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CARSON -- Chivas USA opens its season Sunday afternoon against the Houston Dynamo, and there will be a more intimate Home Depot Center to greet the club.

The Goats have altered the stadium configuration, dropping capacity for their games from 27,000 to 18,800 -- about what they're looking for in the new stadium the hope to build somewhere in the L.A. area in the next five years.

To do so, they will close the upper-level seats on the eastern stands and sections 116-127 on the north end, covering them with banners, according to a media advisory distributed Friday.

Chivas has been scouting locations for a new stadium for several years and would like to have one in place by 2014, according to sources within the club. They have looked at sites in Pomona and Santa Ana, and there have been talks with USC about an 18,000-seat facility on the space now occupied by the Los Angeles Sports Arena, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the discussions.

One possibility, a Chivas source said, would be to play in the Coliseum while such a stadium -- which also would be used by USC's lacrosse and women's soccer teams -- was constructed. The plans require the university to take control of the Coliseum site.

NEW TRIALIST: Chivas is up to eight trialists in camp with the addition this week of two more, one of them quite interesting. Nigerian John Owoeri, a small but solidly built forward/winger who has played in Holland for Feyenoord, Belgium for Westerlo, Nigerian power Enyimba and most recently in Egypt with Ismaily.

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TORONTO -- The evening started with a march, several hundred red-clad, scarf-wielding Toronto FC fanatics falling into line behind a Highlander band -- bagpipes and drums -- for a spirited march from the mall attached to Air Canada Centre down Bremner Boulevard to Rogers Centre.

The jaunt stopped traffic and brought out cameras from tourists, from locals -- even from the construction crew working on the latest skyscraper to dot the glorious skyline of Canada's biggest city.

And the most impressive thing in an entertaining and dramatic 2-2 draw between the Reds and the Galaxy to open their home-and-home CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal series, without question, was the support the home side received inside the one-time SkyDome.

Some 47,658 crammed into the dome, which had been pressed into service -- thus doubling the crowd count -- because cold winter weather, and likely snow, was going to make BMO Field, Toronto FC's usual home ground, unplayable. (Turned out to be a nice, sunny, quite-warm-by-Toronto-standards kind of day, but who could have known?)

It created an electric atmosphere, which both sides noted in the postgame mixed zone.

A selection of comments:

• Galaxy midfielder Mike Magee: “It seemed loud as hell. With the roof on the building and everything, it was hard to hear pretty much anything. I thought they gave [their team] a pretty good push.”
• Toronto forward Danny Koevermans: “It was amazing. Everyone enjoyed it. It was fantastic. Of course, it's a shame for us -- also for the people -- that [the Galaxy] tied in the last minute. But if you ask me, make BMO bigger or move to here. Because it we can get a home crowd every time 40,000, it would be amazing.”
• Galaxy defender Todd Dunivant, who spent a year and a half with TFC: “We didn't expect anything less from the fans here. We knew that they were going to come out in droves, and they made a great atmosphere, so I think that it lifted the game.”
• Toronto defender Torsten Frings: “It was an absolutely great atmosphere. They fired the team up, which made the team play well.”
• Galaxy coach Bruce Arena: “That was terrific support of their team. The fans deserve a lot of credit for coming out and supporting their team. It's a huge statement for their franchise.”

Don't expect anything similar at next week's second leg at Home Depot Center.

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The U.S. under-23 team was drawn Tuesday into Group A for CONCACAF's qualifiers next year, along with Canada, Cuba and El Salvador. Mexico is the top side in Group B. Guess which group will play at Home Depot Center.

That's a no-brainer: We'll be seeing the Mexicans, along with Honduras, Panama and Trinidad & Tobago over three doubleheaders in late March.

The U.S. group will play at LP Field in Nashville, and the semifinals and final will be held at Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan. The finalists advance to next year's London Games.

CONCACAF said it would announce the tournament match schedule “by the end of the week." Games are slated for HDC on March 23, 25 and 27.

CONCACAF's women's qualifiers will be staged Jan. 19-29 in Vancouver. The U.S. is in Group B with Mexico, Dominican Republic and Guatemala; Group A contains Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba and Haiti. The finalists advance.

CONCACAF's men's qualifying tournament for next year's London Olympics will include three dates at Home Depot Center, U.S. Soccer announced Thursday morning.

One of two four-team groups will be staged at HDC, with doubleheaders March 23, 25 and 27. The other group will play at LP Field in Nashville, Tenn., and the semifinals and final will be held at Livestrong Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan. The final is scheduled for April 2.

The finalists will advance to the London Games.

