Los Tres

Chivas USA will put the finishing touches on what has been a strong campaign this season. Win or lose, the club will have set plenty of new regular-season highs.

To think, just three seasons ago Chivas USA was the laughingstock of the entire league.

I took the time to reflect back a bit on 2005 for my Press-Enterprise story this morning. I wrote about the three remaining members from the 2005 squad: Orlando Perez, Brad Guzan and Francisco Mendoza.

If you'd have asked me at the start of the 2005 season to pick three players who would have lasted the longest with the team, I probably wouldn't have picked that trio. Sure, Guzan seemed a no-brainer because he was the first draft choice and all but the other two weren't a given. Mendoza wasn't the most highly-regarded player brought up from Mexico while Perez was a journeyman at best.

I might have thought Isaac Romo or Hector Cuadros would have outlasted Mendoza. I might have put those two with Guzan as the final three. Or Christian Jimenez because he was a young, talented local kid. Or Arturo Torres for the same reason.

Instead, those guys are all gone, all just part of a bad first-year team.

Mendoza has been the best of the original eight the club brought up from Mexico... well, one of the two best. Luis Alonso "Negro" Sandoval has also gone on to succeed. He had a successful spell with Jaguares and even earned a call to the Mexican national team in December 2005. But Sandoval jumped ship in early March, just left to Guadalajara on a weekend trip and decided not to return.

Panchito blossomed into a standout at Chivas USA. Panchito became a fixure under Bob Bradley a year ago and has become one of the club's key players. The losing was hard on everyone the first year but it didn't bring down his spirits any.

"Believe me, I’ve enjoyed every one of Chivas’ three seasons and I’m extremely happy because of that," Mendoza told me.

He's still got room to improve and could be an even more important part of the team next year but Mendoza has come a long way in a short amount of time.

Like Panchito, Guzan has been a fixture with the team. Martin Zuniga was supposed to be the starting goalkeeper the first year but an arm injury in preseason sidetracked those plans. Guzan was tossed into the frey prematurely and was the brunt of many first-year jokes. But he showed quickly that he could play and by the team he was benched in favor of a healthy Zuniga in May, many including myself protested. Zuniga played because he was healthy, not because of Brad's improving play.

Eventually Guzan got the starting job back. He won the praise of Thomas Rongen and Hans Westerhof and first-year goalkeeping coach Javier "Zully" Ledesma. Sure, Guzan gave up a ton of goals that year but he wasn't really in a position to do otherwise. The defense was bad but it was all because of the abysmal formation/scheme/tactics/mindset. Rafa Marquez would have been hard-pressed to keep that defense intact. The three-man backline was a recipe for disaster.

Still, taking all that abuse, both on and off the field, only made Guzan stronger.

"It’s been good to be part of the club since Day One," Brad said. "It’s a good feeling to be able to experience the highs and lows. Obviously the lows have helped me become the player that I am. Without Chivas USA, who knows where I’d be?"

Of the three, Perez surprises me the most. The first year, he was in the same category as Ezra Hendrickson and Francisco Gomez, guys who had played in MLS before and had something to offer. I would have ranked Perez third in terms of value in that group, but again he outlasted Hendrickson and Gomez. EZ was dealt early in '06 and Gomez vanished during the preseason as well.

Perez stuck around. He is a useful player because he is versatile and knows his role on the team.

"Me, Brad and Panchito, we’ve been here from the beginning," Perez told me recently. "We’ve been through it all, the bad times and the good times and I think that our hard work and dedication paid off for us. There have been many players in and out and we’ve seemed to do what we got to do to stick around."

A darker blue

Joe Cannon has been wearing his dark blue goalkeeper's shirt during the Galaxy's win streak, but he wasn't allowed to wear it against New York, because they were wearing dark blue field uniforms.

So he wore the lighter blue instead.

The Galaxy failed to win.

He'll probably wear the dark blue on Sunday.

