What Went Wrong: At Least Chivas USA Still Has Justin Braun

Chivas USA (8-18-4, 28 points, -14 goal differential)

What went right: To be completely honest, very little. Chivas USA moved onto a new head coach in Martin Vasquez, saw Sacha Kljestan leave for Anderlecht in Belgium and sunk to the bottom of the Western Conference with just 28 points from 30 matches. Add in Jonathan Bornstein signing a pre-contract with Tigres in Mexico to leave the club at the end of the season on a free transfer and you have a bad team coming off of a bad season and set to lose their captain. One positive was the strong play of Justin Braun who scored nine goals with no help around him.

What went wrong: Vasquez turned out to be a poor choice as manager and a club that had been in the playoffs for four consecutive years despite tons of injuries got healthy for a season in 2010 and then did worse. Kljestan leaving the club left the team with little creativity and their defense was so poor that Bornstein had to move from his usual left back position to the center so Chivas wouldn't get torn apart. They finished with fewer points than matches played. Enough said.

What we learned: The first thing is that Preki may have done more with less than people gave him credit for in past seasons. Another is that Braun is a striker that you can count on when he gets service. The last is that Chivas will need a major roster overhaul if they are to compete again because their poor play was more a result of having too many holes than missing the right player or two.

Where we go from here: Step one for Chivas will be finding a midfield to support Justin Braun. The Goats scored just 31 goals in 2010, the second fewest in the league and Braun accounted for nine of them. Braun can play as a lone striker, but a competent winger and more importantly, someone with creativity in the center behind Braun is a must. Also, replacing their captain and top defender Bornstein will be difficult, but necessary.

Core 11 (players that should be protected): To be completely honest, it's tough to come up with 11. Braun, Jesus Padilla, Michael Lahoud and Paulo Nagamura give Chivas a decent core, while Blair Gavin, Carlos Borja and Ben Zemanski are good young players. Zach Thornton is still a solid goalkeeper and Rodolfo Espinoza was decent, but after that Chivas is looking at protecting Jonathan Bornstein just to retain his MLS rights and Maykel Galindo because he might have some trade value.