Saturday, May 31, 2008

Chasing the Cup

Reports that Tim Leiweke has issued something of a "make or break" about winning MLS Cup at home - not surprising, actually. It emphasizes that the regular season of the league isn't what counts, it's the hardware at the end, especially in front of home fans.

MLS coaches have paid the price for that before.

When Sigi Schmid didn't reach the 2003 final with the Galaxy (after their epic playoff collapse), the first played at the HDC - his tenure with LA started to look shaky. He was replaced the next year, though the club was tops in the league.

It was failing to reach the MLS Cup final after the event was twice played in Pizza Hut Park that seemingly cost Colin Clark his job. His FC Dallas teams in 2005 and 2006 had good regular-season records.

DC basically chucked the roster that, despite winning the regular season, didn't make it to MLS Cup 2007 on their home field.

It's the ideal of many clubs to win a championship on their home field, though the record in MLS shows it rarely happens. Still, expectations are there and I'm not surprised jobs are at risk in LA.

1 comment:

Joseph D'Hippolito said...

The Galaxy will never win another MLS Cup as long as Lie-weke and Lalas are in charge. It was these two bozos who crafted the current roster. It was these two bozos who allowed three players to consume half of the salary cap. It was these two bozos who have created such an excessively pressurized environment that people on the field cannot afford to make mistakes (Why else do you think Lalas made all those trades since coming on board as GM?).

If I were Gullit, I'd tell Lie-weke and Lalas where to put their "ultimatum" and resign. I'm sure that Gullit has made a good living for himself and can always go back to TV commentary. He doesn't need this excrement from rank amateurs in the front office.