Friday, May 11, 2007

Greed - is it good?

The Galaxy, have taken the Gordon Gekko approach to winning Cups, but I'm not sure it's practical or ultimately beneficial. Take, for example, Man U and Chelsea. Both teams are much bigger, salary-wise, than the Galaxy.

Without salary-cap restrictions, they are also much deeper, but it could be argued that Champions' League play hindered Chelsea from really going after Man U in the league standings. Man U, meanwhile, was probably worn down a bit by league competition, going out meekly to Milan in the Champions' Cup.

I'm not saying that I agree with that position, just pointing out that if the crowded schedule is difficult for teams that are far deeper than the Galaxy, it probably takes even more of a toll in MLS, where teams are far more tightly bunched in terms of talent.

Yet the Galaxy continue to aim for it all - Alexi Lalas has said that he wants the Supporters' Shield, that the Open Cup is an important trophy, the SuperLiga, the World Series of Soccer, and of course, MLS Cup. About the only cup he hasn't mentioned being a priority is the reserve league championship. I'll go out on a limb here and predict the Galaxy aren't going to win that one.

Though according to Ante Jazic, maybe Galaxy fans even expect that. I asked him if the Open Cup was a bit of a burden, considering the schedule congestion for the team.

"It is, but the Galaxy, we’re not in a position to say, 'We’re not going to take the Open Cup seriously.' Our fans expect that anytime we have a chance at a trophy, we give one hundred percent. Definitely it won’t be easy later on in the summer, but that’s being part of the Galaxy. You have to win trophies. It’s not an easy road. The bigger trophy is the MLS Cup, but we have to give one hundred percent to the Open Cup too. We want to win."

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