Galaxy Adds a Foreign Star
Luis Hernandez, the Mexican striker with the flowing blond hair and the penchant for scoring important goals, today will become Major League Soccer’s most significant signing of the season.
The deal to bring the 31-year-old World Cup player to the Galaxy was to have been completed Thursday, but a last-minute hitch in Mexico City delayed the formal announcement until today.
Barring any further stumbling block, Hernandez will join his new team before Saturday night’s game against the Burn in Dallas.
Hernandez does not come cheaply, however. The undefeated Galaxy had to give up three starters.
Forward Clint Mathis was sent to the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, where he will be joined next week by Costa Rican midfielder Roy Myers. Defender Joe Franchino, meanwhile, was sent to the New England Revolution.
“We’re getting a great player,” Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid said at the Rose Bowl Thursday morning.
“To determine what we’re giving up and the cost, that’s something that time will tell, but the feeling in the league [is that] it’s equitable and we have to view it as being equitable right now and keep moving forward. We can’t let this set us back.
“I can’t be overly concerned anymore as to what we’re giving away or what we’re losing, because that’s not going to benefit the Galaxy or the league. We have to look forward to what Luis is going to bring us in terms of excitement, in terms of fans and in terms of the ability level on the field. . . .
“We’re getting one of the best forwards around. I think he’s going to give us something in the 18-yard box that we don’t have.”
Terms of Hernandez’s contract have not been disclosed, but it is believed that he is being acquired outright from Tigres in the Mexican first division for several million dollars and will sign a three-year contract with MLS.
Hernandez will join Lothar Matthaeus of Germany, Khodadad Azizi of Iran, Adolfo Valencia of Colombia and Hristo Stoitchkov of Bulgaria as highly recognized international players to join the league this season.
The Mexican star probably will have greater impact on attendance, however, and is expected to add significantly to Galaxy crowds at home and on the road.
He will not play Saturday night against the Burn because the Galaxy--which finally got Haiti national team forward Sebastian Vorbe back into camp on Thursday--will be at its four-foreigner limit until Myers leaves for the MetroStars.
Hernandez’s first game in a Galaxy uniform--he will wear his usual No. 15--will be against the Earthquakes in San Jose on Wednesday night. He will make his Rose Bowl debut May 20 against defending champion Washington D.C. United.
Rumors that Hernandez would be coming to Los Angeles had circulated for the last couple of months, but MLS would not confirm that he was being wooed.
In recent weeks, however, Schmid was happy to speculate on what acquiring the Mexico national team’s all-time leading goal scorer might mean to the Galaxy.
“I think Luis is a player who’s quick, who’s active, who does things in the box, who’s got good mobility,” he said. “You compare that with some of the guys we have and I think that’s going to fit.”
Hernandez will take Mathis’ place in the forward line, alongside Cobi Jones, with Vorbe as a possible third striker.
The loss of Myers in midfield will give former UCLA players Sasha Victorine and Peter Vagenas chances at a starting spot, and Franchino’s departure means that Paul Caligiuri will regain his starting place in the defense.
The Galaxy players were trying to come to terms with the loss of four of their number within a month--counting Myers’ pending move--and the earlier trade of defender Steve Jolley to the MetroStars.
“How it affects the team remains to be seen,” Galaxy captain Robin Fraser said. “Obviously, we had a good corps before and we’re sad to see anyone go. We feel like we had a good mix here and things were going well, but business decisions are made and we understand that.
“By the same token, I think Luis Hernandez is going to be a good fit for our team.”
Nicknamed “El Matador,” Hernandez is known as much for his scoring exploits as for the mane of golden hair he wears tied back in a headband.
As a striker, he has the speed and quickness to dart between or around defenders, but he also has the skill that allows him to time his attacking runs to perfection. Once inside the penalty area, he is a deadly finisher, both in the air and on the ground.
He was a mainstay on Mexico’s team that finished third in the 1997 Copa America in Bolivia, where he was the tournament’s top scorer, beating out Brazilians Ronaldo and Romario. He earned a winner’s medal in the 1998 CONCACAF Gold Cup, where his goals at the Los Angeles Coliseum knocked out Jamaica in the semifinals and the United States in the final.
Last year, he was injured but still was part of a team that won the FIFA Confederations Cup.
In San Diego in February, he scored his 34th goal for Mexico in a 4-0 rout of Trinidad and Tobago in the 2000 Gold Cup. That tied him with former Galaxy star Carlos Hermosillo as the Mexican national team’s career goal-scoring leader.
