The Los Angeles Galaxy beat the Dallas Burn 2-0 in a 60-minute scrimmage March 19 in Del Mar, Calif. Joey Leonetti led the Galaxy with a goal and an assist.
March 19 in Del Mar, Calif.
Los Angeles 2, Dallas 0. Goals: Leonetti 22, Beall 25.
Los Angeles — Kramer, Fraser, Calichman, Motajo, Vaudreuil, Armas, Noamouz, leonetti, Beall, Jara, Adair. Subs: Wilson, Jaguande, Vanney, Karapetyan, O’Brien.
Dallas — Dodd, Vagner, Farrer, Ashton, Alvarez, Lozzano, Kreis, Santel, Rodriguez, Kerr, Eck. Subs: Cavitt, Keller, Gentile, Flores.
MLS clubs have until March 24 to pare their rosters down to 22 players. Those players currently on the U.S. U-23 team preparing for the Olympics don’t count against the roster limit.
Clubs can carry 22 players through April 15 when all rosters must be cut to 18 players. Each team can have two developmental players (born on or after Jan. 1, 1973) who can train with the team.
MLS has signed Honda and Fujifilm as sponsors for the 1995 season.
Honda, which has sponsored the U.S. Player of the Year Award since 1991, signed a four-year agreement as “official MLS vehicle.” Its logo will appear on San Jose Clash uniforms. Fujifilm, a World Cup ’94 sponsor, will appear on the New York/New Jersey MetroStars’ uniform.
Venezuela has called up Washington D.C. United’s Daniel De Oliveira and New York/New Jersey’s Giovanni Savarese, both former LIU stars, for friendly matches against Guatemala and Honduras March 25 and 28.
World Cup qualifying begins April 24 in South America, and the two Venezuelans, as well as Ecuadorian Eduardo Hurtado (Los Angeles), Colombians Carlos Valderrama (Tampa Bay) and Leonel Alvarez (Dallas) and Bolivians Marco Etcheverry and Berthy Suarez (both Washington), could miss the second full weekend of the MLS if they are called up and their national federations insist on having their players available five days before the game.
Both Washington and New York/New Jersey play their home openers April 20. In the case of D.C. United, the loss of Etcheverry and Suarez would be a big blow since it is promoting heavily in the area’s large Bolivian community.
An interesting array of bonuses is written into the MLS contracts of players and coaches.
Most players have performance bonuses for wins and appearances, but the league is also working on a bonus structure to reward teams that win by certain margins. The proposed package stipulates for a one-goal win, $1,000 will be paid by the league into a pool. A two-goal win is worth $2,000, a win by three goals is worth $3,000. Additional moneys might also be paid dependent on a team’s ranking of goals scored.
At the end of the season, each team will decide how to split up the money among its players, which is similar to what NBA players do with playoff bonuses.
“We definitely want to encourage goals and encourage attacking soccer,” said deputy commissioner Sunil Gulati.
As a further enticement, several of the league’s coaches have goalscoring incentives written into their contracts. Gulati admits this is unheard of in other countries, but points out, “There are a lot of nil-nil games in Europe, too.”
Gulati also said referees will be instructed to punish players for harsh fouling and not retreating 10 yards on free kicks.