Myers’ Last Stand Will Make Space for New Star in Galaxy

As farewells go, this one is more bittersweet than most.

Roy Myers doesn’t want to leave the Galaxy, but tonight the amiable midfielder from Costa Rica will play his final game for the team.

The Galaxy doesn’t want to see Myers go, but Coach Sigi Schmid will start him in the forward line against the Dallas Burn at the Cotton Bowl and then bid him adieu.

That’s the way it is under Major League Soccer’s single-entity structure. Player contracts belong to the league, not individual teams, and players have to go where and when the league tells them to go.

Schmid doesn’t necessarily like it, but he lives with it daily.

“Worry about what you can control,” he said.

In Myers’ case, his reported $180,000 salary is too much for the Galaxy to handle after picking up Mexican striker Luis Hernandez, so the next stop on Myers’ MLS tour is back to the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, the team he left to join the Galaxy last June 1 in a trade for Welton.

Myers, 31, has four goals and 12 assists in 38 games for the Galaxy and is able to play tonight because Hernandez will not yet have joined the team. The Mexican star, who was expected to sign his contract with MLS on Friday, could arrive in Dallas today in time to at least be introduced to his new Galaxy teammates and watch their game.

Also watching from the sideline will be Burn striker Ariel Graziani, who is serving the first game of a three-game suspension imposed by the league, along with a $7,500 fine, after Graziani accosted referee Noel Kenny during a game last week.

Schmid isn’t at all upset that Dallas’ most dangerous player will be sitting this one out.

“It means we don’t have to worry about him,” he said. “But it means we have to worry about somebody else.

“Graziani’s a difficult player to play against because he’s always teetering with that offside line. He’s a very sneaky player. He’s very good at it. Whoever they play up front is going to be maybe a little bit more direct, but he’s going to work a little bit harder, he’s going to bring other things to the game.

“A lot of times I think when a team misses a player for just one game, everybody [else] pulls out a better effort for that game. The last thing you can do when somebody like [Graziani] is out is think, ‘Oh it might be a little easier today,’ because it’s not going to be easier, it’s going to be tougher.”

Schmid has experienced “tough” this week. He had to tell Myers, Clint Mathis and Joe Franchino they were no longer going to be part of the Galaxy.

“It was hard,” Schmid said. “Joey and Clint were playing, they were happy here, they were settled in Los Angeles. I tried to let them know a little bit in advance what was happening so they could prepare themselves and make it easier.

“I think both of them right now are looking forward to the next challenges [at the MetroStars and New England Revolution, respectively] and the next experiences in their careers.

“It’s always hard to lose somebody who is part of the family. I think this team has developed into a very good unit in terms of camaraderie and getting along with each other. So that gets broken up a little bit. The way I’m looking at it is it’s sort of like my son going away to college next year. I’m sort of losing him, but I’m really not losing him in a way.”

The Galaxy (5-0-3) has yet to lose this season, and doing so tonight in front of the team’s most expensive player ever would not be the most auspicious time to start.