Galaxy Feels Spain Is Perfect Place to Make a Statement
The Galaxy will earn at least $2.47 million by playing in the second FIFA World Club Championship in Spain this summer, and if it somehow manages to win the 12-team tournament, it would bring home $8.26 million.
That’s a tremendous incentive for a club with a salary cap of a mere $1.7 million and with its best-paid players earning the Major League Soccer maximum of about $270,000 a year.
But, as midfielder Pete Vagenas and defender Alexi Lalas see it, it’s about far more than money.
“It’s a chance to prove something that I’ve been saying all along, and that’s that we don’t get the respect we deserve,” Vagenas said.
As the Galaxy or as MLS players?
“No, as a country, as Americans. People think we’re a step down just because we’re Americans and [that] we don’t know as much about the game as they do just because they’re from another country. I think this is our chance to show that we can play.
“I think we showed a little bit of that in the Olympics.”
Vagenas and Galaxy teammates Sasha Victorine and Danny Califf played for the U.S. team that finished a more-than-respectable fourth at the Sydney Games.
Lalas also was in Australia, but as a TV commentator, not on the field. Now that he is playing again, the former U.S. national team defender sees a newfound confidence, almost a swagger, in young American players.
In part, it’s the influence of MLS, which begins its sixth season on April 7. It also has to do with the U.S. national team’s success, underlined by the recent World Cup 2002 qualifying victory over Mexico.
But the World Club Championship is something new.
“This is definitely uncharted territory for a lot of the players--I’ve never played in a tournament like this--but I think there’s a characteristic that runs through most American players, and especially MLS players, nowadays,” Lalas said.
“That’s a belief in American soccer and a belief that despite what happens around the field and the [soccer-indifferent] culture that we live in in the United States, that we’re producing good quality soccer and if given the chance can really compete at this level.
“This is one of those opportunities that we can’t afford to waste.”
JAPAN’S TURN
Having defeated China on its recent Asian tour, the Galaxy now has the opportunity to beat Japan too. Or at least half of Japan.
One of the three teams Los Angeles will play in the first round of the July 28-Aug. 12 world championship is Jubilo Iwata of the J-League. The club’s roster features five players called up for the Japan national team that will play world champion France in Paris on March 24.
On its Asian tour, the Galaxy lost to two J-League clubs, Tokyo Verdy and the Urawa Reds. The lessons learned might prove useful in Spain.
“I think we left with a respect for the J-League but also a feeling that we can definitely compete with J-League teams,” Lalas said.
QUOTABLE
The ongoing battle between club and national teams over the scheduling of games and the release of players reached a new low Friday when Roger Mitchell, head of the Scottish Premier League, lashed out in no uncertain terms at FIFA, world soccer’s ruling body.
“FIFA is acting like a playground bully,” he said. “The major clubs keep international football alive.
“In what other business would you put up with a situation where another body deprives you of the best employees and refuses to pay for them, washes their hands of them when they are injured and keeps all the revenue from their efforts?
“It’s like something from the Dark Ages.
“The leagues in Europe and major clubs are sick and tired of losing their players for vital matches, often having them returned with serious injuries which can cost clubs millions of pounds.
“Unless FIFA adopt a more inclusive common-sense approach, it won’t be long before there is a major backlash from club owners and shareholders.”
There was no immediate response from FIFA.
USA WOMEN
Coach April Heinrich’s U.S. women’s national team lost to Canada, 3-0, Sunday in the opening game of the eight-team Algarve Cup at Lagos, Portugal.
The Americans are the tournament’s defending champions, but Heinrichs took an entirely new-look team with her to Europe. No one from the silver-medal-winning squad from the Sydney Olympics is on the roster.
The team is so young, in fact, that its average age is just over 19 years; 16 players are in college and four are in high school. Its so-called veterans are forward Christie Welch, with 15 national team games, and midfielder Aleisha Cramer, with nine.
The U.S. warmed up for the tournament by playing Italy in Rieti, Italy, last Wednesday and lost, 1-0, on an 87th-minute goal.
Eight U.S. players made their national team debuts, either as starters or off the bench: Ally Marquand, Joanna Lohman, Marcie Ward, Devvyn Hawkins, Lori Chalupny, Sara Randolph, Laura Schott and Kristin Weiss.
“In the first half, we played with fear,” Heinrichs said. “In the second half, we played with courage.
“We were playing against women with a team that is obviously very young. There were physical differences and psychological differences between the teams. International maturation doesn’t always correspond with age, but while they are athletic, we had some very young players out there.”
The U.S. failed to avenge a 3-1 loss to Canada last fall in Columbus, Ohio. The Americans play Portugal on Tuesday and Sweden on Thursday.
QUICK PASSES
Negotiations to bring U.S. forward Landon Donovan to MLS from his German club Bayer Leverkusen are unlikely to be completed before the end of the month. The San Jose Earthquakes are said to be first in line for the teenager from Redlands. . . . UCLA women’s Coach Jillian Ellis has left her position as coach of the U.S. Under-21 national team in order to help her mother in her battle with cancer.
