in league games, SuperLiga, the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and on into the MLS playoffs, he said.
"This is my team, and as much as possible, I want to play in as many Galaxy games as I possibly can this year," Donovan said. "I want to be there week in week out."
BACK IN THE BULLRING: Claudio Reyna missed a couple of Red Bull preseason friendlies, but it had nothing to do with injury. The former U.S. captain returned to New York for about a week and a half to be with his wife for the birth of their third child. (Reyna now has three boys, just two short of a promising five-a-side squad.)
Reyna was back with the team, which is training this week in California, by late Monday night. Manager Bruce Arena chose not to play Reyna in the team's contest against Houston on Tuesday. The team had Wednesday off and Reyna was back on the practice field Thursday.
Dema Kovalenko wore the captain's armband in Reyna's place. The Ukrainian midfielder has consistently been one of the fittest Red Bulls in camp, finishing ahead of the pack in conditioning runs and playing at a high level in matches, as well.
Neither goalkeeper, incumbent Jon Conway nor Dutch challenger Ronald Waterreus has pulled ahead in that battle. Waterreus returned to the Netherlands for a few days to tidy up personal business and Conway was stellar in a friendly against the Galaxy in his absence. Then Waterreus returned in time to face Houston in a friendly and managed to make an impressive double stop on Paul Dalglish's penalty kick and rebound effort.
Also impressive in camp: rookie Dane Richards, who has filled in for injured Markus Schopp along the right side in Arena's 4-5-1 setup. If Richards and Marvell Wynne combine on the right, the duo's combined pace is going to trouble a few defenses.
AVOIDING ORANGE CRUSH: Houston manager Dominic Kinnear is having to hold back himself and his team a bit these days.
He'd love to have more two-a-day sessions and incorporate more running into the preseason practice plans, providing his players with that important fitness base heading into the taxing MLS campaign.
But Kinnear also sees a schedule packed with, if things go well, perhaps 50 meaningful matches in 2007. If Dynamo extend their season into a second consecutive MLS Cup final in mid-November, then its full campaign will have lasted 10 months. (The club kicked off its campaign two weeks ago in Costa Rica.)
Kinnear grimaces when he calculates the grind of such an extended stretch.
"I'm very concerned about that," he confessed this week from Carson, Calif., where the team is currently training.
Aside from Dynamo's busy schedule, he knows some important players are sure to be involved internationally. So, he's already limiting his team's activity when possible and stressing the importance of rest and nutrition over a long haul.
"You want to make sure guys are 100 percent healthy all the time," Kinnear said. "If guys are hurt, you have to stress that they get the right rest."
All year, he'll put an extra emphasis on training efficiently. He wants to resist the temptation to occasionally tear up the daily plan and go those extra 20 or so minutes, even if it means sacrificing a little bit of preparation in the short term.
CUT DOWN TO SIZE: On the subject of Houston's CONCACAF Champions Cup win last week against Costa Rica's Puntarenas: If that field in College Station seemed suspiciously (and unnecessarily) narrow, well, it was. There was plenty of real estate available for expansion.
But it wasn't exactly some cagey tactical gambit on Dominic Kinnear's part. Yes, it's true that a smaller field favors the less fit side. And that was Houston Dynamo, of course.
But in truth, Kinnear simply had the pitch lined to the exact same dimensions as Robertson Stadium. He wanted it that way for continuity's sake.
"We feel that we do play well on tight fields," Kinnear said. "And we just wanted to keep it the way it is at Robertson."
D.C. United officials apparently are brewing a little March Madness of their own.
Increased media interest in MLS, steadily growing awareness of the CONCACAF Champions Cup and the Chivas popularity factor seem to be paying dividends. D.C. United officials have already sold more than 8,000 tickets at RFK Stadium for next week's tournament semifinal first leg between United and CD Guadalajara of Mexico.
Team spokesman Doug Hicks said the club expects around 20,000 for the match, barring any truly unpleasant weather. That's a healthy crowd for a summer Saturday, much less a midweek Thursday in March, before most fans are thinking "MLS soccer."
Not only does Thursday's contest a midweek match, it also falls on the first night of the NCAA basketball tournament. That could have been especially bothersome to attendance efforts since a couple of local teams figure to be involved on the first weekend of NCAA March Madness.
As it is, look for a dandy crowd and an especially impassioned effort from La Barra Brava; You can make a compelling argument that this is D.C.'s biggest match at RFK since the 1997 MLS Cup title match.
Steve Davis is a freelance writer who has covered Major League Soccer since its inception. Steve can be reached at BigTexSoccer@yahoo.com. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of Major League Soccer or MLSnet.com.