The group-stage draw will be held following the final round of Caribbean qualifying Nov. 24-28 in St. Kitts & Nevis. Trinidad & Tobago, Cuba and Suriname also are contending for two Caribbean slots, to join the U.S., Mexico, Canada and Central American qualifiers El Salvador, Honduras and Panama among the final eight.

Six nations already have qualified for the 16-team men's tournament in London: a joint Great Britain, as host, along with Belarus, Brazil, Spain, Switzerland and Uruguay.

The U.S. under-23 team, which will form the Olympic squad, is in a 36-man camp in Duisburg, Germany, through Wednesday. Included in the camp are Chivas USA defender Zarek Valentin, Galaxy academy midfielder Jose Villarreal (Inglewood/Leuzinger HS) Club Tijuana standout Joe Corona, full U.S. national-teamer Juan Agudelo from the New York Red Bulls, Real Salt Lake's Luis Gil (Garden Grove/Santiago HS) and 1860 Munich's Bobby Wood (Irvine).

CONCACAF's women's qualifiers will be staged Jan. 19-29 in Vancouver. The U.S. is in Group B with Mexico, Dominican Republic and Guatemala; Group A contains Canada, Costa Rica, Cuba and Haiti. The finalists advance.

Nine of 12 women's qualifiers have been determined: Great Britain, Brazil, Cameroon, Colombia, France, Japan, North Korea, South Africa and Sweden.

The Galaxy finally decided that home is sweet and scheduled their third home game in CONCACAF Champions League group play, Sept. 28 against Mexico's Morelia, for Home Depot Center.

The site hadn't been determined when the schedule was released last month, although it was hard to think of a better venue for the match. The Coliseum and Rose Bowl are too big, and Cal State Fullerton's Titan Stadium, which seats about 10,000, is too small, especially for a club like Morelia, which enjoys a strong following in Southern California.

Tickets for the 7 p.m. match go on sale Tuesday, and parking will be free -- as it was for last week's victory over Costa Rican champion Alajuelense. The Galaxy is 2-0-0 and atop Group A with four games to go. Their next game in the competition is Sept. 13 at Morelia.

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."

The U.S. national team's friendly at Home Depot Center in September is now official.

U.S. Soccer on Tuesday announced friendlies Sept. 2 against Costa Rica at HDC and Sept. 6 against Belgium in Brussels. Both are FIFA intertational fixture dates, meaning head coach Bob Bradley -- if he's still in charge -- can call in any healthy player from any club on the planet.

What's likely is that he'll use a domestic roster, primarily Major League Soccer players, for the match against the Ticos, then field a team of European-based players against Belgium. The games will be the Yanks' first since falling to Mexico in the June 25 CONCACAF Gold Cup final at the Rose Bowl and will serve as preps for the start of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Tickets for the HDC game, which will begin at 8 p.m., will be available June 15. Seats start at $20.

The U.S. is 11-11-6 all-time against Costa Rica, which is currently playing as a guest team in Copa America, South America's nations championship, after reaching the CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals. The Ticos have a four-game unbeaten streak going against the U.S., although the most recent meeting -- a 2-2 draw in October 2009 in a 2010 World Cup qualifier in D.C., forged on Jonathan Bornstein's stoppage-time goal -- sent Honduras past Costa Rica for the region's final berth in South Africa.

This will be the first friendly between the sides since 1998.

Tim Leiweke wasn't lying. Major League Soccer's championship game is, indeed, coming to L.A.

MLS made it official Tuesday, announcing that MLS Cup 2011 will be played Nov. 20 at Home Depot Center in Carson, the fourth time the venue has staged the game and the fifth time it has been played in Southern California.

Leiweke told a preseason gathering of fans at the ESPN Zone at L.A. Live that the game was returning to the Southland.

“It is set up well where we might happen to have a certain championship in a certain city we all know and love,” Leiweke said on March 11. “So it would certainly be a good Cup, that we have a chance to finish [a championship season] here.”

The Galaxy have played in a record six MLS Cup finals, winning in 2002 and 2005, but none of the games were in L.A. Chivas USA has never reached an MLS Cup title game.

Leiweke prefaced his remarks at ESPN Zone with: “Have we announced it yet?” Told no, he said: “Then I can't announce it. … I can do anything I want, because then the commissioner can yell at me, right?”

MLS Commissioner Don Garber said in April that “Leiweke would like MLS Cup at Home Depot Center” but that negotiations to place the game were still underway.

The game will kick off at 6 p.m. and be televised by ESPN and Galavision.

The four previous L.A. finals:

• 1998/Rose Bowl: Chicago Fire 2, D.C. United 0
• 2003/HDC: San Jose Earthquakes 4, Chicago Fire 2
• 2004/HDC: D.C. United 3, Kansas City Wizards 2
• 2008/HDC: Columbus Crew 3, New York Red Bulls 1

Galaxy ownership's chief executive told fans earlier this month that Major League Soccer's championship game was coming to Southern California. MLS's commissioner Sunday said such talk was premature.

