Galaxy should know the enemy in MLS opener

DENVER – With Galaxy Coach Ruud Gullit new to the league, it will be up to PaulBravo, the team’s director of soccer, to get a handle on opponents early in the Major League Soccer season.

Fortunately for the Galaxy, it opens Saturday night against the Colorado Rapids, and Bravo knows them inside out, having played for the Rapids from 1997 to 2001. He won the MLS Cup with them in 1997 and is still the team’s all-time scoring leader.

What Bravo sees with David Beckham, Landon Donovan and Carlos Ruiz running into the sold-out opener will be not only cold temperatures and thin air, but a team that specializes in defense and counterattack.

Like Los Angeles, Colorado has shaken up its roster, with the big acquisition being that of Argentine midfielder Christian Gomez from D.C. United. Bravo said Gomez, the league’s MVP in 2006, would have to adapt to a different style of play with the Rapids.

“D.C. was a little more offense-minded and open and allowed him to be free,” Bravo said. “Colorado has more of a defend-first mentality … but I’m sure he’ll have a huge impact on their team and a lot of what they do will obviously be dictated by him.

“They’re very organized defensively. They try to get 10 players behind the ball at all times and make it difficult for you to break them down, and then they’ll try and catch you going the other way.”

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Smart move by Colorado Coach Fernando Clavijo in picking up midfielder/defender Kelly Gray on Friday, just one day before the Rapids play the team that waived him in February.

Gray might not yet know his teammates but the motivation will be there if he gets some playing time Saturday night against the Galaxy. “Kelly knows how to win, and his championship experience will benefit this team,” Clavijo said Friday.

Gray, 26, won a U.S. Open Cup in 2003 while with the Chicago Fire and the MLS Cup in 2006 with the Houston Dynamo.

He joins three other former Galaxy players with Colorado – Ugo Ihemelu, JovanKirovski and Herculez Gomez, but the three are listed as either out or doubtful because of injury, as are MikePetke, Conor Casey and Mehdi Ballouchy.

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Interesting timing, also, by Chivas USA Coach Preki, who on Friday traded for a player from Krakow, Poland, only two days after the U.S. national team had trounced Poland, 3-0, in that city.

Still, defensive midfielder Chris Pozniak can hardly be blamed for that defeat. His family moved to Canada when he was nine and he has since represented his adopted homeland at the youth and senior international levels.

Pozniak, 27, played 22 games for Toronto FC last season before being picked up by the San Jose Earthquakes in the expansion draft. He was acquired Friday in a trade with San Jose that sent forward John Cunliffe north.

Preki said the addition of Pozniak, who played professionally in Norway and Sweden before coming to MLS, would “strengthen” the team. Certainly, Pozniak is more than capable of providing cover at right back, now that Alex Zotinca has been sidelined by a long-term knee injury.

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There were all sorts of intriguing developments on the international front Friday, with former Chelsea coach and idol Jose Mourinho said to be in talks with Italian champion Inter Milan and Liverpool co-owner George Gillett admitting that he can no longer see eye to eye with business partner Tom Hicks.

Mourinho’s personal advisor said the Portuguese coach was in Milan to talk to Inter directors about taking over from incumbent Coach Roberto Mancini, who had said immediately after being knocked out of the European Champions League by Liverpool that he wanted to quit.

Massimo Moratti, Inter Milan’s owner, was terse in his response to the rumors. “There is all this stuff to deny, but I no longer have the patience to do it,” he said.

Meanwhile, Gillett told Toronto radio station Fan590 that his family had received “many phone calls in the middle of the night threatening our lives, death threats” purportedly from Liverpool fans angry with the two North American owners.

Gillett said Hicks had become especially unpopular with Liverpool fans and that selling Hicks his share of the club was now “an untenable alternative” because of that. “Instead of thinking about selling, I might think about buying,” Gillett said. “The pieces on the chess board are moving.”

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Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium was chosen to stage the Champions League final in 2010… . Former Barcelona coach Carles Rexach said “the Ronaldino era is over” at Barcelona and that he would be leaving the club… . And finally, in a routine that has become farcical, 1994 Brazilian World Cup winner Romario, 42, once again announced his retirement, something he has done five or six times over the years.

grahame.jones@latimes.com