GALAXY’S HERNANDEZ HAPPY FOR DO-OVER AS L.A. TEAMS PLAY TONIGHT
ORLANDO, Fla.
Javier Hernandez’s MLS career didn’t begin the way he hoped it would. In his first two games, the Galaxy’s best-paid player managed just two shots, neither on goal.
The Galaxy didn’t win either time.
“It was a rough start,” Hernandez, better known as Chicharito, confessed over the weekend.
But when the team returns to the field today after a four-month pause caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Hernandez’s poor performances will be a distant memory.
“It’s almost like starting from scratch at this point,” teammate Sebastian Lletget said. “It’s really hard for any team to carry on from where they were, even if you won those two first games. So yeah, it’s kind of a fresh start.”
The Galaxy will face the Portland Timbers in their first game in the MLS Is Back tournament. In the opener of tonight’s doubleheader, rival LAFC will play the Houston Dynamo.
That’s if the games are played. When MLS postponed Sunday morning’s D.C. United-toronto FC game, it marked the third time in five days a match had been canceled or postponed because of positive COVID-19 tests. MLS announced later Sunday that both teams participated in another round of testing and all players from the two clubs tested negative, clearing the way for the game to be played today at 6 a.m. Pacific time.
At least 22 players have tested positive since entering the MLS quarantine June 27, and two teams already have been withdrawn. And this is happening as Florida on Sunday reported a one-day record of 15,299 COVID-19 infections and a record 514 coronavirus deaths for the last week.
Yet MLS Deputy Commissioner Mark Abbott insisted the games would go on.
“We believe the tournament can be carried out safely,” he said. “In case it isn’t, we’d make a decision.”
There had been some doubt that Hernandez, the Mexican national team’s alltime leading goal scorer, would be in Orlando. His wife, Sarah, is seven months pregnant. To play in the tournament, Hernandez had to leave her and the couple’s year-old son, Noah, in Southern California to be isolated for weeks in Florida.
“It was tough,” he said of the decision. “Not only for myself, for all the players. Even the single players. People can think, ‘Oh, we make good salaries, we are athletes.’ But being (gone) five weeks, it’s tough being away from family.”
The Galaxy made the decision easier by helping Hernandez bring his brother-inlaw, David Kohan, from New York to L.A. to keep his family company. As for entering MLS’ now-punctured protective bubble, Hernandez said he had no second thoughts.
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t feel safe,” he said.
The reward, Lletget said, is that Hernandez will get a second chance at a first impression. The Galaxy hasn’t played since March 7 — so long that Hernandez returns a year older, at 32 — and the long break gave the team time to ponder its poor start.
“There are a lot of positives we’ve been working on,”
Lletget said. “We’ve taken what we’ve done wrong and tried to improve that. There’s a good opportunity (today), but again we haven’t even had a chance to play any rival teams in months.”
But they’ll be doing it without their captain, midfielder Jonathan dos Santos, arguably the team’s best player. Dos Santos recently underwent surgery to repair a sports hernia.
LAFC will also be without its captain and best player, forward Carlos Vela. He chose to stay home with his wife, Saioa, who is due to give birth to the couple’s second child this summer.
kevin.baxter@latimes.com