the Red-and-White's backline was also impressive -- but his well-taken goal with six minutes remaining helped ice Chivas' 2-0 win over Seattle in what was a top-of-the-table clash.
Chijindu's exploits may be new to MLS, but he had been the radar of head coach Preki for a while. After playing for four years at the University of Connecticut, Chijindu was one of Chivas' final cuts from the 2008 preseason. So what did he do to stay sharp until signing a developmental contract on April 3? He went on his own worldwide tour that included visiting a cousin in Switzerland, as well as tryouts with 2.Bundesliga side MSV Duisburg and Swedish second division club Atvidabergs FF. When that didn't work out, Chijindu returned home and played with an amateur side, the L.A. Blues.
That doesn't exactly sound like your prototypical program for making an MLS roster, but with the Red-and-White enduring their usual spate of injuries to forwards, Chijindu was brought back into the fold, and had been showing enough in practice to leave Preki with no choice but to give the Fontana, Calif. native some minutes.
"He's been giving us trouble in training when we play the first group against the second group," Preki told The Daily Breeze.
And like any Preki-coached player, Chijindu isn't about to let success inflate his ego.
"I'm not going to look too far ahead," said Chijindu. "I'm just going to continue to work hard in training and let things fall in place as it should."
RSL's road woes: On paper Real Salt Lake looks every bit an MLS Cup contender. They have talent, depth, a no-nonsense coach in Jason Kreis, and they've quickly adapted to their new home, Rio Tinto Stadium. But until they start collecting some road wins, there's going to be a sizable gap on their championship résumé, and their road efforts so far this season have looked far from convincing.
Granted this is nothing new for RSL. Even as they went all the way to the Western Conference Championship last year, they only managed 10 road points in the regular season, a mark that tied for third-worst in MLS. Of course, one of those points came in their 1-1 regular season finale at Colorado that edged them into the playoffs.
But with the Western Conference looking a lot more competitive this year, and with only the top two teams in each conference guaranteed a spot in the postseason, RSL will need to better that mark to exceed last year's playoff run.
Rapids return home: One team that has already established some road cred in the early going is Colorado, despite the team's aforementioned loss to Houston. The defeat concluded a stretch of four road games in five matches, and with four points from those roadies, the Rapids have set themselves up nicely to consolidate their spot in the standings.
"We were hoping to leave this set of games positioned in the pack," said head coach Gary Smith. "It would have been difficult looking up at everyone else, but we've had a respectable start, and we've performed very competitively in all of our games."
But winning at home has not been the Rapids' strong suit since moving to Dick's Sporting Goods Park in 2007, an odd fact given the team's inherent advantage of practicing and playing at altitude. Last season, no team lost more times at home than Colorado, although San Jose, New England, and Chicago all kept the Rapids company in that department.
But Smith knows that it's vital his side build upon their solid start and put some distance between themselves and the Western Conference sides residing below them in the standings, especially given a late quirk in their schedule.
"Out of our last seven games, five are away," said Smith. "So it's important that we do well in this middle part of the season when the majority of our games are at home."
Gonzalez settling in: LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena knew that rookie center back Omar Gonzalez was going to take his lumps in the early going, and after the rookie got lit up for a hat trick by Colorado's Conor Casey on March 31, it wasn't clear just how long his acclimatization process was going to take.
But you can count Gonzalez's performance last weekend against San Jose as a huge step forward. True, there were some stumbles in the opening 45 minutes, but Gonzalez completely nullified San Jose's Ryan Johnson in the second half, and played with increased confidence as the game progressed.
"We realize it's real difficult doing this, putting young players in the back," said Arena of not just Gonzalez but rookie backliner A.J. DeLaGarza as well. "But we think these guys have potential, and you've got to throw them in there and get their feet wet. In particular, you see Omar is really growing with these experiences."
Jeff Carlisle is a regular contributor to ESPN Soccernet, and covers the San Jose Earthquakes for Center Line Soccer and MLSnet.com. Jeff can be reached at eljefe1@yahoo.com. Views and opinions expressed in this column are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
