The Mexican star sat down with GOAL to discuss his team's season, why he still has hope and what he wants to see from the next generation.
One of the phrases most associated with Javier 'Chicharito' Hernandez is "imaginemos cosas chingonas", or "imagine beautiful things". It's his outlook on life. Even when things get ugly, you can always imagine something beautiful. You can always work towards something better.
This season, it's been hard to find much beauty about the LA Galaxy, and Chicharito is quick to admit it. This campaign has arguably been the darkest in the club's history, and it's not even halfway over.
But, true to character, Chicharito is imagining beautiful things. Somehow, despite the club's struggles, he sees a way out. He's still imagining this team lifting a trophy at the end of it. What a story that would be, he says.
The LA Galaxy star, though, is a realist. It'll take a lot of work and a lot of change to get there. What the club has done so far hasn't worked, but Chicharito isn't giving up hope.
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A tough start to the season
Chicharito is the first to admit that this season has been rocky, and he's also the first to admit that it really, really bothers him.
As things stand, the Galaxy sit bottom of the Western Conference, although they do have games in hand. They also head into the summer facing a transfer ban, meaning that there will be no reinforcements coming in to elevate this team.
No matter what the scenario, that's inexcusable for a club the size of this. There's really no precedent for how bad the Galaxy have been this season. This is a team that was once the marquee team in MLS; now, based on recent history, they're no longer the marquee team in their own city.
It all came to a head recently when the club finally moved on from president Chris Klein amid fan backlash. The atmosphere in Carson has grown somewhat toxic, as fans, players, coaches and executives all look to lift this team out of the Western Conference's basement.
"It's about trusting, man," the Mexican star says. "Just trusting, because, look, I've always said it: when you are playing pretty well, when everything looks positive, you feel that everything is clicking, you feel that you're putting into practice all of the beliefs and everything that you say or you preach, but now, when you don't have complete certainty, now that it doesn't feel very good, now when even the results are not coming, now is when you need to practice it even more.
"The trust, the belief, the sticking together. Sticking together is not just saying all of this; sticking together is like trusting in that process, trusting in your teammates first, in the whole organization because, to be honest, it's not a matter of putting in the work, it's not a matter that this organization is not putting the work or giving everything."
He continued: "It's just simple: we need to believe, we need to be more accountable, we need to take more seriously every moment, every opportunity. Speaking as players, and I'm the first one, I'll come here with you and other people speaking about it.
"I'm the first one trying to do it because for me, I told my teammates in recent meetings that we did because we want to overcome all of this, like 'Guys, the last two years, they were great, they were amazing, and you can even, say, I scored plenty of goals, you could even debate if I was one of the best players of the team, but that wasn't enough! We didn't get the trophies. It's not about me being the best just for getting the praise for me; I want to be the best so I can help you be the best'."
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Imagining beautiful things, but not daydreaming
Chicharito is the team's Designated Player, the team's star, the team's top goalscorer. Any Galaxy revival will have to start with him and, when asked about the team's season so far, the Mexican star is guaranteeing that there will be a revival.
It's tough to imagine now, for sure, and he admits that, for some, it will feel like he's being too optimistic. But, in a league as crazy as MLS, he does have a point: anything can happen over the next few months. It may be ugly in Los Angeles now, but who knows what will come next?
"I want to continue to be contagious with everyone," he begins, "because we deserve to be champions, but for that, we need to take this adversity and transform it, man. That's an opportunity. That's the beauty of writing a story. Imagine if we finish, I won't even say a treble, but the double, you know? Imagine we win the U.S. Open Cup and then we go to the playoffs and you never know! In the playoffs, you never know!
"That's how we we finished last season as well, when we had a very good streak of 12 games with just one loss, four draws, and I think the rest were wins, so we're still that in these competitions but, as well, we are realistic that the results haven't happened in the way that we want. Right now, we are in the bottom of the of the conference. We are not like just daydreaming over here. We're going to put the work for the results. That's going to happen and we are seven points away from the playoff spots, and to get to the championship, we need to get in playoffs.