Commissioner Don Garber, attending the Galaxy's home opener, acknowledged that the league is in negotiations with Galaxy owners Anschutz Entertainment Group to play this year's title game at Home Depot Center but that “we're not finalized yet.”

AEG President/CEO Tim Leiweke told a gathering at the Galaxy's annual fan luncheon March 11 at L.A. Live's ESPN Zone that “we might happen to have a certain championship in a certain city we all know and love” with a “chance to finish [a championship season] here.”

AEG-owned Home Depot Center has staged the 2003, 2004 and 2008 MLS Cup finals.

“I think [Leiweke] would like to see it here,” Garber told media at halftime of L.A.'s 1-1 draw with New England at HDC. “It's not yet decided, but Tim's always good for comments that get us excited on the press side and me frustrated on my end, but we're hoping to get an announcement for MLS Cup soon.”

The good news for Guatemala: Its foes at next month's Copa Centroamericana aren't going to be as talented as the Club America side it battled Wednesday night in El Reto Aguila in front of 18,632 at the Home Depot Center.

The bad news: The Chapines are going to have to mature, and fast, to contend with those foes.

America romped to a 4-1 triumph in a game much closer than the score suggests -- one goal separated the sides until the 82th minute -- yet just as one-sided as a three-goal victory ought to be.

The Mexico City powerhouse played a first-choice lineup -- all but injured Rosinei -- in its next-to-last prep before the Mexican Primera Division kicks off its Clausura season the second weekend of January, and it looks ready to make two title runs: in the domestic championship and Copa Libertadores.

The three-pronged attack -- Vicente Sanchez, Matias Vuoso and Daniel Montenegro, with midfielders Miguel Layun and newcomer Nicolas Olivera plus right back Oscar Rojas in support -- deserved more than it produced, and veteran Pavel Pardo masterfully laid a foundation in midfield for the attackers. And goalkeeper Memo Ochoa, America's reigning superstar, handled almost everything the game Guatemalans threw at him.

America went ahead on Vuoso's 19th-minute penalty kick -- Jaime Vides clipped Sanchez after a superb ball into space from Olivera -- and asserted command on a game-altering, end-to-end sequence about 10 minutes before the end of the first half.

The Chapines' inexperienced lineup had stayed with America the first 35 minutes. Carlos Figueroa, one of just five starters with more than 15 caps, was alternately awful and awesome, and he was both at a crucial juncture.

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Organizers promise that Wednesday's meeting between Club America and Guatemala's national team is the beginning of an annual series, with the Mexican giant taking on a different "international" team each winter -- and with a trophy at stake.

That aside, the 7 p.m. Home Depot Center clash (ESPN Deportes) is little more than your everyday preseason friendly. The Aguilas, semifinalists in the Mexican Primera Division's fall Apertura, are working toward their Clausura opener Jan. 9 against Pachuca. Guatemala is beginning preparations for the Jan. 14-23 Copa Centroamericana, which will send five teams (of seven competitors) to next summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup.

"It's a very serious game," America coach Manuel Lapuente said Tuesday afternoon. "It's our second-to-last game of preseason, and we don't have a lot of time left. We really need this game, because we have to show what we've got for the [Clausura]."

Five things about Wednesday's "El Reto Aguila" encounter:

1. TWO HOME TEAMS?

Neither of these teams are strangers to Southern California, and both have significant followings here. America is, with Guadalajara, one of Mexico's two true giants, and they're making their third 2010 appearance in L.A. Many Guatemalans live in SoCal, and they're getting to see their team for the third time this year, too.

America played two games at HDC during last January's InterLiga event, draws with Estudiantes Tecos and Monterrey, and beat Cruz Azul on July 10 at the Rose Bowl. Guatemala played two Coliseum friendlies, beating El Salvador in March and losing to Honduras in October.

2. AMERICA'S STARS

America made few changes from a side that made a nice late-season run during the Apertura, adding midfielder Nicolas Olivera from Puebla and bringing back defender Rodrigo Iñigo from Gallos Blancos de Queretaro. The big stars: goalkeeper Guillermo "Memo" Ochoa, midfielder Pavel Pardo -- Ochoa is a Mexican national team standourt, Pardo a former El Tri star -- forwards Matias Vuoso, Vicente Sanchez and Daniel Montenegro, and defender Aquivaldo Mosquera.

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We knew we were getting the final. Turns out only one other date at next summer's Gold Cup will be played in Southern California.