Playoff scenarios

Per a league press release:


Chicago Fire (37)

Clinches with a win Sunday vs. LA Galaxy

Clinches with a tie and either one of the following:
- KC fails to win
- COL fails to win

Clinches with a loss Sunday and both of the following:
- KC loses
- COL fails to win

Kansas City Wizards (37)

Clinches with a win Saturday at FC Dallas

Clinches with a tie and either one of the following:
- LA fails to win
- COL fails to win OR wins by less than a three-goal margin

Clinches with a loss and both of the following:
- LA fails to win
- COL fails to win

^Note: Because Colorado and Kansas City tied both times they met this season, their placing will be determined by goal differential if they finish the season tied in points.

Colorado Rapids (35) – Must win vs. RSL on Saturday.

Clinches with a win and any one of the following:
- KC loses
- KC ties and COL wins by 3 goals or more
- Chicago fails to win

LA Galaxy (34) – Must win at Chicago on Sunday.

Clinches with a win and either one of the following:
- KC loses
- COL fails to win

Changing history

Steve Davis weighs in on the USWNT.

I've pointed it out before, but I want to ruminate a little on the irony of how Greg Ryan won the USWNT job. Davis mentions that Ryan didn't have the most impressive credentials at the start, and mentions that the media let that slide.

However, it's worth noting again that Ryan wasn't handed the job outright. He was appointed as an interim, a natural choice given that the team had games on the schedule and he was the top assistant at the time.

When Ryan took a young and untested squad to the 2005 Algarve Cup championship, defeating world #1 Germany along the way, he did so in large part on the strength of Hope Solo's terrific performance in goal during that tournament. With the title giving weight to his campaign, Ryan won the job.

It's highly likely that if Solo hadn't played so well, Ryan wouldn't have become her coach.

Technicality

Toward the end of Wednesday's Mexico-Guatemala match, I looked at a list of Mexico's all-time results to see previous Mexico-Guatemala results. I couldn't remember a time that Guatemala had beaten Mexico and then I figured out why. The last time Guatemala beat Mexico was in 1969, a bit before my time.

I spread the word to other reporters so we could all use that little bit of info in our stories. Apparently, though, someone disputed that with Jaime Cardenas of the LA Times. Seems that some Guatemalans reminded Jaime of Guatemala's win over Mexico in 1998. My first reaction was "Shit! How could I have gotten that wrong?"

But I hadn't.

I don't remember the game but the readers said Guatemala beat Mexico in penalties in 1998. On that list above, it has a game in 1998 that ended in a 2-2 draw. Technically, games that go to penalties are draws regardless of the outcome.

So I didn't screw it up after all. Though they both count as draws, penalty-kick wins in tournaments are one thing but to win a friendly in PKs is hardly a win.

Bothered by Beckham

A number of the press at last night's game had come specifically to cover Beckham's return to the squad and were not happy that he wasn't made available to the media at all. After Beckham's first matches with the squad, he would do post-game interviews. Locker room interviews with Beckham have always been denied.

Beckham hasn't done post-training interviews, either. So basically, the story many reporters had come to get was completely shut down.

It's not the first time an MLS player has avoided media. I'm not based in New York, but I hear that Amado Guevara, while he played there, boycotted interviews with English media for about a year because he was unhappy with an article written by one reporter.

When Landon Donovan first returned from Germany to play in MLS in 2005, the media attention on him was pretty intense. The Galaxy instituted a rule for a while that Landon wouldn't do any interviews on Fridays.

This was really a pain for me, because at the time, Fridays were the only days I could come to trainings to conduct interviews.

At various points, players have shaken their heads "no" when I've asked for interviews, or just given that quick smile and ignored the pleas to answer questions. Giovanni Dos Santos, at the Mexico Guatemala friendly, tortured the press by smiling and chatting with some cousins of his right in front of the barrier holding back at least fifty reporters begging him to say a few words to them. He ignored them all.

