Weekly Column: February 2012 Archives

The Italian Job: U.S. midfielder Michael Bradley, right, seen here playing for Chievo, is the lone American national team player in Serie A; Italy hosts the U.S. Wednesday in Genoa (AP Photo).

*Injuries threaten to derail Coach Jurgen Klinsmann's plans to have the U.S. primed and ready for World Cup qualifying this summer; he has just three games left to prepare beginning Wednesday in Italy.

In other soccer news:
*Chivas USA fell to Sweden's AIK Monday in Portland, where staggering numbers of Timbers fans turned out to watch a pre-season exhibition doubleheader.

Chivas USA lineup: Dan Kennedy, James Riley, John Valencia, Heath Pearce, Ante Jazic, Michael Lahoud (Laurent Courtois, 58), Alejandro Moreno (Casey Townsend, 63), Oswaldo Minda, Ryan Smith (Alan Souza, 46), Miller Bolaños (Ben Zemanski, 55), Juan Pablo Angel (Cesar Romero, 71).

Substitutes Not Used: Tim Melia, David Jr. Lopez, Rauwshan McKenzie, Scott Gordon, Jose Najera.

*It looks like the Seattle Sounders Women were always going to have the inside track to sign Diamond Bar's Alex Morgan. Here's why.

*In what is clearly a money-saving move, more details are emerging of the recent layoffs within Galaxy parent company Anschutz Entertianment Group and the realignment of its management structure to operate its 11 sports entities.

The No. 1 priority for the Galaxy: "dramatically" increasing season ticket sales.

"We are No. 1 in Major League Soccer with our jersey deal, with our naming-rights deal, with our sponsorships, with our premium-seating revenue," AEG President TimLeiweke told SportsBusiness Daily. "We are No. 1 straight across the board. We are not even top three in season-ticket sales. This is all about season-ticket sales for the Galaxy."

Leiweke said McGowan has added about 1,000 season tickets over the past month, since joining the Galaxy, to bring the club's number to around 7,500.

Robin and his merry men: Chivas USA Coach and former Galaxy defender Robin Fraser has turned to a familiar face to provide stability in midfield for the Goats (Photos by Staff Photographer Steve McCrank).

When former Galaxy midfielder and captain Pete Vagenas contemplated an offer from Chivas USA, it's fair to say he thought long and hard about the decision given his history with the first MLS team in the market:

"I'm honored to be here playing for Robin and Greg Vanney and I'm honored to be playing for Chivas," he said. "I understand the issues from my past. I wasn't insesnsitive to that when this decision was being made. I wanted to make sure I was making it for the right decisions and at the end of the day I want to be here and I want to play for these guys and I can't wait to get started.

"Robin was Obama before Obama to me, in the sense of I had so much respect for him," Vagenas added. "Not only was he a great player he was a great leader and he put the team first and sometimes that led to confrontations with our coach. But he said what needed to be said and I remember thinking specificallty as a young kid if I ever had the opportunity to be a leader I want to do it in that similar way."

Incidentally, Vagenas laughed when I asked him about his old "Pass Back Pete" nickname - and he made no apologies for it:

"It's a very possession oriented game and we have to establish that rhythm, but at the same time like Robin said this morning in the preseason we're trying to maybe play a bit too much. That leads to costly turnovers and before you know it you're down one nothing. Nobody want to play a prettier game thah I do, but at the end of the day you've sometimes got to play ugly because you're trying to win games."

And somehow you've got to think that with the presence of Vagenas in midfield, Chivas USA stands a better chance of exceeding their win total over last season.

For more, here's today's column.

Pete's Prayer: Former Galaxy midfielder Pete Vagenas wanted to finished his career in Southern California where he grew up; this year his wish came true when Chivas USA came calling.

As the Galaxy's leading scorer for four consecutive seasons, which was topped off with a career-best 17 goals in 2010 before his departure overseas, Edson Buddle will go down as the best goal poacher to play for the club since Carlo Ruiz.

Well, now Edson Buddle is back - and he only needs 10 more goals to overhaul the Guatemalan on the all-time Galaxy scoring list.

You can read more about Buddle's return - and learn about Coach Bruce Arena's regrets over his exit - in today's column here.

More from Buddle's press conference and first practice upon his return to Home Depot Center is here:

Also, I spoke Monday to reserve striker Chad Barrett - who is a week or so from returning to full training after recovering from the broken foot that kept him out of MLS Cup - about what Buddle's return might mean for him. The UCLA product made $225,000 in guranteed salary last year - pretty expensive for a backup, especially on a team with plenty of other big salaries that likely needs a starting center back to replace the injured Omar Gonzalez - and conventional wisdom suggests he could become trade bait.

Here's what he said:

"Obviously it affects my playing time on this team," he said of Buddle. "You've got a guy who made the national team and did very well in his last three years.

"Obviously I'm not penciled in as a starter any more," he added. "That's unfortunate for me, but it makes me fight that much harder to get minutes and try to get playing time.

"For the team you couldn't have a better situation; they've got their top scorer back - he was easily the best forward the last two years before he left.

"It happens that way. You see a lot of people come in - I haven't heard anything yet (about a trade), but it might happen it might not. That's something that has to be decided by the coaches, but nobody has come up to me and said anything to me."

Yet.