Hamilton Wants More From Galaxy

The Galaxy has won a Major League Soccer championship, has finished runner-up twice, and is the only team to have reached the MLS playoffs in each of the league’s nine seasons.

To many, that would be accomplishment enough, but not to Doug Hamilton.

Hamilton, the team’s president and general manager for the last three seasons, wants more. So much so that he fired Sigi Schmid in midseason because the Galaxy was not moving in the desired direction, even though it had the best record in the league.

So much so that unless Coach Steve Sampson can give Hamilton what he wants, he probably will follow Schmid out the door.

What Hamilton wants to see is the Galaxy playing like the Lakers. And he wants them to do so not only at the Home Depot Center but also on the road. And he wants them to do so consistently.

“One of the objectives with this club at the beginning of the year is that I wanted us to have a brand or a style of play that our fans could count on home or away, week in and week out,” Hamilton said as the team prepared for tonight’s first-round playoff game against the Colorado Rapids.

Hamilton pointed to the NBA to make his point.

“The Lakers have a style,” he said, “whether that’s run-and-gun, fastbreak, Showtime. The Detroit Pistons had an approach to basketball this year. For Detroit, that worked for them. They were going to pound it into the paint and they were going to muscle people.... They got players who bought into that approach, they coached that way and they played that way. That’s their philosophical position.

“I’d like us to be attractive, but more important I’d like us to be consistent. I’d like us to take responsibility for the game, sending numbers forward, being the more aggressive team on the field, creating chances.

“Goals come and go, but it’s how many [scoring chances] you create that’s as important right now for us as a club as we start to define who we are.”

Schmid’s ouster in mid-August was caused, in part, by the players’ perceived lack of flair and commitment.

“I don’t think, frankly, that the Galaxy had a style of play,” Hamilton said. “I didn’t think we had a chance at the MLS Cup without a change. Hence the change.”

Hamilton said that the Galaxy, during Sampson’s eight games in charge, has shown signs of improvement.

“The results haven’t come our way, nor have the goals,” he admitted. “Those are things that you can’t dispute. But our approach to the game, I think, has been very consistent, and that’s what I was looking for.”

The Galaxy has won only three of 31 road matches during the last two seasons, yet Hamilton argued that there is no need in MLS for teams to feel intimidated or to be content with ties when they go on the road.

“That [mentality] pervades in Europe,” he said. “But when you go to places like Columbus or Kansas City, there’s no threatening element. There’s no intimidation factor. So I struggle with why there should be a difference in how we approach” road games. “Because we don’t face the [hostile] environments that teams around the world face.”

Whether the Galaxy can give Hamilton the “Showtime” soccer he wants depends on whether Sampson has the players to provide it.

“We’re always looking to get better, but I believe that we do have the players,” Sampson said.

“I’ve imposed a different style on these guys. I’ve made some demands and some changes and they’re grasping it. Sometimes they fall in and out of that. We’re trying to play the kind of soccer away from home that we play at home. Sometimes we fall short of that.”

The goals have not been coming -- only seven in the last eight games -- and tonight the Galaxy has to find a way to beat Joe Cannon, arguably the league’s best goalkeeper in 2004.

The Rapids have been as offensively feeble as the Galaxy, however, and scored a league-low 29 goals this season.