Carson, CA. – The LA Galaxy’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic continued his tour of various television talk shows with an appearance on Wednesday’s “Late, Late Show” with James Corden.
This time he played an amusement park fortune teller, with Corden giving him a few dollars to get a response. Ibrahimovic told Corden he not only was “the greatest fortune teller in the entire universe” but also “the greatest soccer player in the entire universe” and “the greatest late-night television watcher in the universe.”
A reporter Thursday decided to stay in the spirit of things and asked Ibrahimovic for his fortune on the Galaxy. The reporter even offered to pay him a dollar.
“I give it to you for free,” Ibrahimovic, who has scored only one goal in his last five games, said with a grin. “My vision is very positive. And I see us lifting the trophy.
“That enough? I give it to you for free.”
Galaxy head coach Sigi Schmid was happy to hear such a response, even though the struggling Galaxy (3-5-1, 10 points) have lost four of their last five games and are tied for eighth in the Western Conference with Real Salt Lake.
“Fantastic,” he said with a laugh after being asked for a comment. “I’m going to go to one of those things you go to at an amusement park and follow that up.
“The confidence of your leader is important. You can will things and you can will things for your team. And that’s something he provides for us.”
IN THE MOOD
There is no question frustration is building on the Galaxy, but its collective belief has not been shaken.
“It’s frustrated,” Schmid said of the team’s mood, “but still a team that’s very confident. I believe in them as a group and they believe in each other as a group. It’s just a matter of getting the results to back that up.
“It’s a team that’s still very confident and I’m still very confident in the group we have. There’s still a lot of games to go in the season. It doesn’t matter what you do at the beginning of the year, what matters in this league is how you’re playing at the end.”
Holding midfielder Perry Kitchen said the team has been in close to a state of disbelief with its recent setbacks.
“It’s certainly disappointing to lose the past few games the way we have,” he said. “Goals in the first five minutes, goals in the first five minutes of the second half and goals in the last five minutes of the game. It’s frustrating, disappointing … use whatever adjective you want.
“Anytime you go through one of these stretches everybody’s analyzing sometimes too much. That’s natural. But the bottom line is we just haven’t been good enough.
“With the talent we have,” he went on, “we have to put it together, and we will. This weekend is another opportunity to show what we can do.”
THE RIGHT STUFF
Dave Romney continues to try to settle in at right back in place of Rolf Feltscher, who could be out for as long as fourth months after recent right shoulder surgery, but it hasn’t exactly been a smooth transition.
Romney, a 24-year-old from Irvine, played left back at the University of San Francisco and said the move remains a work in progress.
“It’s definitely an ongoing thing,” he said, “but something I should be able to do pretty quickly. Hopefully, that gets worked out.”
Romney said the challenges of playing on the right side compared to the more familiar left can be narrowed down to what he said were “little things.”
“I guess just being comfortable opening up on my right foot, hitting down the line, turning on my right shoulder and hitting crosses with my right foot,” he said. “As compared to being comfortable hitting with my left foot.
“My fitness isn’t where I want it” – he went 90 minutes in Houston and 86 minutes against the Red Bulls, the first two games he’s gone that long since a 90-minute stint in a 0-0 tie against Vancouver on March 24 – “but it’s getting better.
“I can feel it in training.”
He’s given himself a passing grade, but just barely.
“When you’ve given up three goals in two losses,” he said of the switch, “it can’t be that smooth.”