By Luis Bueno – CARSON, CA (Apr 8, 2014) US Soccer Players – For a while now, Chivas USA have been at the bottom of the MLS Western Conference standings with no chance of the playoffs. To search for the last time Chivas were competitive is to go back to the time when Preki was with the club.

The last time Chivas had a winning record, made the playoffs, won a season series against the Galaxy, and had an increase in average attendance all happened when Preki was head coach.

Both Preki and the success he brought Chivas are long gone, but Preki is trying to recreate that success in California once more. Preki is in charge of start-up USL PRO side Sacramento Republic FC. So far, the former USMNT player and National Soccer Hall of Famer is doing a splendid job with the fledgling club.

“My job is to put these young fellows in position to be successful,” Preki said on Monday. “So far they’re taking everything that I’m saying in stride. They’re learning, they’re getting better and I expect us to be better and better after every game.”

Sacramento tasted victory for the first time in what was a familiar setting for Preki. At one point, Preki picking up a coaching victory at Home Depot Center was somewhat routine. It was fitting then that Preki’s first win with Sacramento came at the place formerly known as Home Depot Center.

Sacramento Republic FC beat Chivas USA 3-1 at StubHub Center on Monday in his first trip back since he parted ways with the MLS club following the 2009 season.

Had Preki returned to face Chivas in 2010 or so, perhaps the visit would have been more emotional. But the club has undergone so many changes over the last four years that there was hardly a trace of emotion.

“It’s been a long time,” Preki said after the match. “Most of the people here I don’t know, a bunch of new people in the group and I wish them all the best. I want this club to do well.”

Preki spent most of the last four years out of coaching. He took over Toronto FC immediately after leaving Chivas but did not make it through his first season unscathed, as he was fired in September 2010. He has not coached professionally again until Sacramento Republic came along.

Throughout his post-Chivas career, though, Preki has seen the club that gave him his coaching start fall into disarray, and that part has been difficult to watch.

“This club is always going to stay in my heart because this is where I started my pro (coaching) career,” he said. “For me it’s incredibly sad to see, after those years we had here, where the club has gone.”

Chivas are on their fifth head coach since 2009, trying without success to find a coach who can come close to matching Preki’s success. Change has hit the club hard, as the roster turnover has been on high from 2010 through now. Front office changes have also been massive, and the club now is poised to change form altogether with MLS having bought out former owner Jorge Vergara.

While he was an intimate and influential part of the club at one point, Preki said he only saw things from afar and thus was not able to form an opinion on the goings-on in Carson.

“That’s not fair for me to comment on because you can’t comment on things from a distance. I can comment on things when I was here and those were good years for me. I loved being here. I loved coaching that team. The results speak for themselves,” he said. “What happened afterward it’s not really fair for me to elaborate on because I wasn’t here. It seems like they were changing every week, every day.”

Vergara did take a shot at Preki in November 2012 when he claimed that he offered former Guadalajara player Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez to Chivas USA, an offer Preki declined.

“It’s absolutely false,” Preki said. “When I went down to Guadalajara (in 2007), that was the first player I asked for. He was a young boy and I asked, ‘Can we have this boy to play for us for a year?’ He wasn’t playing for Guadalajara at the time. ‘Can we have this boy for a year and we’ll give him back to you? He’ll be a better player.’ [Vergara] said no.”

Preki does not have to deal with a crackpot owner any more, though. The start to his coaching career with Sacramento has gone well and the future in the state capital is bright.

“It’s pretty good, a good group of people, a great organization and a great fan base,” he said. “My job is to put a winning group in there. We’re working hard. There are always some obstacles on the way but we’re trying to fix every obstacle as we go.”

Luis Bueno is a veteran soccer writer. Follow him on twitter @BuenoSoccer.

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