Messi’s arrival shifts MLS attention away from Vela and Chicharito

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Vela and Chicharito
Carlos Vela in 2019 Reproducao LAFC

While welcoming Lionel Messi to MLS in Miami, the league also turns the page on their two marquee players: Mexican legends Carlos Vela and Chicharito Hernandez of LAFC and LA Galaxy, respectively.

No one can deny that this past week could end up being one of the most groundbreaking periods in Major League Soccer’s relatively young history. After all, it was just last Wednesday when Inter Miami announced the signing of the most influential footballer of our time by an owner who was once considered the league’s ultimate icon. 

READ MORE: LAFC’s Steve Cherundolo on MLS salaries: I don’t make those decisions

In Case You Missed

Yup, Beckham signed Lionel Messi to play in MLS. That Becks, the one who played for the LA Galaxy and put that very same soccer league on the world map. 

“So, did you ever see Beckham play in LA?” I often get, whenever I say I follow the league. I always reply: “No, but I saw him sitting in traffic with his family once.” At least, I think it was him. The one I’d see again retired, years later, sitting at an Inter Miami game when his team visited LAFC in its inaugural season, right before the whole world shut down due to Covid.

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Meanwhile, Beckham’s old team, The Galaxy, five times league champs in almost 30 years, came to sign other great attackers after him, names like Ibrahimovic and Robbie Keane but no one of Messi’s or Beckham’s caliber. In terms of notoriety, no one came close to replacing Becks until another star named Carlos Vela arrived years later from Europe to start for the new team across town, as Los Angeles FC’s new captain and reference player on the West Coast.

El Trafico: A rivalry is born

Then, with the arrival of Ibrahimović in Carson and a couple of playoff series later between the two sides, a derby rivalry was suddenly born, and the El Trafico gained a dual national appeal, both in the US and Mexico.

This phenomenon would further increase with the arrival of Javier Chicharito Hernandez to Los Angeles. Suddenly, two of the most renowned Mexican attackers were poised to square off in a Battle for Los Angeles which in 2021, culminated around the League hosting its all-star game centered around it, in a match against Liga MX foes, a spectacle for the entire league to watch.

With Vela and Chicharito facing constant injuries, the El Trafico seems to also be entering a new chapter of its own. And while the league’s plan made sense, we never saw its best footballers display their talents simultaneously. They exchanged moments of greatness between injury stints, but never seemed to truly to recover or be the same type of player. In fact, in roughly eight seasons, they also missed 53 games since joining the league (and counting).

MLS and Miami: Shift from aging stars Vela and Chicharito

 

When on the field, their numbers seem to be declining on several fronts over the years: in 2023, Chicharito displayed his worst Goals per 90 since his days at Man U. And now the news that he will be out for the season once again with a torn ACL, a devastating blow for the Mexican attacker, which will likely put his future with the Galaxy in jeopardy.

LAFC’s Vela, on the other hand, at least seems to have avoided the injuries that kept him out of play for most of 2021 after sitting out the 2020 season; however, his minutes and shots on goal have dwindled to their lowest levels since 2015.  Carlos’s shooting also seems to have disappeared under the risk of re-injuring a hamstring.

And now, after a tough week, with losses to Leon twice, once at home, and a tie against Atlanta in a game Vela wasted two Penalty kicks, even he seems to admit he should no longer be the focal point of the MLS Champs’s attacking front. Then came the weekend game: a 4-0 loss to the Houston Dynamo where Coach Cherundolo had no words to explain what has transpired, other </span>than acknowledging his team, and his captain, did not show up to play.

The silver lining for LAFC: this could be the beginning of a renaissance for Vela, one where he’s playing a de facto 10: after all, his progressive passing is over double his 2019 levels to put him in the 96th percentile among forwards in the League on Progressive passing and 99% percentile in xA and assists to teammates.

Enter Messi and Inter Miami

Messi’s impact on the league will be immeasurable, much like the contributions of both Mexican legends over the years. The question is whether Messi will do what others couldn’t: convince the casual fan that beyond himself, there are two or three other players across all 4 time zones worth following. The good news for all is that we finally have a single platform to watch them all. As the league prepares to welcome Lionel, more and more questions remain on what will the two Los Angeles franchises do with their beloved but aging Mexican stars.