Galaxy Will Take Shots on Rebound
Ralph Perez has an interesting theory about why the Galaxy has struggled so much this season.
Simply put, the team’s long-time assistant coach believes Major League Soccer’s defending champion has been too successful for its own good. The Galaxy won the MLS title once, was runner-up twice and has never missed the playoffs.
“This is just my take on it,” Perez said Friday, “but when you’re that successful and with the way the league is structured, it makes it very difficult to continually improve your team.”
In a league that embraces parity, Los Angeles has time and again paid the price of trying to be a cut above the rest. It has signed good players, done well with them, rewarded them with better contracts and then lost them because of salary cap or other constraints.
“You always want to improve your team through trades or draft picks,” Perez said, pointing out that the Galaxy’s success has meant it has drafted lower in the order except when it has found a way to trade for higher picks.
Winning it all in 2002 has not helped, either.
“We’ve always been chasing the MLS Cup, that’s always fueled our fire,” Perez said. “And I think that when we got that, I’m not saying that the players have become complacent, but the teams we play have raised their game a little higher and in turn we haven’t matched it.”
When the league dropped two teams in 2002, other MLS teams benefited more from contraction than Los Angeles, simply because weaker teams were more in need of help and were given it.
It adds up to the Galaxy’s having won only two of 13 games entering tonight’s match against the Dallas Burn at the Home Depot Center.
Might more trades be in the offing, something that would re-ignite the spark of last season?
“At this point in the season there are always trade talks,” Perez said. “We have no discovery slot left, so to try to discover a player and bring him in is going to be difficult, unless we trade for one.
“The fact is that obviously you want to keep what you think is good, but to get any trade of value, you’re going to have to give up something to get something. “Everybody is willing to talk trade, but they want such good players [in exchange] it makes you want to laugh.”
Whether there are changes coming or not, Perez believes the Galaxy will right its ship in the second half of the season, after its July trip to South Korea.
“It’s all about playing well on the given day,” he said. “We haven’t caught our rhythm at all this season. I honestly believe we’re going to. Sometimes you’ve got to hit rock bottom to bounce back up.”
