SHOOTING FOR THE STARS

By GRAHAME L. JONES

March 18, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

It was a warm spring evening in Florida. The Major League Soccer season was still more than a month away, but Sigi Schmid was in midseason form.

The exhibition game at Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale was meaningless, merely a tuneup exercise, but the Galaxy coach was getting hot under the collar.

“He’s been playing for you the whole game, don’t throw your hands up,” he yelled at Seth George after the forward had signaled his disgust at an errant pass.

“I need to see you in the game; step it up, step it up,” he bellowed at midfielder Peter Vagenas.

“That’s a . . . huge mistake,” he shouted when goalkeeper Matt Reis misplayed a ball. “How can you teach him to do that?” he asked goalie coach Zak Abdel. “He’s lucky he didn’t give up a penalty.”

Schmid, who today begins his second season in charge of the Galaxy after taking the team to the title game in 1999, is nothing if not intense.

“I don’t like to lose,” he said. End of subject.

Schmid hasn’t lost that much. After taking over a 2-3 team early last season, he went 18-9 to win the conference title. The Galaxy defeated the Colorado Rapids and Dallas Burn in the playoffs before hitting its annual brick wall: D.C. United.

Now it begins again, starting tonight when the Rapids line up across from the Galaxy at the Rose Bowl.

While other, less successful MLS clubs have strengthened their hand considerably, Los Angeles has more or less stayed the same. Its starting 11 isn’t much different from the lineup that lost, 2-0, to D.C. United in last season’s championship game.

The only player missing is Carlos Hermosillo, the Mexican striker having opted to close out his stellar career back home in the Mexican league. The Galaxy’s search for an adequate replacement continues.

Fans who attend tonight’s game will have to look on the bench for the new faces, although it is possible the team’s top draft choices, defender Dan Califf of Orange and Sasha Victorine of Corona, might get some playing time.

Other newcomers, including Vagenas--like Victorine, a UCLA alumnus--forward Tomas Serna and midfielder Jose Retiz probably will be confined to spectator roles.

The youngsters, however, will be more than happy simply to learn under Schmid. His reputation is as sizable as he is.

Even the players who get away, players such as highly coveted D.C. United and U.S. Under-23 national team forward Chris Albright, hold Schmid in high regard.

“I love Sigi, he’s a great coach,” Albright said. “He’s great at developing players, no matter what your position. He really knows the game. My hat’s off to Sigi for doing what he did with L.A. last year. They had a great run.”

Most of the same horses will trot to the starting gate tonight.

Kevin Hartman, the league’s goalkeeper of the year in 1999, will be back in the nets after posting a league-record 0.91 goals-against average and 11 shutouts.

The defense will be anchored by U.S. national team veterans Paul Caligiuri, Robin Fraser and Greg Vanney, with Ezra “E.Z.” Hendrickson on the right. Steve Jolley, Joe Franchino and Califf could be plugged into the lineup too, depending on need.

The defensive midfield spots are owned by Danny Pena and New Zealand’s Simon Elliott, with Victorine providing backup. Creativity rests with El Salvador’s Mauricio Cienfuegos and Costa Rica’s Roy Myers, both of whom, more or less, have free-roaming roles.

Up front, Schmid has left the goal-scoring to Cobi Jones and Clint Mathis, until help arrives, most likely from Mexico.

Jones scored 19 goals and had 13 assists in 1998, but his production fell off to eight and eight last season. The Mathis move is experimental. He is more naturally an attacking midfielder and his goals-to-shots ratio as a forward is poor. Whether he can adapt will go a long way toward determining the Galaxy’s prospects.

Schmid sees the conference race as more wide open, especially with top foreign players such as Iran’s Khodadad Azizi having joined San Jose, Denmark’s Miklos Molnar at Kansas City and Colombia’s Henry Zambrano with Colorado.

Ties, which will be accepted as results this season, will not change Schmid’s approach to games.

“No, I think it’s going to remain the same,” he said. “I think that’s a good change, though, for the league. It makes it worthwhile if you’re on the road and you score a goal late in the game and send it to overtime, you’re not walking away with nothing.”

For four seasons, the Galaxy has walked away with something. Two conference titles don’t mean quite as much, however, when the ultimate prize has eluded the team.

The 2000 MLS championship game will be played Oct. 15. The Galaxy has reached the title game twice in four years and both times has lost to D.C. United.

This year’s final is being held at RFK Stadium in Washington.

Soccer Note

Former U.S. coach Steve Sampson turned down the chance to coach Costa Rica’s soccer team, deciding to remain as technical director of the California Youth Soccer Assn. Sampson, who took over as U.S. coach in 1995 and quit three years later after a last-place finish at the World Cup, said he would take the job only if he was assured of remaining as Costa Rica’s coach through the 2002 World Cup.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Roster

*--*

No. Player Position Seasons 23 Dan Califf Defender Rookie 20 Paul Caligiuri Defender 4 10 Mauricio Cienfuegos Midfielder 4 12 Simon Elliott Midfielder 1 16 Joe Franchino Defender 2 4 Robin Fraser Defender 4 XX Adam Frye Defender 4 9 Seth George Forward 1 22 Kevin Hartman Goalkeeper 3 17 Ezra Hendrickson Defender 3 7 Zak Ibsen Midfielder 3 5 Steve Jolley Defender 3 13 Cobi Jones Forward 4 14 Clint Mathis Midfielder 2 21 Roy Myers Midfielder 1 2 Danny Pena Midfielder 3 25 Marvin Quijano Forward 1 1 Matt Reis Goalkeeper 2 8 Jose Retiz Midfielder Rookie 6 Jorge Salcedo Midfielder 4 27 Tomas Serna Forward Rookie 15 Peter Vagenas Midfielder Rookie 3 Greg Vanney Defender 4 11 Sasha Victorine Midfielder Rookie

*--*

Coach: Sigi Schmid

Assistant coach: Ralph Perez

Goalkeeper coach: Zak Abdel

Schedule

Today Colorado Rapids

March 25 at Washington D.C. United

April 1 New England Revolution

April 8 at Columbus Crew

April 15 Dallas Burn

April 22 Miami Fusion

April 29 at New York/New Jersey MetroStars