Schmid Needs Stars to Shine
After watching his team get shut out its last two games, Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid has made it clear what he expects tonight against the New England Revolution at the Rose Bowl.
Something out of the ordinary from one or more of his high-profile players.
Recently, however, the unexpected has been in short supply and teams have learned that if they pack their defense, the Galaxy rarely can break through.
“In games like that, you’re only going to get maybe three or four or five [scoring] chances,” Schmid said. “So what you really need is a little bit of magic from Cobi Jones or Luis Hernandez or Mauricio Cienfuegos. Those are our big-dollar players.
“That’s what our expectation is. That’s what [Jaime] Moreno provides for D.C. United. That’s what [Ariel] Graziani should provide for Dallas. That’s what Peter Nowak and [Hristo] Stoitchkov provide for Chicago. . . .
“I don’t know if that little bit of magic happens often enough. My job as a coach is to get that out of them more and their job as players is to find the opportunity to use that.”
The Revolution lost its first six games of the season, but since then has won three in a row after Coach Fernando Clavijo made several roster changes.
“With the trading of [former U.S. national team players Eric] Wynalda [to the Chicago Fire] and [John] Harkes [to the Columbus Crew] they certainly changed their team chemistry,” Schmid said.
“With Wolde Harris and Andy Williams missing [while playing for Jamaica in the Caribbean Cup], they’ve developed a sort of ‘us against the world’ mentality. That’s something we’ve got to contend with.
“[Brazilian forward] Cate has had an influence in the last two or three games. A guy that’s maybe a little bit unsung but is a big plus for their game is [defender Ted] Chronopoulos. He makes them a lot better.”
Chronopoulos missed the first six games of 2001 after undergoing off-season knee surgery, but the Revolution has not lost since his return.
The likelihood is that at season’s end the Galaxy will allow one of its two goalkeepers to move on.
Schmid has given Kevin Hartman and Matt Reis extensive playing time so far, but having to bench one or the other is difficult.
“I’ve told Matt that I wanted to keep both Kevin and Matt here this season, but at the end of the season we would be looking to make a change in goal,” Schmid said.
“The league does not allow us to pay enough money to have two quality goalkeepers. They’re both playing well. We have two starting-caliber goalkeepers, so maybe we can use [one of them in a trade] at the end of the season to bolster ourselves in some other area.”
TONIGHT
VS. NEW ENGLAND, 7
Site--Rose Bowl.
Radio--KRLA (870), KTNQ (1020, Spanish).
Records--Galaxy 3-3-2, Revolution 3-6-0.
Record vs. Revolution (2000)--0-1-1.
Update--Los Angeles forward Luis Hernandez missed all but Friday’s training session while attending to “personal business” in Mexico City.
Tickets--(877) 342-5299.
