Galaxy in Need of United Stand
In baseball, the commercials say, chicks dig the long ball and the home run is king during the regular season. Yet good pitching seemingly always beats good hitting come playoff time.
The Galaxy is hoping that the same principle--defense beats offense--applies in Major League Soccer. Especially Sunday at MLS Cup ’99 in Foxboro, Mass., when the Galaxy, the top-ranked defensive team in the league, takes on Washington D.C. United, the league’s No. 1 offensive team.
United’s three-headed monster of an offensive attack--midfielder Marco “El Diablo” Etcheverry and forwards Roy Lassiter and Jaime Moreno--has caused many a sleepless night across the league. But Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid is trying to keep the daunting task of containing such a potent trio in perspective.
“It’s definitely a special challenge,” he said. “They have great players, talented players. We respect their ability, but Dallas had great scorers too, and we figured out a way to stop [Ariel] Graziani and company. We’ve got to figure out a way to stop D.C. too, by helping on defense, sliding and covering, which is not the responsibility of only one or two players.”
The Galaxy shut out the high-scoring Graziani in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals and limited Jason Kreis, the league’s scoring champion, to a meaningless free-kick goal in the waning minutes of the Galaxy’s clinching win. Yet the Galaxy had a full series in which to dabble against the Burn.
They will have no such luxury in the one-game shootout for the title.
Moreno knows this.
“I don’t have to be worried about defenders, defenders have to be worried about me,” said Moreno, a finalist for league MVP honors after finishing with 33 points on 10 goals and 13 assists in only 25 games. “If I do my job, I don’t have to worry about anything.”
United, which had the league’s best record at 23-9, led MLS in total goals, with 65; goals per game, 2.03; and assists, 91, and was second in shots on goal with 204.
Obviously, Etcheverry, Lassiter and Moreno had a lot to do with those rankings.
“They have proven again this year that they are an elite threesome,” first-year United Coach Thomas Rongen said. “[Yet,] it’s all about team effort for us. They can’t do what they do without a great supporting cast.”
Especially when you consider that Bolivian countrymen Etcheverry and Moreno missed nearly six weeks of MLS play because of international competition this summer.
In 22 games, Etcheverry had 25 points on four goals and 17 assists, which tied with the Galaxy’s playmaking midfielder, Mauricio Cienfuegos, for second in the league, one behind the Tampa Bay Mutiny’s Steve Ralston, who played 32 games. Etcheverry is also the 4-year-old league’s all-time assists leader with 66 in 97 games.
Lassiter finished in a three-way tie with Kreis and the Columbus Crew’s Stern John for league leadership in goals with 18. Lassiter finished second in the individual scoring race with 47 points--18 goals and 11 assists--four points behind Kreis. Lassiter is the all-time leading scorer in MLS with 171 points on 73 goals and 25 assists.
“Marco’s a gifted passer, a creative midfielder and Jaime’s had the best year in MLS,” Rongen said. “He should be MVP of the league, he’s so unselfish. And Roy is Roy. He gets his goals, goes in slumps and scores magical goals, like he did to Columbus.
“It’s nice to see all three clicking right now.”
Etcheverry has made the MLS Cup game an annual event for United, leading D.C. there every year.
It was his creativity that broke the Galaxy’s hearts and backs in the 1996 title match.
The Galaxy was 17 minutes away from claiming the league’s inaugural title in a driving rainstorm when Etcheverry set up three goals to lead United to the 3-2 sudden-death overtime victory at Foxboro Stadium.
United successfully defended its crown at RFK Stadium in 1997, beating the Colorado Rapids, 2-1.
A new champion was crowned at the Rose Bowl last year, however, when the Chicago Fire blanked United, 2-0.
This year, the Galaxy and United split the two-game season series.
The Galaxy won, 2-1, at RFK Stadium on June 19 on a last-second kick by Cienfuegos, then United beat the Galaxy, 2-0, on Sept. 25 at the Rose Bowl.
Said Rongen of Etcheverry, “The way he goes, we go.”
Which means that the pressure will be squarely on the Galaxy’s grunts--the back line of team captain Robin Fraser, who Wednesday was named the MLS defender of the year; Ezra Hendrickson, Paul Caligiuri and Greg Vanney, who make up the MLS’ best defense.
The Galaxy allowed a league-record low 29 goals this season (0.91 average), destroying the old standard of 41 goals (1.22) set by the Columbus Crew in 1997. The Galaxy also tied the Dallas Burn this year in establishing a new mark with 11 shutouts.
Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman had a hand in that as well.
He was named the MLS goalkeeper of the year after leading the league in wins, 20, and minutes, 2,870, and tying for first with the Burn’s Matt Jordan in shutouts, 11. Hartman’s 0.91 goals-against average beat the previous record of 1.17 set by the Fire’s Zach Thornton in 1998.
The way Hartman sees it, the high-flying United offense will get all the attention while the Galaxy’s workmanlike defense trudges away. And that’s just fine with him, especially with the game being played on a relatively small field.
“It’s a situation where I have a lot of respect for that triangle [of Etcheverry, Lassiter and Moreno],” Hartman said. “Yet I have a lot of respect for the guys in front of me doing their job.”
