Galaxy Faces Fire Looking for Spark

There’s no question the Galaxy team Carlos Hermosillo is joining tonight is in much worse shape than the one he joined a year ago. And that may work to his advantage.

Last season, the Galaxy was 11-2 with 31 points when Hermosillo joined it June 7 for his Major League Soccer debut after playing in the Mexican First Division. More important, the Galaxy was in the middle of a season in which it scored a league-record 85 regular-season goals and didn’t need another scorer when Hermosillo arrived.

He didn’t score in his first 10 MLS games, then got six goals and 12 assists in his final eight regular-season contests.

This season, the Galaxy has a league-low eight goals through 12 games. The absence of Cobi Jones, who is with the U.S. national team, will make Hermosillo an even more welcome sight for Galaxy eyes tonight when he makes his season debut starting for Jones against defending MLS Cup champion Chicago at 7:30 at the Rose Bowl.

“We need a goal scorer,” said goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, who leads the league with an 0.58 goals-against average and six shutouts, his most recent coming Sunday in a 1-0 victory over Kansas City. “With Carlos, we know we can put the ball into him in the box and we know he’s comfortable working in the box.”

But with the Galaxy at 6-6 and in fourth place in the Western Conference, the team can’t afford another slow start by Hermosillo.

“I think I got a great benefit from being here last year,” Hermosillo said through an interpreter. “What I came to notice here last year was that you have to always be above 100%.”

At 100%, Hermosillo, 34, is one of the premier players in Mexico. He scored nine goals this year with Necaxa and has 300 goals in 16 years of First Division competition.

His teammates hope that success, and the experience of playing in the MLS last year, will translate into new life for a stagnant offense.

“He didn’t know as much about the American game last year,” Hartman said. “Now he knows how guys are going to mark him.

“Instead of guys like Cobi and Welton [since traded to New York/New Jersey] running downfield away from him, guys will be playing off of him.”

Along with bolstering the offense, Hermosillo is with the Galaxy to bolster attendance. After leading the league with an average of 21,784 fans a year ago, the Galaxy is seventh in attendance so far in 1999, averaging 13,105 through seven home games.

Hermosillo is the only Mexican-born player on the Galaxy roster.