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Chivas USA's long-desired move to a home of its own could be coming soon. Managing partner and club president Antonio Cué told Major League Soccer's website that the Goats are in talks with several communities in Los Angeles County about a potential venue for the team.

Chivas is a tenant at Home Depot Center, which is owned and operated by AEG, the owner of the Galaxy, and the club has planned since its 2005 debut to play in its own facility at some point. There have been conversations about several potential venues through the years, and former club president Shawn Hunter said last year the team was looking for a site in Southern California but that the struggling economy had forced a delay to any substantial talks about a site.

"There are a lot of cities asking for us to move, and we're evaluating that, but it's going to take some time and right now we're focusing on playing here this year,” Cué told MLSsoccer.com. "We will study all the locations, and when we are ready to make a move, then we'll let everyone know. We're not ready now, though, because all of [the cities] seem to be pretty good.

"But we're obviously talking to a lot of cities that are all within L.A., and there is nothing outside of L.A. County."

Speculation in recent years has included the old Devonshire Downs location in Northridge, sites in downtown L.A., Cal State Fullerton's Titan Stadium, Santa Ana's municipal downtown stadium and possible locations in Pomona and the Inland Empire. Chivas would benefit by controlling more revenue streams at its own stadium and from a heavier Latino, especially Mexican, presence away from Carson.

"I believe that moving from this stadium will only help things improve in many ways," Rodrigo Morales, Chivas' vice president of marketing, told the league website. "[Home Depot Center] is fantastic, but it's not perfect for our demographics, so we are trying to find something that is better to really fit for our fans, but also our sponsors and partners."

Major League Soccer looked into moving Chivas USA's game July 16 against the New York Red Bulls because it conflicted with the Galaxy's friendly against Real Madrid about a dozen miles up the Harbor Freeway.

The Goats weren't interested.

Club co-owner and president Antonio Cué said Saturday night that Chivas would keep its date with the Red Bulls and he hoped the game, one of the big draws on the team's calendar, would draw an ample crowd.

“We need to do what we need to do,” Cué said after Chivas' 1-1 draw with the Chicago Fire at Home Depot Center. “I'm sure Real Madrid will draw a lot of people, but we just have to continue and have more fans come in.”

The conflict means fans -- and media, too -- must decide between heading to the Coliseum to see the Spanish giant and its stars, such as Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká, in a preseason game against the Galaxy for the second straight year or coming to HDC to watch Thierry Henry's second L.A. visit since joining New York last summer.

The Galaxy game begins at 7 p.m., and Chivas' kicks off at 7:30. It's not an ideal situation, surely, and the Goats seem certain to lose more than a few spectators to the game up the 110.

“Unfortunately, it came at the same time that day. [The league] thought about moving it,” Cué said. “I said: 'If you want to move, you can move the other game.' Why would we move our game? ... So, hopefully, we draw some people, and, more than that, hopefully, we'll get three points.”

If you needed concrete proof that Francisco “Panchito” Mendoza is back to stay, it was there on stage Wednesday night at the Standard in downtown L.A.

Chivas USA was unveiling their new jerseys, with the Corona logo on the front, and the club flew in five players from the team's camp in Arizona for the occasion. Among the quintet: Mendoza.

Need more proof: Managing partner and club president and Antonio Cué says the deal is done, that Mendoza has signed, that all the loose ends have been tied.

Not quite: Another Chivas official said the contract has been submitted to the league, which has not yet signed off on it -- and has asked more than once for additional paperwork. That official's understanding is that Mendoza is coming on loan from Guadalajara, which he joined in 2009 after four seasons with Chivas USA. He has played little for the Mexican powerhouse and in loans to Jaguares and second-tier Club Tijuana and last fall for second-tier Indios de Ciudad Juarez.

Also signed, but not yet announced: Mexican goalkeeper Sergio Arias, who is definitely arriving on loan from Guadalajara. (Coach Robin Fraser said when camp opened that the deal was done.) Arias, too, was on display at the Standard, and Cué told him, while introducing him to those on hand: “You're the future of this team. We believe in you.”

(Wonder what Zach Thornton and Dan Kennedy, Chivas' other netminders, will think of that.)