With regards to Beckham, however, here's someone who was supposed to be an ambassador for the sport in the U.S., and now he's been coy and hard to get for days, even though he's back playing. I don't know if he's making a concerted effort to avoid being a distraction to the team while they push for the playoffs, but it's leaving a lot of disgruntled reporters grousing in the press box. It's tough when you promise an editor a Beckham story and can't get a single word from the man.

Keep on the sunny side

At the beginning of the season, Frank Yallop was ever the optimist. Poor results early in the year didn't dampen his mood too much but by the middle of the season he was f-ing knackered and didn't hide his displeasure with results.

It's been a while but his optimistic mood is back. He didn't slam his team or anything. Quite the contrary, he was pleased that they were still alive in the playoff race.

He said the Galaxy did well not to send everybody forward in the second half in search of a goal and did well to contain the Red Bulls late in the game. By not winning, though, other results impact the Galaxy and the club might be dead by the time Frank goes to sleep on Saturday night.

Cannon disappointed

After the excessive time it took for the Galaxy to open their locker room on Thursday and being told that the commissioner's mandate was "just a sign," I didn't go in there for one second. It's too bad, because I wanted to get some player reaction about the result. Frank Yallop seemed rather upbeat despite not winning but I wanted to hear how the guys on the field felt.

I did manage to grab Joe Cannon on my way back to the press box.

Joe wasn't quite as positive as Frank.

Intimately Beckham

A few weeks back, I was interviewing Landon Donovan after a game. Other reporters were asking questions and I was recording his answers when I happened to glance at the locker next to Landon's, which is David's. It was very neat, with only a few toiletries on the top shelf. I noticed with a little surprise that on the shelf was Dove deodorant, which is the same brand I use. It was original fragrance, though, while I believe mine is cool cucumber, or something like that. There was also a bottle of Nivea lotion and some smaller items of stuff that I didn't really check out. At the time, I decided that these details were too trivial to mention, even here on the blog. But after the team's win over Toronto, I saw one out-of-town reporter assiduously cataloguing all the contents. I figure Jakarta now knows about the deodorant, so I'm probably not revealing anything too shocking. Last night, though, there were little gift bags scattered around the locker room. Beckham gave his teammates (or his corporate sponsor provided) samples of his new fragrance line.

"We should all wear this stuff tomorrow, so when we come in, we'll all smell like he does," said Troy Roberts to one of his teammates, just as I was leaving the locker room.

The Good Ol' Boys club

Here's the latest issue of MLSmagazine. I have a couple of articles in this issue. The one in Spanish is about Maykel Galindo, and then there's also an article on the push for a youth soccer system within MLS and U.S. soccer. You can order issues here.

Cobi collection

Rachel models the Cobi Jones commemorative t-shirt that they passed out at the game last night. All the Galaxy players wore them at the start of the match, well, except for Cobi himself.

Post-game meandering

The Galaxy-Red Bulls game was a bit less dramatic than I expected. There were two goals but they were 60 seconds apart or something. And there were long stretches of the game that just dragged on.

But after the match, there was quite a bit going on. David Beckham played but he did not speak to the media. Not sure why. Perhaps his handlers didn't want him to talk. Maybe he didn't feel like talking or maybe the club decided that. It's hard to get a straight answer.

So I went to the post-game presser and got some audio of Frank Yallop. I immediately went into the Red Bulls' locker room but half the team was gone. I missed out on Juan Pablo Angel, Jon Conway, Dave Van Den Bergh and Seth Stammler, some of the guys I was hoping to talk to. The Red Bulls PR people initially told me that Bruce Arena had already talked to the media (one reporter had talked to him apparently) but were going to ask him if he would talk to me. I got tired of waiting so I went into where the players are. I got Jozy Altidore and John Wolyniec but that's about it. Joe Vide was there too but I passed.

