Is It Time to Purge Hernandez?

If there is any way that Major League Soccer can get out of its contract with Luis Hernandez, the league should take it and run.

The Mexican striker’s failure to show up for the CONCACAF Champions Cup is inexcusable. Even if he is injured, which certainly is in doubt, there is no reason he could not have flown to Los Angeles to offer support to his Galaxy teammates from the bench.

That he did not indicates either Hernandez’s disdain for MLS, for the Galaxy and for Los Angeles fans or the disdain of whoever would not allow him to come.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber was asked a couple of days ago whether he believed that Hernandez has a strained chest muscle, as his Mexican team, Club America, claims.

“I assume that everybody who tells me something is telling me the truth until it’s proven otherwise,” Garber replied.

He said the league had done everything it could to get Hernandez to join the Galaxy for the tournament that ended Sunday.

“We tried hard,” he said. “We were negotiating up to the 11th hour, with Club America, with Televisa [which owns the team] and with the Mexican federation. We were under the impression he was coming.

“We found out that he was injured or not well and he’s not here. We were having very productive conversations for a long period of time. We were under the impression he wanted to play and we were under the impression he’d be here. We’re disappointed that he’s not, but we understand it.”

Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid doesn’t understand it. He can’t see how the 32-year-old Hernandez can be injured if he played all 90 minutes of Club America’s 5-1 victory over Santos Laguna last Sunday. He believes Club America is at fault.

“They’re holding back a player from being able to participate in an event that’s very special,” he said. “They’re keeping fans from being able to see him play. He wouldn’t have missed any league games with Club America, so I don’t see what the complication was.

“We told Club America he didn’t have to miss last Sunday’s game, he could fly in afterward. We told them that after Friday’s [Champions Cup semifinal] game we’d let him go back [and miss Sunday’s final] if Toluca got eliminated early and they were going to play [Club America] Sunday.

“We weren’t even going to hold him for Sunday’s game. There is absolutely no reason why they could not have let him go.”

Was it Alfio Basile, the former Argentine national team coach who now coaches Club America, who prevented Hernandez from coming to Los Angeles?

Schmid doesn’t know and won’t guess.

“He’s an excellent coach and I know he’s got to be concerned about his team,” he said. “But again, you would have expected them to have been a little more accommodating, maybe, in this situation.

“I think we, as MLS, at times have to take a harder stand on things.”

Exactly.

“We’re investigating all of our options.” Garber said.

But no action was taken, and on Sunday, while the Galaxy was winning the CONCACAF title at the Coliseum, the suddenly no-longer-injured Hernandez was playing the full 90 minutes for Club America against Toluca.

Explain that to L.A. fans.

EL DOESN’T MATADOR

No one questions Hernandez’s ability as a player. He is one of the best strikers Mexico has produced and has proven that at the club and national team level.

But at 32, it is perhaps too much to expect him to play at his best year-round, first in the Mexican league, then in MLS, then in the Mexican league again, and so on.

Something has to give, and it’s not surprising that Hernandez does not look remotely like the same player with the Galaxy as he does with Club America.

Tim Luce, the Galaxy’s general manager, said an agreement had been reached for Hernandez to join the team for the Champions Cup but that the alleged injury had scuttled it.

“We were close to getting it done,” he said. “We had airplane reservations made, and then [last] Sunday I was watching the [Club America-Santos Laguna] game and heard the announcer say that Luis Hernandez was taking some medication for some pain he was feeling.

“That kind of opened the door for them to say, ‘Listen, if it wasn’t for this physical situation, we would have let him come.’ They sent a note from the doctor. . . .

“We went through every step we needed to to get it done and, basically, were let down by the physical situation that he had.”

But was it physical or was it mental?

It’s an odd coincidence that the Club America-Santos Laguna game marked the debut of Chilean World Cup striker Ivan “Bam Bam” Zamorano in Club America colors.

Zamorano scored three goals, became an instant hit with fans and left Hernandez in the shadows.

Is it possible that the “strained muscle” was something dreamed up as a salve to Hernandez’s ego after Zamorano’s performance?

HERNANDEZ 2001

Luce is an optimist. At least he tries to be. Right now, three months before the MLS season begins, he is hoping that Hernandez will be able to contribute more to the Galaxy in 2001 than he did in 2000.

But Hernandez is on loan to Club America, will not be available to the Galaxy until perhaps two months into the new season and even then will be called away frequently for Mexico’s World Cup qualifying games.

The only way MLS can afford a player of Hernandez’s stature, apparently, is by allowing him to be loaned out during the MLS off-season, but it makes for an awkward situation.

“We realize that Luis is such a hot property,” Luce said. “With the success he’s had with Club America, it’s a political situation, it’s a problematic situation, and it’s one we just have to accept and deal with as best we can.

“Is it frustrating? Definitely. Would we like to have him the whole year? Yeah.

“The way that I see it is, when I loan someone something, I get it back when I need it, not two months into our season. But there are certain things that are out of our control.

“I think it’s a challenge for Sigi to make sure that he builds a team and then tries to utilize Luis, when we have him, to the best of his ability.”

Better yet, why not sell Hernandez to Club America and bring in someone like Guatemalan striker Carlos Ruiz?

Ruiz would be available year-round and, unlike Hernandez, might even put some fans in the stands.

Or maybe the Galaxy can trade him to the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, say for Clint Mathis and Roy Myers.