Also working as models: defender Jimmy Conrad and forwards Justin Braun and Alejandro Moreno. All head back to Arizona on Thursday morning, and the team returns home after scrimmaging the Vancouver Whitecaps on Friday.

PROGRESS REPORT: Conrad on how the club had progressed in Arizona:

“I would say that we've really started to make concrete the way we're going to move as a team, our team shape. I think having a couple games against quality opponents [in losses to Seattle and Real Salt Lake] has really helped us out because we got to see that what we've been working on really does work.

“And once that belief starts to kick in, that this is the right way to play -- and this is the way we're going to play -- then that becomes a spark. Once you get that spark, I mean … you know, it's limitless. You're bound by nothing by that point.”

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Chivas USA opened camp Thursday with physicals and initial meetings, and the Goats begin on-field preparations Friday morning at the Home Depot Center with a new coach and, in many ways, a new club.

Robin Fraser takes charge as the club takes stock, and he brings with him a coaching philosophy that could provide a foundation for Chivas to return to, and surpass, the glories of 2006-09.

The club was perhaps Major League Soccer's most stylish at the time, and a title run in 2007 -- with Maykel Galindo's breakthrough and Ante Razov's cerebral play up top -- would have been appropriate. Chivas has never won a playoff series.

Fraser is looking to quickly turn last year's losers into contenders. Chivas went 8-18-4 and finished last in the Western Conference after losing its veteran core of players to departures and retirement.

Here's what you need to know heading into preseason camp:

WHAT'S NEW?

Not quite everything, but nearly everything that matters. The management side has been gutted, with only co-owner/president Antonio Cué (and his brother, Lorenzo, not officially with the club but a major part of its braintrust) still standing.

The new face of the organization is Fraser's. The first-time head coach -- a former Galaxy star lauded for his work as an assistant coach at Real Salt Lake -- and his staff (including former Galaxy and UCLA star Greg Vanney) say they have a plan in mind, a sort of total-football approach to team harmony, that will supplant the foundation that crashed last year.

The arrival of two veterans -- central defender Jimmy Conrad (Temple City/Temple City HS and UCLA), acquired in the re-entry draft, and forward Alejandro Moreno, a former Galaxy striker picked up in a trade -- will play well into Fraser's team building, bringing veteran savvy and, especially Conrad, leadership qualities that the club lacked last year.

The Goats were masterful at the draft, pulling in five genuine prospects. Defender Zarek Valentin, the No. 4 overall pick (a central defender at Akron who will move to the right for Chivas), is considered can't-miss, and fellow first-rounder Victor Estupiñan, from Ecuador, is a most enticing forward. Their ability to contribute immediately will be crucial, but both are long-range selections.

Tristan Bowen (Van Nuys), who will be 20 on Jan. 30, arrives after a promising second season with the Galaxy. Three more draftees -- midfielders Jon Okafor (Brown) and Ernesto Carranza (Sacramento State) and defender Curtis Ushedo (Alabama-Birmingham) -- will battle for roster spots. So will former Chivas USA winger Francisco “Panchito” Mendoza, who will join training as a non-roster guest.

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1. U.S.-MEXICO SUPREMACY

U.S. Soccer has avoided scheduling against Mexico's national team in Southern California for obvious reasons, but the federation has no (reasonable) choice this year. Circle June 25 on the calendar: If all follows form, the Yanks and El Tri will renew the region's best rivalry in a packed Rose Bowl with the CONCACAF Gold Cup title on the line. A young version of the U.S. will face Chile at Home Depot Center on Jan. 22, and we're hearing talk of Mexico at the Rose Bowl in March. And the HDC gets a Gold Cup date June 6, but no idea who will play in the doubleheader.

2. GALAXY'S GOAL: A TROPHY

The Galaxy might have answered its biggest need in Major League Soccer's re-entry draft, selecting aging but gifted Colombian striker Juan Pablo Angel. Now they've got to sign him -- and hope Edson Buddle doesn't bolt for England or Scotland. L.A. has come close to After coming close to MLS Cup titles the past two years, losing in the 2009 final and in the 2010 Western Conference title game, and anything other than a trophy in 2011 will disappoint (although getting through the CONCACAF Champions League's group phase might mitigate somewhat). Landon Donovan is nearing 30, David Beckham's contract ends next December, and Angel is a quick-fix kind of addition. The backline is getting younger (and better, it seems), and if Bruce Arena can find a little more speed, L.A. will be tough to beat. But so will Real Salt Lake, FC Dallas and the New York Red Bulls, and maybe reigning champ Colorado if it can keep Omar Cummings from bolting to Europe. Our expectation: a terrific MLS race.