CONCACAF's urge to spread its nations championship to many sites has left Angelenos just two viewing options: A June 6 opener at Home Depot Center -- it'll be a doubleheader -- and the June 25 title game at the Rose Bowl.

No clue on who will be playing -- seven of 12 qualifiers have been determined and the draw will be held in early February -- but odds are it will be the U.S. and Mexico in the championship encounter.

The U.S. beat Mexico, 2-1, in the 2007 final in Chicago, and Mexico routed the U.S., 5-0, in the 2009 title game in East Rutherford, N.J.

Quarterfinals will be played in East Rutherford and Washington and semifinals in Houston. In all, 13 venues will stage games.

This will be the ninth time in 11 tournaments since the current format was adopted in 1991 that games will be played in Southern California. Five of the first six finals were played at the Rose Bowl or Coliseum, but next year's will be the first since 2002, when the U.S. beat Costa Rica at the Rose Bowl.

Home Depot Center has been the only So Cal venue in the past three competitions.

The U.S., Mexico and Canada automatically are entered into the tournament, and Jamaica, Cuba, Grenada and Guadeloupe qualified from the Caribbean Championship. Five Central American nations will emerge from the Jan. 14-23 Copa Centroamericana in Panama.

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The expected U.S. Soccer announcement of its Home Depot Opener came down Monday afternoon. The game is, indeed, against Chile, and it will be played Saturday, Jan. 22, at 6 p.m.

The game will conclude a camp in Carson for the Americans, who are preparing for next summer's CONCACAF Gold Cup. Details on the camp, which traditionally includes players from Major League Soccer -- including the top young players from the previous season -- national team veterans who play in Scandinavia and in fall-to-spring leagues with winter breaks, is tentatively slated for Jan. 3-22.

Chile, like the U.S., reached the round of 16 at the World Cup in South Africa. It is preparing for next summer's Copa America, South America's nations championship.

Tickets are on sale Friday.

The U.S. has started its year with games at Home Depot Center in 2004 and 2007-10, and it also played a January friendly in Carson in 2006. The Americans also used the venue for two CONCACAF Gold Cup matches in 2007 and a World Cup qualifier in 2008. Their record at HDC is 7-1-1.

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Club America, which is making its move as the most critical portion of the Mexican Primera Division's Apertura campaign arrives -- the Aguilas might just be the team to beat when the playoffs begin next week -- have a Christmas present for Southern California.

The Mexico City giant will take on Guatemala's national team in a Dec. 29 friendly at the Home Depot Center, its 11th appearance in Carson and second in the L.A. area in six months. Kickoff is expected to be 7 or 8 p.m., and tickets go on sale Nov. 18. America beat Cruz Azul at the Rose Bowl in July.

The match will be a replacement of sorts for the InterLiga, Mexico's annual qualifying tournament for Copa Libertadores that had been played the last seven Januarys at HDC. InterLiga was discontinued earlier this year.

HDC also will stage, as always, the opener on the U.S. national team's calendar. The game, usually in the third or fourth week of January, following a national team camp, is expected to be announced in the next few days. Chile, we hear, will be the U.S. opponent.

Until it cleared up so nicely on Saturday, Major League Soccer’s playoff scenarios were complicated, to be sure. The Galaxy might have ended up with a first-round series with Colorado or San Jose or FC Dallas; that they’ll face Seattle is fine with them.

Not that it’s perfect.

“Seattle’s not going to be easy. It never is,” Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said after Sunday’s victory over FC Dallas set up encounters with the Sounders on Sunday in Seattle and Nov. 7 at Home Depot Center. “But I think the choices were … what were the choices? I think they were Dallas … none of the choices were real good, to be honest. I wouldn’t want to be going into Dallas either.

“I do prefer going to Seattle than going into altitude. There was always a chance at some point we could go to Colorado or Salt Lake, and the altitude is an issue, and the one thing we’ve assured ourselves is that we’re not going to be playing in altitude. Not that guarantees anything, but I think that’s good. It’s a lot easier for the players to adjust to the artificial field [in Seattle] than to altitude. So In think that’s a positive out of this.”

Perhaps so. If L.A. and Real Salt Lake win their first-round series, they’ll meet in Carson. Toronto, where MLS Cup will be played Nov. 21, has a lower elevation than downtown L.A. But the Galaxy are hardly happy they’ll start their home-and-home, total-goals series on the fake turf at Qwest Field.

“I don’t like it,” said Edson Buddle, who led the Galaxy with 17 goals. “I’m not a big fan. I never was. But I have to deal with that and get over it.”

Said David Beckham: “At the end of the day, it is what it is. We have to go there, and we have to play. It’s the same for both teams. Obviously, it’s an advantage for them, because they play on it every other week, but it is what it is.”

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