By Ridge Mahoney
Senior Editor
A match held Sunday to honor the late Lamar Hunt featured one of those outstanding college players who helped his team win a national title and then snubbed MLS to test out Europe.
Fortunately, for Columbus and MLS, Stefano Miglioranzi came back to the league last year as a discovery player with the Galaxy, which traded him to the Crew in January for a 2008 Supplementary Draft pick. Miglioranzi helped create goals for Joseph Ngwenya, Kei Kamara and Aaron Chandler as Columbus rolled past FC Dallas, 3-0, before 6,525 fans at Pizza Hut Park in the Lamar Hunt Pioneer Cup.
Three days before the match, Columbus obtained Robbie Rogers in a weighted lottery. He left Maryland after helping the Terps win a national title in 2005 and signed last summer with Heerenveen, only to return after his contract was terminated.
Rogers came on a sub in the 76th minute, but by then the result was decided, thanks in part to Miglioranzi, a member of the St. John’s championship team in 1996 who had been playing in England since bypassing MLS after being drafted by Chicago. He had entered the match at halftime as a replacement for Brad Evans.
Miglioranzi pushed a square ball for Ngwenya to run onto and drill low into the corner for 1-0 lead in the 59th minute, and four minutes later, a Miglioranzi through ball to Kamara wound up in the net as well. He started the sequence that led to Ned Grabavoy, another former Galaxian, setting up Chandler for the final goal against a Dallas team that collapsed with fatigue in the second half, having recently returned from a training trip to Brazil.
Since finishing at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with one of the league’s weakest midfields, Columbus has shored up that area. Duncan Oughton, who played just nine games last year after missing the entire 2005 season, is back, as are Danny Szetela, Ricardo Virtuoso, Danny O’Rourke and Eddie Gaven. Miglioranzi and Rogers add some attacking punch to that of Virtuoso and Gaven. Coach Sigi Schmid is one of several MLS coaches pondering the pros and cons of playing three up top.
GALAXY TINKERS. Los Angeles beat Houston, 1-0, Friday at Home Depot Center on a goal by, who else, Landon Donovan. Galaxy coach Frank Yallop is also tinkering with three up top, in a 4-3-3 formation he believes may best suit the team once David Beckham arrives.
Donovan created the chance and finished it himself, knocking a ball wide to Gavin Glinton and running onto the return pass to outrace the opposition and put away his shot.
Keeper Joe Cannon was happy with the win but also pleased the Galaxy had put aside lackadaisical preseason showings against New England (a 4-0 loss in Bermuda) and New York (0-0) to beat Chicago, 2-1, on Tuesday and then topple the defending champion.
“It was a chippy game against Houston and they probably should have had a penalty kick or two, but the referee didn’t call it,” said Cannon, who was traded from Colorado in the offseason for defender Ugo Ihemelu and forward Herculez Gomez. “It was a good game. They’re a good team, they’re definitely playing well.
“We kind of got our butts handed to us by New England, so after that game we shaped up a little bit and put in a lot better efforts. All the games have been at Home Depot Center, so we’ve played mostly home games. At the same time, it’s good to get some good results and hopefully we can build off them.”