No Patch for Hole in Galaxy Season
The Galaxy’s chances of hosting an international tournament this summer to make up for the canceled FIFA World Club Championship have all but vanished.
Bill Peterson, senior vice president of soccer operations for the Anschutz Entertainment Group, said it was proving impossible to find top-flight foreign teams willing to come to Los Angeles in August.
The Galaxy had hoped it would be able to lure European champion Real Madrid of Spain or South American champion Boca Juniors of Argentina, either individually or as part of a four-team tournament.
Ivan Gazidis, Major League Soccer’s deputy commissioner, this week said there is now less than a 50% chance of such an event taking place.
“The prospects are diminishing,” Gazidis said. “We continue to make a good-faith effort, but I think that it is . . . probable that we will have to give up on that and just focus on the regular season.
“The reasons for that are partly scheduling issues, partly logistical and partly money.
“I think what’s more likely may be a one-off or a two-game series. In particular, we’ve had some discussions over a period of time with Boca Juniors about the possibility of playing an InterAmerican Cup.
“There are economic issues we have to get through with Boca in order to reach an agreement so that kind of tournament could make economic sense for everybody. That probably is the most realistic prospect that remains out there.”
Keeping score
U.S. national team forward Clint Mathis’ red-hot season continued when he scored a goal in the New York/New Jersey MetroStars’ 2-0 victory over German Bundesliga and European Champions League winner Bayern Munich at Giants Stadium last weekend.
It wasn’t Mathis’ most spectacular goal of the year, but he wasn’t complaining.
“It’s not how you score,” he said, “it’s how many.”
Fusion, not confusion
The most improved team in MLS this season is the Miami Fusion, which has a league-best 8-1-1 record and has given up only six goals.
The Fusion, which finished 12-15-5 last year, was helped by the acquisition of such players as Carlos Llamosa, Chris Henderson, Preki, Ian Bishop and Alex Pineda Chacon, and by Coach Ray Hudson’s ability to blend the newcomers seamlessly into the team.
“The fact it’s meshed together so quickly is a testament to them,” Hudson said. “I’m a soccer romantic who feels the game should be played in a very stylistic way. It could have gone horribly wrong and we could have been the most entertaining team in MLS and been 1-7, but it’s a great endorsement of talent.
“That’s what the game is about. It’s not about athleticism or tactical awareness. I believed if you had enough passers of the ball and cleverness on the team that it would result in attacking football. Until it comes out of the oven, you never know how it’s going to smell, but it’s smelling pretty good.”
Hudson is the league’s most quotable coach, but Fusion and former UCLA goalkeeper Nick Rimando said he isn’t necessarily like that around the players.
“I think he saves that for the media,” Rimando said. “He’s really good with us. He makes his point. If we give him what he wants, then he’s happy. If we don’t, then he’ll rip into us.”
Said Hudson: “Those guys who run around with plates on sticks and keep spinning them before they fall off. That’s what it’s like coaching. You have to keep pots on the boil and stoke the fire sometimes.”
