivas dilemma

When the name Jorge Vergara is mentioned by many Chivas fans in Guadalajara the extremely derogatory "pinche" is often used before it. Translated in its most publishable form it could mean “worthless,” although it usually has much stronger overtones.

The self-made Guadalajara businessman who once served tortas ahogadas in the Jalisco capital's streets bought Chivas, Mexico’s most popular team in 2002. On paper, Vergara should be a perfect owner of the club. Smart, business minded and with a passion for the history of the institution, it’s difficult for an outsider to see why Vergara is disliked among Chivas fans.

The brand new stadium on the outskirts of Guadalajara, the Estadio Omnilife, was conceived and built during Vergara’s reign. It is a monument to modernity and compares favorably with modern soccer stadia in Europe. It is a world away from Chivas´ old stadium, the crumbling Estadio Jalisco. What’s more, Vergara has adhered with passion to Chivas’ Mexican-only policy.

Wouldn’t fans of many football clubs kill for an owner with Vergara´s credentials?
So why can many Chivas fans not wait to see the back of Vergara? Should he be defended?

New Stadium

In the first three games of the season, fewer fans attended Chivas’ home games than the Estudiantes Tecos who play in the tiny 3 de Marzo stadium, are often mocked for having very few fans and, at the time of writing, find themselves at the bottom of the general table.

The Estadio Omnilife, officially opened against Manchester United in July 2010, is one of only a handful in Latin America that is genuinely modern. That hasn’t made Chivas fans happy. Ticket prices combined with the cost of getting to the stadium (located outside the city’s beltway/ring road) have put many fans off. Less fans means less atmosphere. The effect snowballs: the atmosphere is half the fun for some people who go.

Outside the ground, independent food outlets are nowhere to be seen and you won’t find stalls selling legal or illegal merchandise. Instead, a Chivas shop is located inside. You will find official shirts at prices many can´t afford. If you fancy a snack, there are official food stalls, again inside the stadium and at elevated prices.

As a conservative estimate, it costs about 40 dollars (one mid-range ticket for an average game (200 pesos), two beers (120 pesos), one snack (30 pesos), parking (50 pesos) and transport costs(60 pesos)) for one person to go to the stadium. Not very expensive in US or European terms but remember the average wage in Jalisco is less than 500 dollars a month. In other words, if there are two home games a month and you make the AVERAGE wage it will cost almost 16 percent of your monthly income to go and watch Chivas. A Chelsea fan (traditionally one of the most pricey clubs in English soccer) making the average London wage spends less than 8 percent of his/her monthly salary on going twice a month to Stamford Bridge. In those statistics lies the basic problem for Vergara considering he has to recoup the cost of building the stadium. Mexico is not the United Kingdom; disposable income is limited.

Then there is the pitch. Chivas players have been quiet on the issue but the artificial grass used has been criticised by other players such as Rafael Marquez on a recent visit with his team the New York Red Bulls.

“The primary objective is not to injury ourselves because we know that on this type of pitch there’s more chance of getting injured.”
Continued Marquez: “I’m never going to change my opinion of artificial pitches compared to natural ones. It’s a great stadium, great infrastructure but the most important thing, unfortunately, isn’t of top quality.”

The reason for putting down artificial grass was so the stadium could be used for other purposes, but only one concert has so far been held at the stadium and even that was a show for Vergara’s company Omnilife. Only small returns are trickling in from Vergara’s 2 billion peso investment and recouping the outlay in the predicted 10 years looks difficult.

In summary, what Vergara has created is a modern, European-style stadium with an artificial pitch on the edge of the city that is difficult for many traditional working class Chivas fans to reach. Many still pine for the smell of the taco stands, the overflowing buses of singing fans and the souvenir sellers outside the easily accessible, if crumbling, Estadio Jalisco.

Failure to invest in new players over the last year

Traditionally, the use of the foreigner in Mexican football has been to inject that little bit of flair into a side or to plug obvious gaps when homegrown talent isn’t available. It doesn´t always work out. Agents are blamed for bringing expensive and average foreign talent. Not all are talentless however. Quality foreign imports have been the difference between average and great sides on countless occasions in the history of the Mexican league. Take out Chilean Humberto Suazo from the Monterrey team and rivals would feel much more confident of getting a result.
Chivas, who only field Mexican players, don´t have the foreign option. To recruit players for the first team, they have two options: develop players or buy from a rival.

The problem in buying players for Chivas, according to Vergara, is that when the club wants to buy from another Mexican club the price goes up. Vergara refuses to play ball on the issue and instead has invested in local youth. The squad currently has the youngest average age in the Mexican league at just 23 years. Two weeks ago all eleven players in the starting line-up were products of the youth system, a statistic that is becoming rarer in the modern game around the world. It´s almost like the modern game is going one way and Chivas are heading in the opposite direction.

However, Chivas fans, like any other fans, crave success and at the moment they can´t see it on the horizon. The bottom line is that Chivas has only made the playoffs once in the last five tournaments - a massive failure for such a big club. A policy of investing in youth can pay big dividends in the long term but is also highly risky. What if the kids just aren’t good enough? And, how do you hang on to your best players? When Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernandez had an exceptional year playing for Chivas and scoring a lot of goals, he was sold to Manchester United. That seems to be a clear hole in Vergara´s master plan.

Arrogance

Some people just don’t like Vergara. He rubs them up the wrong way.
“You want Chivas to change and get better?” asked Vergara of Chivas fans in late February. “The only way is helping and coming to the stadium. Those that don’t come can’t demand anything.”
Vergara is known for his outlandish statements.
“In five years we’ll be the best team in Mexico,” said Vergara on buying the club in 2002. “We have to bet on the youngsters, that’s how we’ll do it. The potential is there to be the best team in the world in ten years and we will do it.”
Numerous other promises have gone down the drain to the ire of fans but Vergara has won one championship as owner of the team (within his promised five years) and has improved the organizational and marketing side of the club markedly.
The treatment of former captain Ramon Morales and the way he left the club in tears was also symptomatic of Vergara´s ruthless side that sits uneasily with the fans. He decided that the star’s days at Chivas had come to an end and he should be moved on. It wasn´t a popular decision because Morales was a referencia for the team, a key figure not just on the field but as a representative of the club and its traditions.
In another dispute between fans and Vergara, a move to change the club badge led to protests outside the training ground.

On the positive side

The flipside of the negativity has to be aired. Is it not refreshing to see a team whose average age is 23, made up of all Mexicans (most local), especially considering the ongoing debate about youth getting a chance in Mexico's highest league? In an era where players are accused of being mercenaries (and nowhere more than in Mexico) shouldn´t the fans not be 100 percent the project?
The team has only lost twice so far this year and has some bright youngsters like Erick Torres, Michel Vazquez and Jorge Mora combined with a strong defense led by Luis Michel, Jonny Magallon and Hector Reynoso. If some of the youngsters kick on and Alberto Medina, Adolfo ´Bofo´ Bautista and Omar Arellano can start fulfilling their potential, there´s no reason to be so negative. Don´t forget this same team reached the final of the Copa Libertadores less than twelve months ago.

Conclusion

For many, Chivas are quickly losing the 'people's team' tag and the stadium is very sparsely populated most games. In one recent example, less than 4,000 fans turned up to watch the team play New York Red Bulls in a friendly.
The relationship between club and fans is shaky at best. The future of Chivas is uncertain but gripping. How will Vergara fill the stadium if the team is average? Will he withstand the pressure, win some trophies and be declared a genius?
It’d be great for Mexican soccer if it happens but not too many are very confident around Guadalajara.