3. THE GERMAN MISSION

The U.S. women haven't won a Women's World Cup title since that delightful summer of '99, and they've since lost the American public's attention, mostly because Mia Hamm (and others) retired and Nike stopped contributing millions to the team's marketing campaign. This group of Yanks will try to restore some of the glitz, but it's not going to be easy. They'll certainly among the teams to beat at the WWC in Germany next summer -- and they might pull it off, if Abby Wambach and Hope Solo are at their best -- but if anyone other than the Germans are celebrating come July 17 in Frankfurt, it's a massive upset.

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Our countdown of 2010's top 10 soccer stories and newsmakers -- from a Southern California slant -- continues.

• Newsmakers/No. 5: Maurice Edu

It might have been the biggest moment in American soccer history, the point when everything -- the quality of the soccer, the loyalty of the fans -- came together in a way it didn't or couldn't with Paul Caligiuri's “shot heard 'round the world,” the 1994 World Cup, Brandi Chastain's bra or the 2002 quarterfinal run.

Fontana's Maurice Edu scored the most compelling U.S. goal at the World Cup, all because it didn't count.

It's Landon Donovan's strike, the one in stoppage to beat Algeria, that will forever be remembered, but Edu's goal five days earlier against Slovenia -- and Malian referee Koman Coulibaly's decision to omit it -- was the tipping point for the U.S. and the World Cup.

The Americans had started slowly, as they did throughout the Cup, and fallen behind, 2-0, by halftime. They halved the deficit just three minutes into the second half, with Donovan finishing from Steve Cherundolo's feed, and pulled even on Michael Bradley's goal in the 82nd minute.

Then Edu, making his World Cup debut, got on the end of a perfect Donovan free kick, and the U.S. was five minutes plus stoppage from a 3-2 victory. Except Koulibaly whistled for a foul nobody else could see.

The injustice of the moment rallied the fans at home, those fervently following the World Cup and casual observers who couldn't name a U.S. player, Donovan aside, perhaps. We had been wronged, and that self-identification with this U.S. team hit a crescendo when Donovan beat Algeria to give the Americans the Group C title and send them to the knockout phase. No telling how big it might have gotten had the U.S. beaten Ghana in the round of 16.

It was a breakthrough year for the Etiwanda High School alum. He emerged as a true contributor during Rangers FC's run to its 53rd Scottish league title, cemented his spot with the U.S. national team, and made a convincing argument that he's the best partner for Bradley in central midfield.

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Our countdown of 2010's top 10 soccer stories and newsmakers -- from a Southern California slant -- continues.

• Stories/No. 7: Sol starts a trend

The L.A. Sol set the standard in Women's Professional Soccer's inaugural campaign in almost every regard, with the league's most professional organization, the most sponsorship and merchandising revenue, the best fan experience (in the league's best stadium) -- and, especially, on the field.

The Sol, featuring Brazilian superstar Marta and local heroine Shannon Boxx (Redondo Beach/South Torrance HS), went 12-3-5 in 2009, easily capturing WPS's regular-season title. They likely would have won the championship if not for a controversial red card not quite a half-hour into the final.

The team would never play another game. The team folded on Jan. 28 after negotiations with a potential new ownership group fell apart.

It began a trend in the league, and not a good one. Saint Louis Athletica, which posted the second-best regular-season record in year one, dissolved just six weeks into the 2010 campaign, and Bay Area-based FC Gold Pride -- winner of the 2010 title with Marta and Boxx leading arguably the finest women's team ever assembled -- packed up shop in November.

A month later, the Chicago Red Stars went on hiatus, with plans to return in 2012. The Washington Freedom, the lone survivor from the late, great 2001-03 Women's United Soccer Association, nearly went under, too.

