Galaxy Is Prepared to Show the Burn Who’s Boss

Phil Anschutz is down to one roll of the dice.

His Colorado Rapids have been knocked out of Major League Soccer’s playoffs.

His Chicago Fire, which earned the Denver billionaire a league championship a year ago, has similarly been eliminated.

Now, everything rides on the Galaxy.

If Anschutz is to retain bragging rights among such financial and sporting peers as Lamar Hunt and Robert Kraft, each of whom owns “only” two MLS teams, not three, the Galaxy is going to have to win the title.

To do so, it will have to beat the Dallas Burn in a best-of-three Western Conference finals series that begins today at 2:30 at the Rose Bowl, and then defeat the winner of the Washington D.C. United-Columbus Crew series in MLS Cup ’99.

Tough, but not impossible.

Los Angeles (20-12 in the regular season) and Dallas (19-13) have played each other 20 times during MLS’ four-year history. The Galaxy holds a 10-6 regular-season edge, but the teams are 2-2 in postseason play.

Dallas swept Los Angeles in the first round of the 1997 playoffs. The Galaxy swept the Burn in the first round a year ago.

Dallas Coach Dave Dir, a candidate for MLS coach of the year, has every reason to remember last season’s debacle.

In Game 1, at the Rose Bowl, the Galaxy scored five first-half goals en route to a 6-1 victory. Game 2 at the Cotton Bowl was even more embarrassing for Dallas, which was leading, 2-0, with 11 minutes to play before Ezra Hendrickson, Paul Caligiuri and Clint Mathis scored to give L.A. the game and the sweep.

It probably won’t be that easy this time around.

For one thing, Dallas has beaten the Galaxy in the teams’ most recent two games, squaring the season series, 2-2. For another, the Burn is coming off an emotionally charged 3-2 victory over the Fire on Wednesday night.

There is also this not-insignificant statistic: Dallas is 15-3 at the Cotton Bowl this season, including 2-0 in the playoffs.

The Burn has won seven in a row in front of its own fans and has outscored opponents, 40-17, at home.

“It’s hard to play in Dallas,” Galaxy utility player Zak Ibsen said. “They win a lot of games there.”

In other words, to get to the Nov. 21 championship game in Foxboro, Mass., the Galaxy probably will need every bit of its home-field advantage.

Before Wednesday’s come-from-behind victory by Dallas, Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid was not concerned about which team he faced in the conference finals, the Burn or the Fire.

“I don’t care,” he said. “Either one, it doesn’t matter. Chicago, we need to get even with for last year [when the Fire swept the Galaxy in the conference finals] and Dallas we need to get even with for this year [the two recent losses].”

Dallas sweeper Richard Farrer suffered a groin strain in Game 1 against the Fire, sat out the next two games and remains questionable today.

The Galaxy is at full strength. After upending Colorado last Sunday in Denver, it has had a week to rest and prepare. Conversely, today’s match will be Dallas’ third in eight days.

“The extra days off help us,” Schmid said in Denver. “Obviously, when you play a series like this you’ve got people banged up and the extra rest certainly helps. It’s a big plus.

“Now we can watch Dallas and Chicago basically kick the stuffing out of each other.”

Schmid wasn’t kidding. The Dallas-Chicago series had an ugly edge to it. Games 2 and 3, for instance, produced more than 80 fouls and 14 yellow cards.

For Dallas, Game 2 was particularly costly because the team lost starting defender Brandon Pollard for the rest of the year when his right leg was broken in a late and clumsy tackle by Chicago midfielder Dema Kovalenko.

The league fined Kovalenko a paltry $250 and he apologized to Pollard, but with Pollard sidelined and Farrer in doubt, the Burn’s defense is not as reliable.

Its offense, however, features not only Argentina’s Ariel Graziani but the league’s 1999 scoring champion, Jason Kreis, who finished the regular season with 18 goals and 15 assists in 32 games.

Impressive as Dallas’ home record is, the Galaxy has a few statistics of its own to throw into the equation.

Its 12-4 home mark was third best in the league and the team was unbeaten (11-0) at the Rose Bowl against Western Conference opponents.

Goalkeeper Kevin Hartman and the starting defense of Hendrickson, Caligiuri, Robin Fraser and Greg Vanney, supported by defensive midfielder Danny Pena, allowed less than a goal a game, setting an MLS-record 0.91 goals-against average in the process.

The key today, however, could well be how fast the Burn can recover from Wednesday’s victory, in which the team scored twice in the final five minutes to end the Fire’s reign.

“I’m actually almost out of words, which is unusual for me,” Dir said afterward. “I’ve got two championships in the A-league [with the Colorado Foxes], and they weren’t anything like this. I don’t think there’s ever a bigger win than to knock off the champion. It’s incredible. I wish we had a little bit more time to enjoy it, but we’ve got to get ready for Los Angeles.”

One final note. Among the crowd at the Cotton Bowl on Wednesday night were Dallas Star players Jere Lehtinen and Juha Lind. Having a couple of NHL champions on its side didn’t seem to hurt the Burn.

Perhaps Anschutz might want to send a couple of his King players to the Rose Bowl today.