Galaxy Is Looking for Plenty of Solid Ground Support Today

As any infantryman will tell you, it’s better to have the tanks going your way than coming your way.

Unfortunately for the Galaxy, “El Tanque” is headed directly toward it today, and Eduardo Hurtado is intent on proving that Los Angeles was wrong to trade him to the New York/New Jersey MetroStars last week for Wellington Sanchez.

So the question facing Galaxy defenders in this afternoon’s nationally televised Major League Soccer game at Giants Stadium is this: How do they stop Hurtado?

Team captain Dan Calichman has some thoughts on the matter.

“No one’s going to like to play against Hurtado,” he said after last Saturday’s victory over the Colorado Rapids in Denver had left Los Angeles unbeaten at 3-0. “We’ve played against him in practice all the time, and obviously he’ll have a lot to prove and he’s going to come at us hard. But if any four defenders can play against him, I’d say it’s us, because we’ve trained with him.

“But we’re not looking forward to it. When he wants to play, he can get by any of us. The second guy [defender] has got to be quick and help out a lot. The first guy has to make contact, the second guy’s got to get the ball.

“He’s definitely not a guy you want to upset, and he’s definitely a guy you want to keep space from.”

In other words, “El Tanque” has to be double-teamed, closed down quickly and not allowed any room to maneuver or work up a head of steam. Otherwise, there goes the unbeaten record.

Meanwhile, Sanchez will make his Galaxy debut today, having come an extremely roundabout way to Los Angeles. In the last few weeks, the midfielder has seen more of the world than in any of his previous 23 years.

Signed by the MetroStars from his Ecuador club team, Nacional, he had no sooner reached New York than the MetroStars took off on a preseason tour of Italy. Once he got back from Europe, Sanchez had to fly to Ecuador to arrange for his wife and daughter to join him in the United States.

The MetroStars’ season opener was against the Galaxy at the Rose Bowl, meaning another cross-country sojourn--even though Sanchez played only nine minutes. And no sooner had the team arrived back on the East Coast than he was traded to Los Angeles.

MLS has been doing everything it can to bolster the fortunes of its New York/New Jersey team after two feeble seasons at Giants Stadium last year culminated in the MetroStars failing to reach the playoffs.

It meant a housecleaning and the arrival of almost a new starting lineup. Apart from Hurtado, the MetroStars also acquired U.S. national team defender Alexi Lalas, Argentine midfielder Diego Sonora, Colombian defender Jose Arley Palacios and several others.

This week, the MetroStars acquired potentially their best player. Marcelo Vega, the gifted playmaker on Chile’s World Cup-bound national team, signed with the MLS club on Thursday.

Vega, 26, will not join the MetroStars until later this month.