Galaxy Ready for Change
Three victories stand between the Galaxy and the championship of Major League Soccer, but a troubling thought hangs like a question mark over Carlos Ruiz and Co.:
Does a team that can’t win on the road -- only three victories in its last 29 games -- and can’t score goals -- only seven in its last nine games -- really deserve the MLS title?
“As much as anybody does,” said goalkeeper and team captain Kevin Hartman. “I think that Columbus is the only one that can really justly say that, ‘We deserve this more than anybody else.’
“There’s not a huge difference between one team and the next.”
The Crew’s claim rests on an 18-game regular-season unbeaten streak, one that came to a halt last weekend when Columbus was shut out, 1-0, at New England in the first round of the conference semifinals.
That same fate befell the Galaxy at Denver, where the Colorado Rapids prevailed, 1-0, meaning that Los Angeles has to win by two or more goals Saturday at the Home Depot Center to avoid a tiebreaker.
“I was not pleased with how we played,” Galaxy Coach Steve Sampson said. “It was a team that was completely disconnected.... We were rusty, we lacked rhythm and any kind of fluidity in our attack.”
That has pretty much been the case since Sampson installed a 4-5-1 system that leaves Ruiz -- in practice if not in theory -- isolated up front and at the mercy of opposing defenders.
Injuries and World Cup qualifying commitments have taken their toll on the Guatemalan forward. Despite being the Galaxy’s top scorer for the third consecutive season with 11 goals, he has scored only two in his last 10 games and only one in five since Sampson took charge in mid-August.
Disputing the notion that he employs only one attacker but recognizing that Ruiz needs more help up front, Sampson said changes were planned for Saturday.
“We’re making some adjustments that would get players in and around Carlos more,” he said. “I need to dispel this feeling that ... we play with only one striker. We’re attacking with at least three players -- two pure wingers when we have the ball and one central striker.
“When the opponent does a good job of shutting down our flank play, then it tends to leave our central striker alone. So we have to get Jovan [Kirovski] and either Marcelo [Saragosa] or Pete [Vagenas] playing much closer to Carlos so that we can get numbers in the box so that Carlos is not the only one holding the ball in the attacking third of the field.”
In Denver last Friday, with forwards Alejandro Moreno and Joseph Ngwenya both playing out of position on the left and right wings, respectively, Ruiz was often left stranded. Kirovski, who is second behind Ruiz with eight goals in 2004, provided some firepower as a withdrawn striker, but the whole team was out of sync.
On Saturday, chances are that Sasha Victorine will be wide left and Cobi Jones wide right, which should improve matters, especially if Kirovski and, more than likely, Saragosa, play higher and combine better with Ruiz.
The idea that Sampson might switch to a 4-4-2 system or even a 3-5-2 has not been entertained.
The Rapids need only a tie to advance to the Western Conference final against the winner of the Kansas City-San Jose series, and could elect to defend their lead for 90 minutes.
“I think that’s a dangerous approach,” Sampson said. “But at the same time I don’t think that they’re going to be wanting a wide-open game.
“I think they go into the game thinking that they’ve got the advantage, that we have got to come at them, and they might look for counterattacks, they might look to take advantage on dead-ball situations. I would imagine that would be their approach.”
The Galaxy has to win or forget about playing in MLS Cup 2004 at its own stadium on Nov. 14. Hartman doesn’t like the alternative.
“When you lose and don’t make it, it’s just months of agonizing over what you could have done differently,” he said. “Nobody wants to sit there in December and wonder what could have been.
“Everything comes down to this weekend. We have to get at least one goal and win, or we have to get more than that if we don’t want to go to the tiebreaker. It’s a different field here. I think the guys play with more confidence here. We feel pretty good about our chances.”
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MLS Conference Semifinal Schedule
Second games of home-and-home, aggregate-goal series (all times Pacific):
EASTERN CONFERENCE
* No. 3 MetroStars at No. 2 D.C. United, Saturday, 4 p.m., Fox Sports World (D.C. United leads, 2-0)
* No. 4 New England at No. 1 Columbus, Sunday, 2 p.m., ESPN2 (New England leads, 1-0)
WESTERN CONFERENCE
* No. 4 San Jose at No. 1 Kansas City, Saturday, 5:30 p.m. (San Jose leads, 2-0)
* No. 3 Colorado at No. 2 Galaxy, Saturday, 7 p.m., Fox Sports World (Colorado leads, 1-0)
