Lalas Hired as President by San Jose
Alexi Lalas, venturing where no American player has ventured before, Tuesday was introduced as president and general manager of the Major League Soccer champion San Jose Earthquakes.
Released earlier this month by the Galaxy, Lalas, 33, is the first former U.S. national team player to have a major front office role with an MLS team.
“There is no one as qualified to help us take the sport and franchise to the next level as Alexi,” said Tim Leiweke, president and chief executive of the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which owns five MLS teams.
“He has been a national team star, the first true American-born star in MLS and now has the opportunity to make history ... as the first MLS player to be named a club president.”
Lalas replaced Johnny Moore, a member of the U.S. Soccer Hall of Fame who resigned two weeks ago while criticizing the league for openly courting Club America of Mexico as a potential owner for the San Jose team.
Leiweke said the appointment of Lalas “should indicate that we are clearly committed to San Jose and any innuendoes or rumors to the contrary are incorrect.
“The Earthquakes will be the Earthquakes this year in San Jose with the existing team structure,” he added, leaving the door open for changes in 2005 or beyond.
Lalas will be working with former U.S. and MLS teammates Dominic Kinnear, who this month took over from Frank Yallop as the Earthquakes’ coach, and John Doyle, who was hired as assistant coach last week.
“Alexi has always been more than a soccer player in this country,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber said of Lalas’ appointment. “He is a pioneer who understands where the game has come from and where it needs to go.”
Galaxy Schedule
The league released its 2004 schedule Tuesday and, for the Galaxy, the season ahead does not have the roadblocks that Coach Sigi Schmid’s team encountered last year.
In 2003, the Galaxy was forced to play its first eight games on the road while the Home Depot Center was being completed.
The club went 0-4-4 and never recovered, suffering its first losing season and falling in the first round of the playoffs.
In 2004, Schmid’s team will have no trip longer than two games.
The Galaxy’s first match against San Jose, the team that improbably knocked it out of the 2003 playoffs by overcoming a four-goal disadvantage, is May 22 at San Jose.
The Galaxy will play 15 home games, 13 on Saturdays, one on a Wednesday and one on a Sunday.
The team, which begins preseason training on Monday, will kick off the season at home against the New England Revolution on April 3. Its second match is also at the Home Depot Center, on April 10 against D.C. United and its by-then 15-year-old star-in-the-making, Freddy Adu.
The All-Star game will be played on July 24 and the championship match, MLS Cup 2004, is set for Nov. 14. Sites have yet to be determined.
Quick Passes
Arsenal boosted its hopes of taking the English Premier League title away from Manchester United when it acquired Spanish international forward Jose Antonio Reyes, 20, from Sevilla for a fee that could exceed $36 million.... Two goals by Siyabonga Nomvete gave South Africa a 2-0 victory over Benin; Morocco upset Nigeria, 1-0, on a goal by Youssef Hadji as the Africa Nations Cup continued in Mali.... Ireland’s soccer federation announced that it would build a $375-million, 50,000-seat stadium at Lansdowne Road in Dublin on the site of the current stadium, which has been there since 1878.
Times wire services contributed to this report.
