Galaxy’s inner circle has room for three
The last of the original Galaxy players now sits on the bench.
Cobi Jones hung up his boots at the end of last season, swapping them for a seat alongside Galaxy Coach Ruud Gullit, as one of his three assistants. But even Jones, for all his dozen years in Major League Soccer, can’t tell what 2008 will bring.
The Galaxy opens its season in Denver tonight against the Colorado Rapids, the first of 30 matches that the team hopes will be followed by a decent playoff run and, if everything goes really well, a place in the MLS Cup at the Home Depot Center on Nov. 23.
It all hinges on three players: David Beckham, Landon Donovan and Carlos Ruiz. If they can lead, the rest of the extremely young -- and in some cases particularly old -- players will follow. Donovan, for one, thinks it’s possible.
“It’s been good, so far,” Donovan said. “Fish [Ruiz] is easy to play with, and obviously David and I have played enough together now that we know what we’re doing. I think having Carlos helps a lot because it takes pressure off me.
“He knows the game. He’s a soccer player. As much as people talk about his goal scoring, he’s a good soccer player. He sees the field. He sees the passes. He just knows the game. He knows where to be.”
Since rejoining the Galaxy in January from FC Dallas, Ruiz has the sparkle back.
“He looks really motivated,” Donovan said. “I don’t know why. I don’t care why. But he looks like he’s here and he means it. He’s been bringing it in training and in [preseason] games and he’s done really well, so I’m excited.”
Ruiz and Donovan have been charged with providing the goals. Both know what it takes. Donovan has scored 78 in seven MLS seasons; Ruiz has 97 in six seasons.
Beckham, meanwhile, is supposed to deliver the ball on a silver platter. He, too, knows what it takes.
“My job as a winger is to put the balls on the goal scorers’ heads,” he said. “If I create chances, then we’ll score because we’ve got the quality up front. Carlos is a known goal scorer in MLS and he’s a great player. If I put the ball in the right place, he’s going to be on the end of it.”
What Donovan is especially looking forward to is seeing how opponents cope with the triple-threat offense the Galaxy now has.
If opponents concentrate on defending against him, for instance, Donovan said, “then it gives David a lot of time on the ball and let’s Fish get in the box. If they collapse around Fish, then it gives both of us [he and Beckham] time. I don’t know how teams are going to deal with it.”
So look for goals from the Galaxy in 2008, probably quite a few more than the measly 38 it scored in 2007.
Trouble is, the goals might be coming at both ends of the field. The Galaxy’s starting defense features three 30-somethings in Chris Klein, Abel Xavier and Greg Vanney. Experience, they have. It’s speed that they lack.
Is Beckham, as captain, worried about that? “No, not at all,” he said.
“I think we’re looking a lot more secure in defense than we have for a long time now. Bringing the experience of Greg back into the team. . . . He knows what it takes to play in MLS. Abel’s got experience. He’s one of the older players, of course, but to have a player like him and his experience is so important, especially when you’ve got rookies in the team.”
No coach in the 12-season history of MLS has ever had the playing credentials that Ruud Gullit brings to the Galaxy, with all due deference to the likes of Steve Nicol, Peter Nowak and Walter Zenga.
But can Gullit coach wet-behind-the-ears youngsters? There are nine rookies on the Galaxy’s 24-man roster, including seven with no professional experience.
He was asked the other day what sort of team he would like to put on the field, what sort of style he would like to see.
“I would just want to see my team having fun, and you only have fun when you’re winning,” the Dutchman said.
“Of course, you want to win in style, but that’s not going to happen all the time because the opposition has to collaborate, and if they don’t it’s going to be tough going.”
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TONIGHT
at Colorado,6:30, FSC, FSE, HDNet
Site -- Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Commerce City, Colo.
Radio -- 1150, 1330.
Records (2007) -- Galaxy 9-14-7, Rapids 9-13-8.
Update -- Both teams missed the playoffs last season and have retooled parts of their roster.
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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Galaxy roster
Players for the 2008 season, with MLS years of experience:
*--* NO PLAYER P AGE YR 35 Charles Alamo G 23 0 26 Ely Allen D 22 0 23 David Beckham M 32 1 14 Edson Buddle F 26 7 1 Steve Cronin G 24 3 10 Landon Donovan F 26 7 28 Sean Franklin D 23 0 29 Michael Gavin D 22 0 21 Alan Gordon F 26 4 4 Ante Jazic D 32 2 27 Bryan Jordan F 22 0 7 Chris Klein D 32 10 32 Brandon McDonald D 22 0 15 Alvaro Pires M 23 0 2 Mike Randolph D 22 1 12 Troy Roberts D 24 3 20 Carlos Ruiz F 28 6 11 Israel Sesay F 17 1 19 Josh Tudela M 24 1 8 Peter Vagenas M 30 8 24 Julian Valentin D 21 0 3 Greg Vanney D 33 9 31 Josh Wicks G 29 0 17 Abel Xavier D 35 1 *--*
* Coach: Ruud Gullit
* Assistants: Cobi Jones, Trevor James, Ian Feuer
