The Clean Sheet: Cobi and the Big Dance
I'm not sure the Galaxy making the playoffs is the best thing for the club in the grand scheme of things, but man have they made things interesting down the stretch.
And now with last night's 1-1 draw against the Red Bulls, they're gonna need a little help before they beat up the pathetic Fire Sunday in Bridgeview.
Here's the problem if you are a Galaxy fan: they can probably pull it off.
All they need on Saturday basically is for the Almighty Hoops to beat Kansas City (done) or for Real Salt Lake not to lose to Mile High Club. Infinitely doable scenario.
And there is the Major League Dilemma if you are a Galaxy fan: Do you want to make the playoffs?
If you get in, anything could happen. In fact, you could end up playing an Ante Razov-less Goats side in the first round and not really even have to go on the road, so that's pretty interesting right there.
But, does making the playoffs and maybe even sneaking out of the first round put a band-aid on a gaping wound? If the Galaxy are going to be the Superclub they want to be, they are going to need to do some serious shopping in the offseason.
Interesting question coming off a fascinating night at The Home Depot Center. I wanted to get to the 8 p.m. game in plenty of time to soak up the atmosphere of such a crucial contest Thursday night, so I left to make the 20-mile drive about 5 p.m.
Got to the game just in time to hear Kimberly Caldwell sing the national anthem. What was my hurry?
Hey, don't you wish your city had traffic like this?
The bummer of all that was there were only about 12,000 people in the stadium yet when they did this big Cobi Jones retirement pregame ceremony, featuring The Commish and everything. They should have held it on the 405 freeway.
The best part about it was they did a video on screen where a bunch of current and former teammates and coaches said goodbye to the little guy.
For those of you scoring at home: biggest cheers were for Mauricio Cienfuegos. And if you had to ask who got the largest boos, well, you've never heard how much Planet LA fans still can't stand Steve Sampson.
Then Alexi Lalas got up and said since Cobi hasn't been allowed to ski for 12 years, here is a ski vacation anywhere he wants. AEG was probably thinking a nice resort in California. Cobi said after the match he was thinking Swiss Alps. Exactly.
When the game finally kicked off and Juan Pablo Angel missed an absolute sitter of a header (for him, anyway), the stadium was filling up.
And it was a packed house before too long, so most of the fans got to see Landon set up Troy Roberts to put the home side up by a goal to nil and send everyone dreaming of playoff footie.
But while the confetti was still streaming out of wherever confetti streams out of, Dave van den Bergh crossed the ball to Jozy Almighty in front of the goal. Jozy, who didn't have a Galaxy defender within about 30 yards of him, slammed home the easiest header of his life to bring matters level.
Seventy-five minutes of play later and Becks had come on and taken a few nice corner kicks and few more crap ones, no one scored again and the Galaxy had it all to do over the weekend, but weren't dead yet.
I will say it sets up a fun weekend, especially when you tack on the Goats-Dynamo match out here for the top spot in the West.
I'm just not sure what true Galaxy fans will really want.
COBI, MEET MICHAEL STRAHAN AND ROGER CLEMENS: I popped down to Cobi Jones' press conference after the match to see him out the door if indeed this was his last home match.
He was asked if there was any chance he would come back next year.
He said it was "highly unlikely."
I say, reconsider.
It's time for Jones to pull a Strahan or a Rocket and go into "retirement" and take the offseason off, but stay in decent shape.
Then skip the preseason so you don't have to trudge around the world and play in all those exhibition games. Then get yourself back into playing shape.
Then about 10 games in, come out of "retirement" and play the final 20 games.
As a sub for the last 15 minutes, Cobi's remaining wheels and veteran presence can still help the Galaxy, especially if they have built a better side next year.
And if they do to this team what I think they might, Cobi might just want to be a part of it for one last run in the sun.
Then he can "retire" all over again next season. I hear the skiing in Italy isn't bad, either.
During the season, The Clean Sheet runs each week on MLSnet. Views and opinions expressed in this column views and opinions are the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com. Send any questions and comments to tcsresponses@yahoo.com
