This Is a Real Dream

As long as Philip Anschutz is building a new stadium for the Galaxy, why not build a new team for Los Angeles too?

There’s one that could readily be put together and it’s a team that would certainly excite the imagination of local fans, even if it does not cater to every desire of an ethnically diverse audience.

Why not reassemble the U.S. Olympic team that finished fourth in Sydney?

Far-fetched? Certainly. But the players are young, they’re talented, and they play an exciting brand of soccer. So, for once, imagine the possible rather than dwell on the impossible.

Already, Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid has three of the Olympic players in his fold: defender Danny Califf and midfielders Peter Vagenas and Sasha Victorine.

Could the other 15 players who went to Sydney and beyond be persuaded to abandon their clubs and move to Southern California? Just for fun, the question was posed to a few of them in Australia.

“You mean taking the whole team and putting them on the Galaxy?” Olympic Coach Clive Charles asked. “I’m not sure the rest of the [Major League Soccer] clubs would be happy about it.”

Undoubtedly not. But for the sake of amusement, consider the possibility.

Goalkeeper Brad Friedel would have no objection, other than financial perhaps. He has languished too long on the bench at Liverpool in England, where he has become wealthy--to the tune of $30,000-plus a week--but bored. He is seeking a new club, so why not link up again with Schmid, his former coach at UCLA?

Right back Frankie Hejduk is another former Bruin who might be persuaded to abandon the snow at Bayer Leverkusen in Germany to move closer to his old surfing haunts at Cardiff, near San Diego.

He’s not the only local player on the Olympic squad, either.

Midfielder Landon Donovan, the 18-year-old Redlands youngster who bypassed college and went straight into the Bundesliga, also is with Leverkusen, where he has four years left on his contract. He said he wants eventually to return.

“Someday?” he asked. “Of course. I would hope someday I can.”

Then there is Brian Dunseth. The Olympic team captain currently is laboring for the New England Revolution in MLS, but he is from Upland and the lure of Los Angeles is strong.

“Going home would always be great,” he said, “but at the same time right now I’m part of the Revolution and that’s my focus.”

It would probably cost Anschutz a fair amount to pry playmaker John O’Brien away from Ajax Amsterdam in the Dutch first

division, but as long as the Galaxy owner is splashing out money for foreign stars, doing so for an American player would be a refreshing change.

O’Brien is from Playa del Rey, so the Galaxy’s soon-to-be-built stadium in Carson would be a quick drive down the 405 Freeway.

“At practice today we played a little California versus the rest of the States,” O’Brien said in Sydney. “California won.

“I think everyone in their career longs to play at the place they grew up. So for me, I see L.A. as a unique place to play. I’d like to play there someday.”

Forward Chris Albright was a player Schmid very much wanted to see play for the Galaxy, but MLS allocated him to Washington D.C. United instead.

Albright liked the idea of the bronze-medal game against Chile perhaps not being the players’ final match together.

“There’s a chance for us to be in little pockets together anyway, a few guys here or there. But I think for MLS it [allowing all the Olympic players to join the Galaxy] wouldn’t work because you need the young talent spread around.

“But everybody who is on this team right now has a chance to be on the full national team someday. So five, six years down the road that [reunion] quite possibly could happen.”

The Galaxy has a couple of first-round draft picks next spring, so it presumably could pick up Conor Casey, the bruising target man from the University of Portland who is going to turn pro after this college season.

Then there is midfielder Joey DiGiamarino from Corona, who would no doubt be willing to trade the so-so Colorado Rapids for the always-contending Galaxy.

Defenders Ramiro Corrales and Chad McCarty are from Salinas and Clovis, respectively, so the call of California could bring them back from the New York/New Jersey MetroStars and the Tampa Bay Mutiny.

Others might be more difficult for the Galaxy to land, but there are always trades.

Cobi Jones to D.C. United for Ben Olsen, straight up?

Olympic striker Josh Wolff might be a bit of a problem, inasmuch as foreign clubs already are trailing him around, with Liverpool’s interest being a hot rumor in Sydney.

“I would rather be in Chicago,” Wolff said of coming to L.A. “As long as we don’t lose [Coach] Bob Bradley. I enjoy Chicago. I think we have the best coach in the league. We have a great setup. Our fans are fantastic. Our stadium’s great, and hopefully we’ll get a new one down the road. Chicago’s the best place to play, in my mind. The spirit there, the atmosphere, everything is fantastic.

“The likelihood of this team ever being back together, with all of it complete, it’ll never happen.”

Fortunately for the fantasy, the Fire also is owned by Anschutz, so Wolff can’t dispel it that easily. The trade is there to be made.

Luis Hernandez for Josh Wolff, anyone? Straight up? Right now?