Chivas, the most popular soccer team in Mexico, bypassed Chicagothis week in announcing it would field a Los Angeles-based team inMajor League Soccer next season.
That decision didn't diminish Chivas' fan support in a 3-1 lossWednesday to Guadalajara rival Atlas in the second game of adoubleheader at Soldier Field. Chivas was outplayed by Atlas afterTecos, another team from Guadalajara, played Atlante of Mexico Cityto a 1-1 draw in the opener.
Mexican teams play several matches in Chicago each year, butWednesday was Tecos' first visit. It doesn't figure to be the last,however, because Tecos vice president Carlos Leano Reyes revealedplans to follow Chivas into the U.S. market by placing a team in MLS.
We hope to be in Chicago," Reyes said. Our idea is to put a teamhere, and America [another Mexican league power] wants to dosomething in Texas. The United States has been making investments insoccer, and maybe soon we'll be able to achieve something."
No question the interest of the Hispanic community in Chicago issufficient for the city to have a second MLS team compete for fanswith the Fire, which has a working agreement with a smaller Mexicanclub, Morelia. The crowd, conservatively estimated at 24,900 by thepromoter of the games, was well above the Fire's season average.
The spirited matches had the crowd buzzing throughout. In theopener, Atlante scored on Luis Gabriel Rey's penalty kick in the 20thminute before Tecos tied the score on a header by Mario Rosales fourminutes later.
That match, though, was an obvious warmup act. Chivas received arousing ovation when its players took the field for the nightcap, andAtlas' players were roundly booed. It didn't matter, however, asgoals by Robert De Pinho and Daniel Osorno gave Atlas a 2-0 lead.Chivas pulled to 2-1 on Francisco Palencia's goal in the 65th minute,but Carlos Morales closed the scoring for Atlas two minutes later.
NOTE: Dipsy Selolwane scored in the 56th minute to give the Fire a1-0 victory against the A-League's Richmond Kickers in thequarterfinals of the U.S. Open Cup in Richmond, Va. The Fire willplay the A-League's Charleston Battery in the semifinals Aug. 25 inNaperville.
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