He’s Samba Player

It was past 10:30 p.m. Wednesday night and the Galaxy’s game against Santos Laguna of Mexico had been over with for more than an hour. All the same, several dozen people were still gathered outside the main entrance to the Rose Bowl.

Out of the darkness, two players suddenly appeared, headed for their cars. One was instantly recognizable, the mini-dreadlocks, the MTV smile and five years on the U.S. national team have made Cobi Jones a celebrity in the soccer world.

The other player was less familiar, although no less distinct in appearance. The bald head, the single, hooped earring in the left ear, the strong, almost haughty profile have given him an identity too.

Confirmation could be seen in the fans’ reaction. Instead of all gravitating toward Jones, they split into two packs, one surrounding Jones and clamoring for his autograph, the other backing the newcomer up against the fence, thrusting out game programs to be signed, pushing children forward to have their picture taken with the Galaxy’s newest star.

Welton has arrived.

Until this Major Soccer League season and his acquisition by the Galaxy in the first round of the MLS draft in March, it is doubtful that any fans in Los Angeles had ever heard of 22-year-old Welton Araujo Mello.

And on a club filled with such established national team stars as the United States’ Jones, El Salvador’s Mauricio Cienfuegos, Guatemala’s Martin Machon, Mexico’s Jorge Campos and Ecuador’s Eduardo Hurtado, he seemed an unlikely candidate to grab the spotlight.

But that is exactly what the player from Cambuci, a small town north of Rio de Janeiro, has done. He is the Galaxy’s leading scorer with seven goals and two assists.

In an equally revealing statistic, the team has an 8-1-1 record (including international play) in games in which Welton scores.

During the Galaxy’s five-game unbeaten run in MLS play in July, Welton scored four goals and assisted on another. That was enough for him to be selected Friday as the league’s player of the month.

It was an unlikely route that Welton followed to reach MLS stardom. Having played in Brazil on the reserve or junior teams of such illustrious clubs as Fluminense and Flamengo, and having played for Brazil in the 1995 Pan American Games in Argentina, his future seemed assured in South America, or perhaps even in Europe.

But in the spring of 1996, MLS brought a dozen or more young Brazilian players into a training camp in Florida with the intention of seeding the league with some Samba flair. Welton turned out to be the only player who survived the cuts and was signed by the New England Revolution.

His slight build--he looks much shorter than his listed height of 6 feet and much lighter than his listed weight of 160 pounds--was viewed with some skepticism by coaches, but then-New England coach Frank Stapleton was won over by his extraordinary ball control and dribbling skills, as well as his vision and reading of the game.

“He’s a maverick in terms of how he plays,” Stapleton told the Boston Globe early in the 1996 season. “But if we get the ball to him, nine times out of 10 he will get it back to someone who is free. Or he will take on two guys and go past them. There isn’t a player in the league who can hold him.”

Welton’s speed and his ability to ghost past defenders with the ball seemingly tied to his foot have made him a pivotal figure in the Galaxy offense. Zambrano has used him as a starter or brought him off the bench to spark the team, both with equal success.

He gives the Galaxy an added dimension, another style to help confuse opposing teams who already struggle to cope with Hurtado’s size and power, Cienfuegos’ guile and passing prowess, Jones’ speed and Machon’s unpredictability.

Which makes it curious why the Revolution was willing to let him go. In his first MLS season he was selected to the Eastern Conference All-Star team and he ended the year with three goals and six assists for New England.

The Boston winter might have had something to do with it. Snow is not something Welton had to deal with in Rio. “The first game here, it was so cold I couldn’t breathe,” he told the Globe.

Then, too, the desperate lunges and scything tackles of overanxious and often clumsy defenders also took their toll. Welton was one of the most-fouled players in the the league in 1996, chopped down more than 70 times.

When the Revolution fired Stapleton and brought in Thomas Rongen as coach this season, it was time for a change. Welton was able to come in from the cold.

And in the Rose Bowl and the sunshine he has blossomed. Because of the Galaxy’s array of offensive talent, opposing teams cannot concentrate on one player or the other, they have to spread their defensive resources.

As a result, Welton has the time and the space in which to showcase his skills. The move to California has been a good one.

“You never know what is going to happen,” he said last season. “There is luck everywhere in life.”