What's left? A six-team league, entirely on the East Coast for 2011. The San Francisco-based front office has been all but scuttled, and survival remains uncertain, perhaps unlikely. Yet there are groups angling to join in 2012 and beyond, including one that wants to put a team in Orange County.

The Sol lost somewhere around $3 million in 2009. Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owned half the team and paid about 90 percent of the bills, pulled out -- as planned, it turned out -- after the first season, and Blue Star LLC, a partnership that included L.A. Blues owner Ali Mansouri and Australian actor Anthony LaPaglia, couldn't afford to run things on its own.

The league took control of the club in November 2009 and had a new owner, never identified, all but signed, sealed and delivered. That owner pulled out in mid-January, and the Sol was dead a week later.

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Chivas USA officials (majority owner Antonio Cue, primarily) made up their minds a few weeks ago on a new head coach, we're told, and plan to announce their decision after Christmas.

Former Chicago Fire and New York Red Bulls head coach Juan Carlos Ososrio is the choice, several sources (including one inside the club) have told ESPN Los Angeles, but Chivas USA has been forced to wait until the close of the Colombian season before it could make an announcement.

Osorio, a Colombian-born coach who was educated in the U.S. (and received much of his coaching education while serving as conditioning coach at Manchester City in 2001-06), last weekend won the Colombian championship with Once Caldas.

The other finalists, the sources say, were Real Salt Lake assistant coach Robin Fraser, a former star defender for the Galaxy and other clubs, and Denis Hamlett, who succeeded Osorio as head coach of the Fire.

Cue, also Chivas' president, and interim general manager Jose L. Domene were in Mexico and unavailable for comment.

Others considered for the job were former U.S. national team striker Eric Wynalda, whose staff would have included Chivas legends Ramon Ramirez and Claudio Suarez, and former Chivas USA captain Jesse Marsch, an assistant coach for the U.S. national team. Wynalda withdrew his name from consideration three weeks ago.

Osorio, who attended Southern Connecticut State University and began his coaching career with long-defunct minor-league side Staten Island Vipers in 1998, was an assistant to MetroStars coach Octavio Zambrano in 2000-01. After his time at Man City, he took charge of Colombia's Millonarios, his first head-coaching job.

He resurrected a struggling Chicago side in 2007, guiding it to a 6-3-6 record the second half of the season and into the Eastern Conference final before bolting to the Red Bulls (the rebranded MetroStars). He took New York to the 2008 MLS Cup title game, but resigned about two-thirds into a horrid 2009 campaign, stepping down with the Red Bulls 2-16-4 and without a win in more than three months.

So much is changing in the wake of Chivas USA's worst season since its horrid start in 2005 that's it simple to think the club is making a new start.

Antonio Cue, the Goats' managing partner, doesn't disagree.

"I do think things are happening and changing," Cue (pronounced "quay") said Wednesday. "We're very excited about it. It's a great opportunity to do a lot of things we want to do. It is kind of a new beginning, for sure."

And so Cue is reaching back to the club's beginnings. He has resumed his former position as club president, a job he held until Shawn Hunter was brought aboard in September 2007, and says he he has no plans to relinquish the title.

So: One vacancy filled and two to go.

The club ostensibly had been looking for a new president since Hunter stepped down last month, and there remains openings for a head coach and, following vice president of soccer operations Stephen Hamilton's resignation Tuesday, for a general manager on the technical side.

Hamilton, who will continue to work with the club for "the next couple months" as an adviser, said Wednesday that he had "a couple of things I'm looking at" within the soccer world and that this "seemed like the right time for me" to step down.

"For me, personally," he said, "it felt like the right time to go in a different direction."

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Chivas USA managing partner Antonio Cue has said he'd like to have a new head coach in place before this week is over, and whether or not the Goats meet that deadline, there no question they've got some interesting candidates.

Former Chivas midfielder Jesse Marsch, who retired after the 2009 season to join U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley's staff, has talked to club management, and The Washington Post reported Monday that former Galaxy defender Robin Fraser, an assistant coach for Real Salt Lake, has had conversations about the job.

A club source earlier this month said there were a dozen names on the team's list of candidates and that some belonged to Mexicans, hardly a surprise given Chivas' roots -- with Club Deportivo Guadalajara -- and chief owners Cue and Jorge Vergara, who are Mexican.

