CHIVAS USA: CHIVAS GETS YOUTHS IN THE CLUB PROGRAM HELPS DEVELOP PLAYERS.

Byline: BILLY WITZ

Staff Writer

CARSON - It wasn't easy for Eder Robles to follow his dream of becoming a professional soccer player. In the Lynwood neighborhood where he grew up, Robles had seen plenty of other good players find a reason to stop playing -- drugs, gangs, poor grades and other realities of life in a low-income neighborhood.

"It's rough out here," said Robles, 19, who a year ago signed as a developmental player with Chivas USA. "In some cases, kids don't get the opportunity. I know guys that are way better than me, but they might have had financial problems or gotten a girl pregnant and now they have other problems to deal with."

It is players like Robles -- talented, local and Latino -- that Chivas USA is targeting with its youth development program that has quickly become a model program. Several nights each week at the Bell Gardens Sports Center, scores of players from age 5 to 18, some dressed in red-and-white Chivas jerseys, are taught the game from the same manual used by the professional team.

Robles is one of four products of the three-year-old program who have been signed to MLS contracts. The idea is that the youth development program will regularly feed the varsity.

Chivas USA's under-18 team will be put to the test tonight at 7:15 p.m. at the Home Depot Center when it plays the under-18 United States Youth National Team, as the U.S. Soccer Development Academy Fall Classic begins today.

Chivas USA's under-18 and under-16 squads are the only local squads and only MLS-affiliated ones among the 38 teams that were invited around the country for the three-day tournament, which is kicking off the academy.

The national program has invited 64 youth programs (including Real So Cal of Calabasas) from around the country to, in essence, form its own league, which U.S. Soccer will oversee.

The idea is to encourage more skill development by restricting the number of games these clubs play and focusing instead on training. U.S. Soccer then will be able to closely monitor the progress and improve the depth of its player pool.

What Chivas USA is doing with its youth program dovetails nicely with what U.S. Soccer wants to accomplish, according to U.S. under-17 coach John Hackworth.

"Chivas is doing a fantastic job," said Hackworth, a member of the United States technical staff. "They're ahead of the other (MLS clubs). The player-development process in this country is not geared toward youth players maturing and growing. It's about youth players being overused. There has to be fundamental instruction from influential agents. Professional clubs have to be the leaders in this."

Chivas' program is based on a worldwide model in which top players are identified at an early age -- sometimes younger than 10 -- and invited into the club's youth program and taught the game the way the club plays it.

Chivas' director of soccer Dennis te Kloese, who oversees the youth program, grew up and later coached in the youth system at Ajax, the Dutch club renowned for its player development. He also served as a scout for Chivas de Guadalajara, the part-owner of Chivas USA.

Each club has its own distinct playing style (wingers for Ajax and three fullbacks for Chivas) that is taught down to the lowest level. Also, player development was crucial at both clubs: Ajax because its financial well-being relies on being able to sell some of its top players to the top clubs in Europe; and Chivas because it limits itself to only Mexican players.

"This is not marketing, this is not a show," te Kloese said. "This is soccer. For 12 years, (MLS) clubs haven't looked at youth players. This is something you can't put a value on.

"What we're trying to do is create a club feeling. If you play in Bell Gardens on the under-10 team, you'll get recognition, you'll see players on the first team so they can see that's where they can end up. It's important to create an identity with the club, to let the young guys know they're valued. It's important to create a path."

To ensure that path is clear, Chivas USA's youth teams -- from under-15 to under-19 -- are free for players who make the team. This is in marked contrast to club soccer, which te Kloese said operates like a marketplace: the better the instruction, the more expensive.

"Money, race, living far away -- there's all kinds of obstacles out there," te Kloese said. "There shouldn't be obstacles to being a professional, to being part of Chivas."

Being a part of Chivas appealed to Robles two years ago when he was seen by te Kloese and then-Chivas USA coach Thomas Rongen, now the U.S. under-20 coach, at a high school tournament.

Instead of being driven by his father to Mission Viejo to train for his club team several times a week, Robles was able to play near home. He also was seen by enough influential eyes that he was called into U.S. under-19 camps and joined the Chivas USA U-19s for a season-ending tournament in Costa Rica.

Former Chivas USA coach Bob Bradley, now the U.S. national team coach, liked what he saw enough to sign Robles, a left back, to a developmental player contract last September. If he hadn't signed, Robles says, he'd probably be playing at a junior college since his grades weren't good enough for a four-year school.

He's thankful for the opportunity he's had, but is also envious of his brother, Andrew, a 16-year-old in Chivas' youth program, and his two younger brothers.

"I wish they had this thing when I was young," Robles said. "But it's been the best thing that's happened to me. To be playing against the guys I'm playing, and there's times I'm in the community, I get some 'Hey, Eder, what's up?' from people who recognize me. That's good because there's a lot of good players out there that don't have role models."

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Chivas USA vs. Real Salt Lake, 6 p.m., Rice-Eccles Stadium.

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