I then went to the Galaxy locker room. I really didn't need to because I had enough stuff from Frank Yallop to toss a few quotes into my PE story (which I had already filed for the early editions) and I needed time to write my MLSnet.com story. But I figured I might get some good audio to post here and maybe some more quotes for the PE story.

I got the locker room but there were a handful of reporters waiting outside. Cobi Jones was in the presser and some media stuck around. Others had gone straight to the locker room. But it wasn't open.

Now, league rules say that the locker rooms have to open 10 minutes after the end of the game. There's a sign posted right outside the locker room that says as much, something that includes the words "By mandate of MLS Commissioner Don Garber." But it was already 10:33 and the game ended a little after 10:00. One of the Galaxy PR guys poked his head out and said they were still closed and a couple of us pointed at the sign. He smiled and said "It's just a sign" and then closed the door.

I shook my head and decided not to wait. I walked out and had better luck with the guys afterward. I got Joe Cannon as he was leaving and even caught sight of Beckham as he walked with his little entourage into an elevator presumably up to the stadium club or somewhere else to be whisked away.

On Becks watch

Back to the Beckham beat.

Cobi, Cobi, Cobi

I don't know if the ESPN broadcast is showing this yet, but all the Galaxy players came out wearing Cobi t-shirts. The crowd chanted his name maniacally at introductions as well.

Cobi, my de-facto editor

My SI.com editor Jonah Freedman had Cobi Jones take over his world power rankings.

Pretty cool tribute, but I don't know if this means I have to pitch story ideas to Cobi from now on. If so, I take back those things I said in '05 about you and how you should have retired after the 2004 season...

Many moods

The fuss about Manny Ramirez and his "Who cares?" comments reminds me that earlier this year I was interviewing Edson Buddle after another Galaxy loss and he seemed pretty calm. (I'd just interviewed Joe Cannon, who was anything but). I asked Edson why he didn't seem upset.

"It's just a game," Edson answered.

At first I was surprised, then I remembered that people deal with stress differently, and they motivate differently as well. Not everyone is exactly the same. Some people carry losses and setbacks with them and take them personally and use that as a push to improve. Others let go and move on.

Sure, Edson wants to score, just like Joe wants to prevent goals. They're different types, though, and they're going to go about their business differently.

Some fans would rather have a player say that the game is the end all and be all - others would rather have the player who, regardless of how he works to stay loose, can get the job done in the end.

Playoffs on line

A win for the Galaxy tonight would keep them right in the thick of the playoff hunt. A draw wouldn't destroy their chances but would take their destiny out of their own hands. A loss, though, would end their season tonight and render Sunday's game in Chicago meaningless for the Galaxy.

I think, however, that the Galaxy has come too far to piss it all away right now. The playoffs are within their reach. I don't think the team is going to roll over right now, especially at home, especially against a team with nothing to play for. I'm thinking Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 0.

Here's my Galaxy preview story for the Press-Enterprise.

Do it for Cobi

Even the newest of the Galaxy players would like to send Cobi out on a high note.

Cobi farewell

Cobi Jones has been a big part of US soccer, but on the national team and in MLS. Tonight might be his final home game in a Galaxy uniform. He's still effective and has even talked about un-retiring recently but it's time for him to go out. He's still got game left and as the saying goes it's better to leave the game then have the game leave you.

Billy Witz of the Daily News and Grahame Jones of the LA Times each have a piece on Cobi.

Also, there's this. Billy talked to Peter Vagenas about Cobi Jones after training on Tuesday and I posted the audio link to it here. It started off with a question Billy posed to Pete about books and Cobi's fondness for books.

God save the English national team

Suddenly, England's hopes for Euro 2008 need some divine intervention.

Incidentally, I told Andrea that I thought England got hosed on the penalty kick but she wasn't quite in agreement with me. It was a foul, just a question of whether it was in the box and I didn't think it was inside the area.