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Saturday September 04, 2010

» Nick Green's 100 Percent Soccer blog

As the Galaxy ponder adding another big-name player, the value of star power in MLS was vividly demonstrated yet again last weekend.

A record Toyota Park crowd of 21,868 Sunday in Bridgeview, Ill., witnessed MLS history when for the first time five of the highest paid players in the league played in the same game.

The Chicago Fire featured two designated players - a player who counts for just $400,000 under the league's $2.55 million salary cap, no matter what he earns - former Arsenal and Seattle Sounders star Freddie Ljungberg and Mexican international Nery Castillo.

The New York Red Bulls countered with a trio of DPs - newly signed former Barcelona midfield general Rafa Marquez, who last week joined former Barcelona teammate Thierry Henry in New York, as well former Aston Villa forward Juan Pablo Angel.

Such was the improved quality of the play, few in the crowd worried that the game finished without a goal.

On Saturday in Pasadena, more than 89,000 crammed into the Rose Bowl to watch vaunted Real Madrid dispatch the Galaxy, 3-2.

While the Galaxy took a 2-0 halftime lead against Real Madrid's mostly second-stringers, the balance and tempo changed with the entry of former World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo and Argentine World Cup goal-machine Gonzalo Higuain.

With flashbulbs popping and an audible buzz building in the crowd every time Ronaldo touched the ball, Real Madrid mounted a mesmerizing comeback that saw Higuain score a pair, including one from an inch-perfect Ronaldo pass that left the Galaxy defense helpless.

Against this backdrop, MLS entered the final week of the international transfer window when domestic clubs are permitted to sign players from overseas.

If the Galaxy want to sign a third DP - they already have David Beckham and Landon Donovan, of course - that signing must occur by Sunday when the trade window closes.

With the signing of Marquez, there are now a dozen DPs in MLS, more than at any time in the league's history. recent DP signings have included players fresh off success at the World Cup, the Sounders picking up Swiss veteran Blaise Nkufo and Uruguayan Alvaro Fernandez, for instance, to replaced the now-banished Ljungberg.

Those kinds of signings may work for soccer reasons elsewhere in MLS, but they don't cut it for the Galaxy.

The Galaxy have long worked with the philosophy that designated players must do two things - put more people in the stands and improve the team on the field.

And that means big names, precious few of which are at the point in their careers that they would be willing to step down a level (or two) to join MLS.

In large measure, that philosophy backfired when it came to Beckham, who will return to train with the team for the first time today after snapping his Achilles' tendon in the run-up to the World Cup.

While attendance and media attention initially surged when he was signed in 2007, extended absences because of injuries and Italian loan spells have made Beckham somewhat of an afterthought.

Even last year, when he played regularly after rejoining the team in midseason from AC Milan, he failed to score from one of his trademark bending free kicks.

And Galaxy attendance has suffered as a result.

Even if he returns this season - his doctors are targeting October and Beckham, perhaps ill-advisedly already pushing his 35-year-old body too hard again, has said he will try for September - Galaxy fans won't see much of him.

Beckham is ineligible to play until Sept. 18, by which time there will be just four regular-season Galaxy home games and two road games remaining.

It's not imperative the MLS-leading Galaxy sign a designated player, but it would provide a boost to a team that has won just twice in its last seven MLS games after a fast start.

And it could provide financial fillip as well. the Galaxy were the first MLS team to ever turn a profit, but last year it wasn't one of the two MLS teams that did, despite reaching MLS Cup.

The Galaxy cleared almost $210,000 of space in the last week, sending under-performing veteran striker Alan Gordon to neighboring Chivas USA and seeing 11-year MLS veteran Clint Mathis retire.

But the player most often mentioned as Galaxy DP, Ronaldinho, remains under contract to AC Milan for another year.

Speculative reports within the last week or so have suggested the Galaxy will pay AC Milan $8 million for the striker and sign him to a four-year contract.

Still, Milan on Friday reiterated the 30-year-old was not for sale, while other reports have him heading home to Brazil or even signing a two-year extension with Milan.

And as the Galaxy seek to keep pace with rivals on and off the field, the trade deadline is fast approaching.

nick.green@dailybreeze.com

For more soccer news, read the 100 Percent Soccer blog at insidesocal.com/soccer.