It’s Official: Galaxy Off to a Rapid Start
Hristo Stoichkov, the Mad Bulgarian, the leading scorer of the 1994 World Cup and one-time European player of the year, netted two goals Saturday in his first match for his new club . . . the Chicago Fire?
Lothar Matthaus, captain of West Germany’s 1990 World Cup championship squad, one of only two men to have participated in five World Cups, now earns his paycheck anchoring the backline of . . . the New York/New Jersey MetroStars?
Khodadad Azizi, the Iranian striker who shredded the United States in the 1998 World Cup, can now be found playing for San Jose, which used to have a North American Soccer League team named the Earthquakes, and then had a Major League Soccer team named the Clash, which is now named the Earthquakes.
These are strange, confusing times for MLS, which opened its fifth season with four games Saturday--one ending in a tie. That’s right, a draw. Miami 1, New England 1. No shootout, no traffic pylons, one point apiece, just like how the real soccer leagues in Europe and South America do it.
New stars, new nicknames, new divisions, new rules, new TV package--so many changes, as far as the eye can see.
Until it settles upon the Rose Bowl, home of the Galaxy, Team Same As It Ever Was. The Galaxy opened its 2000 season with a 2-1 triumph over Colorado--nothing new there--with the same ever-familiar cast of characters. No need for a scorecard with this group; the 24,831 who showed up could have recited the lineup by heart.
Kevin Hartman, back in goal.
Paul Caligiuri and Greg Vanney, still manning the backline.
Mauricio Cienfuegos, spraying pinpoint passes through the central midfield, as he has done for the Galaxy since Day 1, Year 1.
Cobi Jones, up front, scoring the first goal of another Galaxy season, his fifth.
It is comfortable, for sure, and commendable, to a point: Going with the same gang, by and large, that got you to your second league championship game in four years.
But it can also be dangerous. This isn’t the same little league, modest in design and aspirations, that D.C. United and the Galaxy dominated by simply making sure to suit up 11 players every week. Once, MLS was content in its role as a coast-to-coast developmental program for the U.S. national team, but no more. In 2000, the league has become a collector of World Cup souvenirs--Stoichkov in Chicago, Matthaus in New York, Azizi up the coast.
The Galaxy, meanwhile, lost Carlos Hermosillo, the venerable Mexican goal-scorer, and spent an entire off-season unable to locate a replacement--unless you count Jurgen Klinsmann, the retired German legend who occasionally trains with the Galaxy and spent Saturday’s game keeping suspended Coach Sigi Schmid company in the press box.
Oh, there were rumors: Maybe Azizi, maybe Mexican national team forward Jose Manuel Abundis, maybe Cruz Azul standout Francisco Palencia. One by one, they vaporized--the league dispatched Azizi to a needier party, Abundis underwent knee surgery, Cruz Azul started losing and upped the ante for Palencia to an outside-the-MLS-stratosphere $6 million.
And now, the latest tease to float by Arroyo Seco: Luis Hernandez, the high-scoring striker for Mexico’s national team.
Asked to comment on the Hernandez gossip, Galaxy vice president of business operations Sergio del Prado laughed and said, “I talked about two guys [Abundis and Palencia] and those didn’t happen, so I’m saying nothing this time.”
But, del Prado had to admit, a player of Hernandez’s ability “obviously would be huge . . . We’re still hoping for a big-time player to replace Carlos. The league is trying to make it happen, and they know it’s important for us. We have a good crowd tonight, but it could be better.”
He could have said the same thing for the squad in the new teal and gold uniforms. Good team, the Galaxy. But it could be better. And in a league newly committed to rapid social-climbing, it had better get better.
