Cienfuegos Offers a Suggestion
With the Galaxy muddling about with more losses and draws than wins this season, midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos, who is playing out the string in his final professional season, wants his teammates to know their roles and shut their mouths.
“There’s not too many problems, but every player wants to be the savior of the team and do it individually,” Cienfuegos said in Spanish while promoting the club’s Hispanic Heritage Night, tonight against the Chicago Fire.
“But that won’t work. Every player should know their role and do what the coach wants us to do. We should just do it simple and make it practical and then it becomes easier that way.
“The coach decides the concept. He needs to tell us what he wants us to do, otherwise you’d have 20 players with their own philosophies on the field.”
Coach Sigi Schmid has come under increasing pressure for the defending Major League Soccer champion’s lackluster play, especially with the team’s problems in the midfield and resultant poor service to its forwards.
“Cienfuegos is a player that they kept on the bench and he lost his rhythm,” forward Diego Serna said. “But we know what kind of player Cienfuegos is, and little by little he’ll regain his rhythm.”
Cienfuegos, 35, entered the season averaging 88 minutes a game and five goals and 11.1 assists a season but has no goals and one assist while averaging only 64 minutes this year, starting 10 of 14 matches. And while there is no doubt that Cienfuegos has lost a step, the Galaxy’s more fluid play with him on the field is just as obvious.
“I’ve talked to Sigi and he knows that I want to play more,” Cienfuegos said. “I don’t want to ride on the bench. I need to play if I’m helping the team.
“I understand that if I’m not helping the team, then I should be on the bench. But if I’m helping, I should be on the field. The more I play, the more I get in a rhythm and the more I help the team.”
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San Diego Chivas?
Ivar Sisniega, executive president of Mexican club team Chivas, told the Record that San Diego is the Guadalajara club’s city of choice should it place a team in Major League Soccer, with Houston as a backup.
Sisniega also talked of the need for Chivas, which uses only Mexican-born players for its domestic team, to reach an accord with MLS over its current limit of three international players per team. Chivas wants more.
“We sent a letter of intention to the MLS and depending on its answer we will know if we’re entered for [next] year,” Sisniega said, “and also request this team can count on a greater number of foreign players, because we love more Mexican and Latin American players, since we look for it to be a Hispanic team.”
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Italian Compromise
Italy’s Serie A will expand from 18 to 20 teams next year as the bottom three clubs in the top league’s standings this season will be demoted to Serie B and the second division’s top five clubs will be promoted. Also, the club that finishes 15th in Serie A this season will meet the club that finishes sixth in Serie B in a two-game playoff with the winner playing in the first division.
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GALAXY TONIGHT
vs. Chicago, 7
Site -- Home Depot Center.
Radio -- KMPC (1540), KTNQ (1020, Spanish), Radio Korea (1230, Korean).
Records -- Galaxy 7-8-8, Fire 11-5-7.
Record vs. Fire -- 0-1-0.
Update -- The Fire leads the league with 40 goals scored while the Galaxy is second in fewest goals given up with 26. The first 12,000 fans tonight will receive a Carlos Ruiz bobblehead doll.
Tickets -- (213) 480-3232 or (714) 740-2000.
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Times wire services contributed to this report.
