Ruud Says the Galaxy Can’t do Sexy Football

My headline is almost directly from TimesOnline (UK.) Inflammatory, no?

And it’s too bad, too, because the article is fascinating — all about Ruud’s culture shock in coming to the land of the salary cap.

One of the most interesting parts is about the trials and tribulations of fielding a Reserve team. I think we all kind of knew most of this. But I for one didn’t know the extent of what’s involved in actually tracking down players who can play for the Reserves on any given week.

“I’m sure that when people think of LA Galaxy, the picture that comes to mind is not of our staff making phone calls to friends on Friday to see if they can play in a reserve game on Sunday, but, strange as it may seem, this is the reality,” reveals Gullit, sitting in the sun near the VIP area of an empty stadium. “Two weeks ago we had a game at home [against San Jose] and I had two of my office staff from the commercial department playing, two people whose job is to sit in the office all day doing their work. We needed bodies and we didn’t have bodies, so we asked them to play, they wanted to play and they just played. There are 26 players on our roster, five were out injured. This left us with 21 players, but there is a rule [in Major League Soccer (MLS)] that prevents reserve team players from playing for more than 120 minutes within the space of 48 hours. If they have played the day before in the first team for 90 minutes [reserve games are usually scheduled for the following day] you can do the maths.

“In the first reserve game of the season at Colorado I had a few players who could play for only 70 minutes and another who only could play for half an hour. So what did we do? We started with 10 men because we had to. You can say that it’s only a reserve game, but you can’t operate like this because the reserve game is important. Why? Because of the development of my injured players and players who have to practise their rhythm because they haven’t played for a long time.

“If I have a reserve game and come up two men short, what happens? We have to call people from their job, maybe a carpenter, and they just come to play with our reserve team. If we play in Toronto, we have to call people in Toronto because no one will travel on their own all that way. Of course, we laugh about it a little bit, but in the end it’s not a laughing matter and it’s not good. We need to have a full squad that trains together. I haven’t been able to build up a reserve team because I’m only two months here and it’s not possible, so this is an example of the things I am trying to adapt to. I’m not trying to change it yet, I’m trying to adapt to it, but in the end I’ll say, ‘You need to do things in a certain way because otherwise it’s not serious’. Really, it’s ridiculous.”

The rest of the article is very interesting too. A reminder of how far we have to go. But at the same time, you’re kind of reminded of…oh…I don’t know. “Bad News Bears” or some other “Coach succeeds in bringing ragtag group together to win the title” kind of movie.

Starring David Beckham, as himself.

(As long as they don’t cast Will Ferrell as Ruud Gullit, I’m good with this scenario.)

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Category: 2008 Season, Galaxy Reserves, Player News