Galaxy Faces a Big Test

By GRAHAME L. JONES

Nov. 11, 1999 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

Forget Ariel Graziani. Forget Jason Kreis. Forget Matt Jordan. Forget all the Dallas Burn players.

All except one.

The player the Galaxy should fear most will not be on the field tonight when the teams face off at the Rose Bowl with a place in Major League Soccer’s championship game on the line.

But credit Brandon Pollard if the Burn somehow trips the Galaxy at the next-to-last hurdle in its quest for an MLS title.

The Dallas defender hasn’t set foot on a soccer field since Oct. 23. That was the night he was carried off Soldier Field after his right leg was broken in two places because of a late and poorly executed tackle by the Chicago Fire’s Dema Kovalenko.

The incident sparked a heated postgame exchange between Dallas Coach Dave Dir and Chicago Coach Bob Bradley. More important, although it ended Pollard’s season, it ignited Dallas’ playoff run.

In the third and deciding game of its Western Conference semifinal series, with Pollard on crutches on the Cotton Bowl sideline, the Burn rallied from two goals down to knock the defending MLS champion Fire out of the playoffs.

And it was Pollard’s jersey that Dir hung in the Rose Bowl locker room before Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, a game the Galaxy barely won, 2-1, thanks to a last-minute goal by Ezra Hendrickson. “We had a little extra incentive,” Dir said.

Pollard was back on the Cotton Bowl sideline Sunday, when the Burn twice came from behind to tie the Galaxy and then win, 3-2, in a shootout to even the best-of-three series at a game apiece.

Afterward, the 1996 U.S. Olympic team player was flying as high as his teammates. It had been difficult, he said, to stay on the bench.

“I almost crossed that white line [onto the field] many times,” he said. “It’s hard to hold back. These games have been so emotional. . . . I certainly wish I could be out there with them.”

In a sense, he has been. If the Galaxy’s game is characterized by technical skill and tactical discipline, the Burn’s trademark is heart. The team does not give up.

“It’s been surprise after surprise,” Pollard said. “I wouldn’t put anything past this team. When teams get up on us early, there’s no question for me that we can come back and overcome any deficit. The team has so much charisma and there’s so much heart in every player. Everybody just leaves it all on the field.”

The Galaxy will have to exhibit that same tenacity tonight, or an entire season’s work will have been for naught.

The numbers are on its side.

Los Angeles is 14-4 at the Rose Bowl this year, including 2-0 in the playoffs. It is 12-0 at home against Western Conference teams. It is 3-0 at home against the Burn this season and is on a six-game winning streak against Dallas in Pasadena. Equally important, the Burn is 6-12 on the road in 1999 and will be without defender Eric Dade and midfielder Sergi Daniv, who are serving one-game suspensions.

But the Galaxy still has to beat goalkeeper Jordan, whose 1.08 goals-against average was second only to the Galaxy’s Kevin Hartman.

Then there is Kreis, the league’s top scorer with 18 goals and 15 assists, who is due to break out of a scoreless playoff slump.

Finally, there is Graziani, the Argentine forward whose five goals, including three against the Galaxy, lead MLS playoff scorers.

“He’s a player you’ve got to be aware of,” Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid said. “If you lose sight of him for a second. . . . On the second goal [Sunday], I thought we had him bottled up, but he still got a foot to the ball.

“He’s very good at sneaking behind people and splitting people’s vision.”

Rather than assign one defender to shadow Graziani everywhere he goes, Schmid prefers a zonal marking system.

“We trade off,” he said. “It’s either [Paul] Caligiuri or [Greg] Vanney, whichever side he’s on. We don’t want to get our shape totally destroyed by having [defenders] wander across each other’s lines.”

One way to negate Graziani’s impact would be to exhibit more of a killer instinct. All too often in the regular season--and once again in the playoffs--the Galaxy has shown the ability to gain the lead but an inability to finish off an opponent with a crucial third or fourth goal.

Against a team like Dallas, that can be a fatal flaw.

“I’m getting everything out of this team that I can right now,” Dir said.

If the Galaxy is to reach the Nov. 21 championship game, tonight’s crowd also will have to play its part.

“I’ve got to feel the crowd was a huge factor [in Sunday’s Burn victory at the Cotton Bowl],” Dir said.

“It’s a tough place to play,” Schmid said Sunday. “Their crowd was really into it. This was the first time all season, I think, where we’ve gone into a place where there really was a home crowd and a home-field advantage. Hopefully, our fans will make the same noise when we come back to L.A.”

The Galaxy has asked its fans to dress in black tonight.

Presumably not in mourning for a season that it allows to slip away.

Galaxy Notes

The Galaxy’s Sigi Schmid is one of three finalists for MLS coach of the year. The other two are Dave Dir of the Burn and Thomas Rongen of D.C. United. Other Galaxy finalists for awards are Kevin Hartman for goalkeeper of the year and midfielder Simon Elliott for rookie of the year.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

GALAXY vs. DALLAS

MLS

Playoffs

finals

Tonight, 7:30

Rose Bowl

MLS Playoffs

* Who--Galaxy vs. Burn

* What--Game 3 of Major League Soccer’s Western Conference finals

* When--Tonight, 7:30

* Where--Rose Bowl