Implications of Trip to Spain Dawn on Galaxy
There won’t be any Galaxy players in this year’s Major League Soccer All-Star game, and the team couldn’t be happier about it.
That’s because when the MLS stages its annual midseason bash July 28 in San Jose, the Galaxy will be in Spain, preparing for the second FIFA World Club Championship.
For coaches and players alike, it’s a tremendous opportunity, the implications of which they haven’t yet fully grasped.
“It really hasn’t sunk in yet,” Coach Sigi Schmid said. “When we step on the field in Spain and realize who we’re playing, that’s maybe when it will sink in.
“But right now, knowing that we’re going there is something that brings a little tingle to your back because you know that it’s something unique.
“One of the things we tried to impress upon the players in the locker room [before last week’s CONCACAF Champions Cup victory] is that they have the opportunity to be the first American team to go to the World Club Championship. No one, as long as they live, will ever be able to take that away.”
Schmid has an added incentive, albeit personal.
“My family in Germany has never been sure that I have a real team,” he joked. “Now they’ll be able to go to Spain and see that the Galaxy is as real as Real Madrid or Boca Juniors or all the other teams they know about.
“The recognition it gives the Galaxy, the recognition it gives the players, the recognition it gives MLS and U.S. soccer, you can’t measure it.”
Details of the July 29-Aug. 12 world tournament are not complete. The sites have yet to be announced and FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, still is undecided whether to expand the field from 12 teams to 16, as organizers in Spain would like.
If it does not, the dozen participants will include European champion Real Madrid, Spanish champion Deportivo La Coruna, UEFA Cup winner Galatasaray of Turkey, South American champion Boca Juniors of Argentina, previous South American champion Palmeiras of Brazil, and Oceania champion Wollongong of Australia.
Also, Asian champion Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia, previous Asian champion Jubilo Iwata of Japan, African champion Hearts of Oak, from Ghana; Zamalek of Egypt, winner of the African Cup Winners’ Cup; Olimpia of Honduras, the CONCACAF runner-up, and the Galaxy as CONCACAF champion.
“This is what it’s all about,” said Simon Elliott, the New Zealander whose sparkling play in midfield has been largely responsible for the Galaxy’s success during the last year. “That’s why you play the game. This opportunity doesn’t come along too often.”
The world championship is a prestige event for the wealthy clubs, but for lesser known teams it offers a huge financial windfall. In the first tournament, in Brazil last year, even the last-place team received $2.5 million.
For some Galaxy players, there is the chance to earn a year’s salary in two weeks.
“Hopefully, the guys get a fair chunk because they’ve worked really hard for it,” Elliott said. “We’ve heard from outrageous to nothing at all. It’ll be somewhere in between. Outrageous would be much better, but we’ll have to see.”
HARTMAN’S NET GAIN
No one was more delighted by the Galaxy’s qualification for Spain than goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, who almost single-handedly kept the Galaxy alive in the Champions Cup with his penalty-kick saves in the first two games.
“It’s definitely good for the team and for the league, and unbelievable for the guys who are working for what they work for in this league,” he said.
“This has just brought us to a whole new level. Any time you get to play in front of a world audience, like we will in Spain, it brings out the best in everyone.”
The semifinal victory over D.C. United clinched the Galaxy’s trip to the world championship and the chance for many players to double their annual income.
Some have estimated that each player could get $30,000 to $50,000 from the tournament.
“When we were about to take the penalty kicks, I don’t think anybody really realized it but we were playing like a $1-million shootout there with the penalties,” Hartman said. “It was great to be able to come up so huge for all the guys because after the [1999] MLS Cup, I felt like I’d stolen money from guys [through goalkeeping errors that cost L.A. the title]. It’s nice to be able to put money back in their pockets.”
Goalkeeper coach Zak Abdel said hard work and constant practice against penalty kicks had helped Hartman, then added that he can’t believe the team is going to Spain.
“I feel like I’m dreaming,” he said. “I want to slap my face.”
THE CALIGIURI ANGLE
Galaxy defender Paul Caligiuri is one of the grand old men of the American game, his presence on the national stage dating to the 1988 Seoul Olympics, or even further, to the NCAA title he won with UCLA in 1985.
To have the chance to take part in a world championship event at a time when he already will have turned 37 is something he cherishes.
“When you look at World Cups and Olympics, they obviously speak for themselves,” he said. “But this is definitely a prestige tournament. This is the World Cup for club teams, and to represent your continent is a tremendous, tremendous honor.”
Caligiuri said he hopes CONCACAF, the confederation that runs soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean, will expand the Champions Cup and make it an annual event that eventually will be recognized alongside such tournaments as Europe’s Champions League and South America’s Copa Libertadores.
ON THE MEND
Two Galaxy starters who missed the Champions Cup while recovering from surgery will be back in time for the new season and, if all goes well, back in top form by the time the team leaves for Spain.
Trainer Ivan Pierra said defender Robin Fraser and midfielder Danny Pena both are on the mend after shoulder and knee surgery, respectively.
“[Fraser] can’t do anything contact-wise, he’s still about a month away from actually coming out on the field and training,” Pierra said. “He’s still susceptible to injury if he falls on his shoulder.
“He does running, he does bike work, he does rehab. His shoulder is really good in the sense of [being] strong [and having] range of motion, but [as far as] being able to withstand a falling force it’s not completely there.”
Pena tried to come back too soon and re-injured his knee, but is recovering well.
“He’s basically been cleared by Dr. [Ronald] Kivitne to start training,” Pierra said. “He can come on the field and do some ball stuff and do some strengthening, but he’s still halfway between the rehab and the field phase.
“We’re hoping that he’ll be ready to start training with us on a controlled basis by the start of preseason in early February and within a month be at 100%.”
Defender Danny Califf also should have recovered from the broken nose and facial injuries he suffered two weeks ago and should rejoin the team for the start of spring training.
