The World Series of Football kicks off on Tuesday night at The Home Depot Center, when the Los Angeles Galaxy take on Tigres UANL of Mexico to kick off the four-team tournament. While Tigres are still in their preseason and Los Angeles is in the middle of a three-week break from league action, both sides are expecting a hard fought contest.
"We're really looking forward to the game [Tuesday] night. We're coming to a break in our season," said Galaxy head coach Frank Yallop. "For us, this tournament is very important. We're looking forward to playing on Tuesday and getting ourselves going. It will be a tough game but one which we'll be trying to establish a rhythm."
In the grand scheme of things, the game has little significance on the Galaxy's season as a whole. Still, it still holds a significance in terms of measuring the club against some of the best competition in the world.
"As players we don't often get opportunities to play in games outside of our normal league. It's exciting," said Landon Donovan. "We understand it doesn't technically mean anything, but Tigres will be here to win games. It's exciting for us because we get to play at home."
With the Superliga tournament just around the corner, Tuesday's game will serve as a good litmus test to see where the Galaxy stand against some of the best competition the Mexican Primera Division has to offer. It also provides another opportunity for the rivalry that exists between the United States and Mexico at the international level to trickle down to the club level.
While Donovan, who has scored some of the biggest goals in recent history against Mexico for the U.S., wouldn't admit that playing against a Mexican team was a motivating factor, he didn't downplay the fact either.
"It's clearly not similar to a qualifier or even a friendly between the U.S. and Mexico. That being said we don't want to lose this game," said Donovan. "We're not an all American team either, so it's not just America versus Mexico, but for me personally, I want to win the game."
Even Francisco Fonseca, who plays for Tigres and Mexico, had a hard time keeping a straight face while trying to be diplomatic about the significance of the CONCACAF rivalry.
"It's not the same lineups as you'd have for the national teams but I definitely want to win this game," said Fonseca with a grin on his face. "The rivalry between the clubs is growing."
Greg Daurio is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
