Galaxy’s Road Ahead Unlike Any Before It

Some of the Galaxy players made the trek from Pasadena to Carson the other day to check out their new stadium. At one point in the tour they were shown the tunnel through which they will enter the field. That led to some wry comments.

“I can just hear the announcer now,” said one player whose anonymity must necessarily be preserved. “ ‘And now, let’s have a big welcome for your oh and eight Los Angeles Galaxy!’ ”

Oh and eight?

Sigi Schmid would not be amused by such black humor. The Galaxy coach knows all too well the pitfalls that lie in wait for the team as it tries to hold on to the Major League Soccer championship it won last season.

On the surface, the Galaxy is even stronger than it was a year ago. How could it not be with its starting lineup intact and the addition of two veteran players, Korean defender Hong Myung-Bo and Honduran forward Alex Pineda Chacon?

Many MLS observers pick the Galaxy to go all the way again in 2003, especially since the league’s Nov. 23 championship game will be played in its own backyard, at the swank Home Depot Center in Carson. But it is far too early to predict a repeat.

There is, for example, the daunting prospect of the Galaxy having to play its first eight games on the road, starting today against the Columbus Crew in Ohio. One-quarter of the eight-month MLS season will have vanished before Carlos Ruiz and company even set foot on their own turf on June 7.

Given that, Schmid can be forgiven for believing that it would not be such a bad thing to hear the stadium announcer saying, “And now, let’s have a big welcome for your four and four Los Angeles Galaxy!”

Four and four he can live with; oh and eight he can’t.

“It’s definitely going to be tough and we want to jump on it early,” Schmid said. “The longer you’re on the road, the tougher it becomes toward the end, so we really are keying toward those first three or four games. But it’s going to be work and we hope our fans understand that.”

Much will depend on whether Ruiz, the young Guatemalan striker who lit up the league in his debut season, can do so again.

Ruiz scored a league-high 24 goals and broke MLS playoff records with eight goals and two assists in six games, including the championship-winning goal against the Revolution in MLS Cup 2002.

However, the sophomore jinx looms large for last season’s MLS most valuable player.

“Do I expect him to score as many goals as last year?” Schmid asked rhetorically. “The answer is, probably I don’t. Do I expect him still to score a significant amount of goals? Yes, I do. It’s in his nature. It’s the type of player he is.

“His work ethic is good. He’s more comfortable with the team than he was last year because there’s no learning curve involved. I still have high expectations for him. Last year he had a superlative season. Can he duplicate it? It will probably be difficult, but he’s still going to score a lot of goals.”

Ruiz, 23, is realistic enough to realize that lightning might not strike twice, so he gives the politically correct answer.

“I didn’t necessarily set a goal when I first came here,” he said. “Twenty-four goals is great, but I wasn’t looking for goals, I was looking for a championship.

“It’s the same situation this year. I’m not expecting to score a lot of goals. I might score 15, I might score 30, but the main objective is to be champion again.”

Schmid has yet to decide who will play alongside Ruiz.

It could be Chris Albright, Gavin Glinton, Isaias Bardales Jr., Alejandro Moreno or Herculez Gomez.

Or it could be Pineda Chacon.

“Pineda Chacon gives us somebody who is a proven goal scorer,” Schmid said of the league’s 2002 most valuable player and leading goal scorer. “I look at Alex more as a second forward than I look at him as a playmaking midfielder. The closer we get him to the opponent’s goal, the more dangerous he is.

“Who ultimately is going to be the answer, I couldn’t tell you right now.”

And so the Galaxy sets out today in quest of another title amid a sea of questions marks.

“Every season is like a new painting,” Schmid acknowledged. “You have to see how things develop.”