Perhaps the most intriguing candidate is former U.S. national team star Eric Wynalda, 41, who has two of the biggest names in Mexican soccer on his side.

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Speculation on the assistant coach former Chivas USA head coach Martin Vasquez was going to be asked to reassign centers on Carlos Juarez, his mentor and chief tactician, who has left the club following Vasquez's dismissal two weeks ago.

A Chivas USA official confirmed Wednesday that Juarez departed in the wake of Vasquez's firing and that the team is conducting postseason training sessions under the leadership of the remaining coaching staff.

Vasquez was dismissed, managing partner Antonio Cue told ESPN Los Angeles, after he was asked to replace one of his assistant coaches, who would have been reassigned within the organization. Vasquez and Cue said no determination had been made on which coach would be reassigned, and the club official's understanding is that Juarez's name had not been mentioned in the meeting among Vasquez, Cue and Cue's brother, Lorenzo, an executive with Chivas USA LLC, the company that runs the club.

Vasquez brought Juarez, a longtime U.S. Soccer staff coach who served as the first head coach for the San Diego Spirit in the defunct Women's United Soccer Association, onto his staff last January. Juarez, a former head coach at Cal State San Bernardino and Cal Poly Pomona who is technical director of the Claremont Stars youth soccer club, was the instructor when Vasquez received his U.S. Soccer A license. Vasquez was an assistant coach under Juarez at Cal Poly Pomona and with the Spirit.

Stephen Hamilton, Chivas USA's director of soccer operations, has begun talking to potential head coaching candidates. There are a dozen names on the list, the club official said, and a source with knowledge of the situation said discussions have been conducted with former U.S. national team forward Eric Wynalda and former Chivas USA midfielder Jesse Marsch, who was on U.S. national team coach Bob Bradley's staff at the World Cup in South Africa. Multiple coaches on the list are based in Mexico, sources said.

Martin Vasquez's abrupt dismissal last month as Chivas USA head coach had nothing to do with his performance or club management's confidence in him to lead the team in the next step of its rebuilding project.

As director of soccer Stephen Hamilton said following the Goats' final game, an Oct. 23 loss to Chicago at Home Depot Center: Vasquez was their guy, and the club had every intention of heading into the second year of a three-year plan with him at the helm.

It all fell apart within days, all over Vasquez's reluctance -- his refusal -- to replace a member of his staff.

Vasquez and Chivas USA managing partner Antonio Cue provided ESPN Los Angeles identical descriptions of a 3½-hour meeting two days following the Goats' season finale, one that both sides called positive and productive -- until Vasquez was told he would need to jettison one member of his staff.

The meeting -- involving Vasquez, Cue and Cue's brother, Lorenzo, an executive with Chivas USA LLC, the company that manages the club -- was a “great meeting,” Vasquez said, with discussion covering what went right and wrong in an 8-18-4, last-in-the-Western Conference campaign and the best way to improve the club.

Lorenzo Cue mentioned bringing in another assistant coach, and Vasquez, who was given his first head-coaching job by the club last December, said he “thought it was a good suggestion, a positive suggestion.”

By the end of the meeting, Vasquez said, “we had a plan of action going forward, and we felt very positive about going forward and turning this around.” Then, as the meeting was coming to an end, Vasquez was told “somebody from my staff had to go. I was not in agreement with that. I said if somebody was coming in to be part of the group, great. But losing somebody, I'm against it. Because I have a lot of confidence in my assistants, and they have all the knowledge to help us, to help Chivas USA, turn this around.”

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Chivas USA's organizational makeover continued Tuesday with club president/CEO Shawn Hunter's decision to step down. He will continue to assist the club in an advisory role.

Hunter, a respected and most approachable executive recruited three years ago from Galaxy owner Anschutz Entertainment Group, told ESPN Los Angeles that 5½ years of commuting from his Denver home to Los Angeles had prodded his decision.

"At the end of the day, with young boys -- my sons are 11 and 9 -- it became, hey, life is short," Hunter said. "I want to spend more quality time with my family. ...

"I made it back [to Denver] last week. I hadn't seen my kids for a couple of weeks. The good news is they came out for a good portion of summer, but I'm missing a lot of events -- a lot of important events -- during the school year."

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