Sampson, Schmid, Chivas USA & Baseless Rumors
Sigi Schmid is seen here getting pneumonia when bringing the MLS Cup to Seattle via a freezing Bainbridge Island ferry Thursday with Sounders Technical Director Chris Henderson in a publicity stunt. (AP Photo). 
Among the best reasons to attend an MLS Cup if you're a journalist are the rumors, gossip, agents telling lies in hopes of getting clients work and rank and file folks jockeying for jobs.
After all, contracts are expiring and trades brewing (the expansion draft is next week).
So if we believe this former Galaxy Coach Steve Sampson will soon be joining Chivas USA.
Little attribution to the item beyond vague "sources" (perhaps Sampson himself), but it certainly has a kernel of truth as any potentially credible gossip/propaganda always does.
Pros include the fact Sampson lives locally (Calabasas), is probably relatively inexpensive (a Chivas USA hallmark) and speaks Spanish.
Cons include that ghastly 1998 World Cup, a destructive stint with the Galaxy punctuated by a fluky MLS Cup win and a penchant for backroom politics.
By coincidence, I e-mailed Sounders Coach Sigi Schmid this week (before he was hospitalized with pneumonia Thursday night and where he remained through Saturday) about the Chivas USA job.
A press box colleague had wondered recently whether Schmid, who grew up in the South Bay and still has a house (and wife) in Manhattan Beach, would be interested in the Chivas USA job since it's known he would like to work again in Southern California.
It's probably a case of the right job at the wrong time for Schmid who not only has unfinished business in Seattle, but owners and management he will demonstrate loyalty to after they rescued him from the Crew.
He jokingly e-mailed me: "The owners here are great. If Chivas paid me what they paid (former Coach Hans) Westerhof I would consider it."
Of course, Westerhof was on a CD Guadalajara-size salary, not an MLS one.
And what about Chivas USA?
Here's President Shawn Hunter's comment in an e-mail reply to a query about Schmid: "I have always been a Sigi fan."
Massive?
About 100 Percent Soccer
Sportswriter Nick Green has written the 100 Percent Soccer column since 2005 for the Daily News, Daily Breeze and other Los Angeles area newspapers. The blog of the same name began in 2007. A native of England, he began writing about soccer in the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat in the stands for one in the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer and is married to a long-suffering soccer widow. Join Nick on FaceBook and follow him on Twitter.
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