Galaxy Can’t Hold Back Cienfuegos
Who needs Mauricio Cienfuegos more, the Galaxy or El Salvador?
The question becomes more than academic this week because Major League Soccer’s Western Conference leader has lost its most influential player for its final--and decisive--regular-season game.
Instead of flying to Kansas City with the Galaxy on Friday to play the Wizards on Saturday, Cienfuegos will stay in Los Angeles, playing three games for El Salvador in the next five days.
Tonight, the Central American nation takes on Haiti at 8 in the Coliseum in the second game of a doubleheader. Canada plays Cuba at 6.
And what is that all about? Another meaningless exhibition series designed to make money? No, not this time.
If that were the case, the Galaxy could have refused to release its playmaking midfielder.
But because the games are part of a six-match qualifying series for next year’s Gold Cup--an official, FIFA-sanctioned competition--Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid had no option but to allow Cienfuegos to rejoin his national team once he was called up by El Salvador.
Cienfuegos joined his countrymen Monday, immediately after flying back from Dallas, where the Galaxy was beaten, 4-3, by the Burn on Sunday.
That loss left the Galaxy needing to beat the Wizards on Saturday to win the conference title and home-field advantage throughout the MLS playoffs, which begin Oct. 16.
Now, Schmid’s side will have to accomplish that without the player generally acknowledged as the team’s most indispensable. Cienfuegos, 31, has played in 30 of the team’s 31 games this season and has scored three goals. He also has a career-high 17 assists, tied for the league lead with Washington D.C. United’s Marco Etcheverry. Overall, in four seasons and 110 games with the Galaxy, Cienfuegos has 27 goals and 56 assists.
The Gold Cup qualifying event continues Friday and Sunday at the Coliseum, with the four teams vying for the final two spots in next year’s tournament, which will take place Feb. 10-27 in Miami, San Diego and Los Angeles.
Seven countries already have secured berths in what is the championship of the Football Confederation, a 38-nation regional body formerly known as CONCACAF.
Mexico is in as defending champion and the United States is in as host nation. In addition, Jamaica, Trinidad, Costa Rica, Guatemala and Honduras have qualified. To add spice, three countries have been invited as guests--Colombia, South Korea and Peru.
The schedule of Gold Cup games will be announced Oct. 12, but the final, as in past tournaments, will be played at the Coliseum.
Cienfuegos, believed to have retired from the El Salvador national team after it failed to qualify for the 1998 World Cup, is scheduled to rejoin the Galaxy on Oct. 12.
He revealed recently that he had not retired, but had merely been unwilling to play for the previous Salvadoran soccer federation leadership, which he viewed as inept.
Gold Cup Qualifying
All games at the Coliseum
* Tonight: Canada vs. Cuba, 6; El Salvador vs. Haiti, 8.
* Friday: Cuba vs. Haiti, 6 p.m.; El Salvador vs. Canada, 8 p.m.
* Sunday: El Salvador vs. Cuba, 1 p.m.; Canada vs. Haiti, 3 p.m.