"Of course, we would love to be the top seed of the conference, obviously, but right now, it seems very difficult, but we're gonna get as high as we can for sure. And if we get into the playoffs, man, we're gonna be one of the most dangerous teams, for sure."
For Chicharito's lofty goals to become a reality, the Galaxy will need just about everything to go right, which seems like a big ask considering, so far, just about everything has gone wrong.
Chicharito himself missed the start of the season due to injury and was not available for the club's recent 3-2 win over Real Salt Lake due to a red card suspension. Douglas Costa has, largely, been a non-factor. The lineup has been inconsistent due to some of those injury issues, with Greg Vanney unable to really crack the code of what has gone wrong.
"We haven't had a full team for three months, man," he says. "We haven't played like the starting XI that Greg is going to choose for five games in a row. We haven't so far and it's June, you know? That's a fact. Does that that affect us? Of course, but we're not going to stay the victim and we're just going to give excuses. We're going to overcome all of that."
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Superstar Riqui Puig
While Chicharito may remain the face of the Galaxy, there is another player alongside him that certainly has the quality to be among the best in MLS.
Riqui Puig has made headlines in recent weeks, having earned the ire of Giorgio Chiellini for a recent Lionel Messi-inspired celebration. The Italian icon called Puig "payaso", or clown, but there's nothing funny about how good the ex-Barcelona man can be on his day.
The young midfielder was once a star at La Masia, but, with playing time tough to come by in Barcelona, Puig arrived in Los Angeles last year looking for a fresh start. And, despite the Galaxy's struggles, he's shown glimpses of the star he can be.
Chicharito, who has at times taken Puig under his wing, has nothing but rave reviews for his teammate, a player he believes has unbelievable potential.
"I think he is one of the most talented players in this continent right now," Chicharito said. "He's so talented. I think living in LA is not that difficult to get used to because it's a great city and a great atmosphere and, over here, the club will treat you in a very warm way. I think I could speak for that and say he's very happy. He's enjoying it a lot."
He continued: "Riqui is an amazing teammate and amazing player. He's going to help us a lot."
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The importance of learning
Youth soccer is still very much fragmented in the U.S., with the pay-for-play system still a key fixture in the American soccer landscape.
Because of that, there are many different schools of thought when it comes to developing talent. And, while Chicharito is no expert in youth development, he has seen enough to have some ideas.
For him, the most important thing for any player to have is hunger and a desire to learn. As someone that has reached the highest levels of this sport, there's no point where you "beat" the game, he says. To truly succeed at a high level, you have to be willing to admit what you don't know.
One player that he says understood that was Julian Araujo, who signed with Barcelona in January after starring for the LA Galaxy as well as the U.S. men's national team and Mexico's national team. What impressed the striker most about his now-former teammate was his passion for learning, and he says that passion will take him a long way.
"Even though he has talent, even though he's a great player, and even though everyone can say that he will have very positive like outcomes in his profession, what he has is this true passion for learning, man," Chicharito said of Araujo. "I felt that, not only personally because it's not that he was talking every single time with me and asking me a lot of stuff, but he did and then he was doing that with everyone. He was always observing and always listening, being very humble to accept that, regardless of if he had a very good game, there's always something to keep learning.
"When you are very young, 20 years old, you're playing in MLS, the right back of this amazing club and you have an amazing game or you had, for example, an assist and a clean sheet, everyone is speaking about you and you go to the MLS All Star Game and everything. It's tough man to to keep learning."
Always the philosopher, Chicharito says that mindset is also one he applies to himself. Even at 35, he knows that it's vital to be introspective, on and off the field, if he wants to keep growing as a player and a person.
"I think that will be the most important thing, in my opinion, about the youth and about even myself nowadays," he says. "I think in life, you need to never stop. You need to be humble enough to know that you always can learn from anybody, whatever it is. You never can feel that you've already done it or you already made it, right? There's always something that you can learn."