Galaxy in Parallel World
Next assignment for the Galaxy coaching staff and players: Post-Winning Streak Depression--How to Recognize It and How to Cope.
As a study aid, they can review their 1996 season, when they opened 12-0 before losing their first game on the last day of June.
And then, try to do everything differently this time around.
Once Colorado broke that 12-game winning streak in 1996, the Galaxy plunged into free fall--losing four in a row, 11 of 14 and 13 of 17 to go from 12-0 to 19-13 by the end of the regular season.
Now 9-1 after losing for the first time in 1998, to the expansion Chicago Fire on Wednesday, is the Galaxy poised again at the edge of the abyss?
“We’ve learned from that first season,” Galaxy defender Robin Fraser said. “Then, we were very caught up in the 12-0. When we lost it was like, ‘Oh, no, the streak’s broken, what do we do now?’
“Now, we know how to deal with it. It’s just a loss, one loss. We still have a lot of games to play.”
Fraser pauses for a moment and then corrects himself.
“No,” he says, “the immediate goal is getting to the playoffs. The ultimate goal is to win it.”
Despite the 12-0 run in 1996--and a two-goal lead over D.C. United in the MLS Cup final--the Galaxy failed to win the league championship that first year, leaving the club with a bitter perspective on big leads and fast starts.
Because MLS is a league in which a fourth-place team with a losing record can reach the Cup final--see Colorado Rapids, 1997--Galaxy Coach Octavio Zambrano was less than impressed by his squad’s 9-0 streak to open the 1998 season.
“I wasn’t extremely happy about the streak,” Zambrano said, “and I’m not extremely sad it’s over. . . .
“[The streak] doesn’t mean anything. If we were playing under a different format, like they do in Argentina or England or Germany, where the guy who gets to the top [of the standings] is named champion, I’d be ecstatic. Every game we win in a row would be another three points toward the championship.
“But that’s not the format we have in this league. The reality in this league is: We could win 30 in a row and some team could lose 30 in a row and sneak into the playoffs and still knock us off.
“So, at the end of the day, it doesn’t mean that much.”
In MLS, eight of 12 teams qualify for the playoffs, so the overriding objective is to win often enough during the regular season to get in--and once in, win five more games in the month of October.
This requires maintaining the proverbial even keel during the course of the 32-game regular season and preventing one-game losing streaks from blowing up into monthlong slumps--especially when your chief competition in the Western Conference, the Dallas Burn, is next on the schedule.
“We have very rational people on this team,” midfielder Steve Jolley said. “We realize that sooner or later, you’re going to lose.
“Unfortunately, the streak had to end at nine. But we have to look at it this way: To win your first nine games is a great accomplishment, so you say, ‘Great stuff--now we’ve got to move forward.’ ”
Around the MLS
Jeff Cunningham evaded defender Brian Dunseth before slipping a shot under goalkeeper Ian Feuer’s legs in the 35th minute as the Columbus Crew (6-4) defeated the New England Revolution (4-6), 2-0, in a Major League Soccer game Friday before 14,302 at Foxboro, Mass.
