HOME DEPOT CENTER BIG IMPROVEMENT.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

CARSON - Before my first visit to the new Home Depot Center - instantly the nicest Southern California stadium, any sport - I associated going to soccer games with inconvenience, discomfort, self-sacrifice.

I like soccer, by the way.

There was the triple-digit heat at the 1994 World Cup final at the Rose Bowl, where the medics hauled away woozy fans while the promoters tried to cool those of us in the outdoor press seats with thimble-size cups of water.

There was the snow and cold wind at an English league match between Queens Park Rangers and Nottingham Forest in London, which might not have numbed the hands and feet so completely if an electrical failure hadn't delayed kickoff for an hour.

There was the poorly publicized game-time change that caused me to miss the first 45 minutes of a World Cup qualifier between England and Northern Ireland at Wembley Stadium - though everybody said not to worry because I saw the more exciting of the scoreless halves.

There was the lightning storm at a U.S.-Saudi Arabia match in Piscataway, N.J., the humidity at a U.S.-Sweden match in Miami, the achingly hard benches at an exhibition between the L.A. Skyhawks and Scotland's Dundee United at Birmingham High in Lake Balboa.

And there were the fits of depression brought on by watching crowds of 15,000 get swallowed up by outsized venues like the Rose Bowl and Coliseum.

To me, it's not soccer if you don't suffer a little.

So, it's going to take time to get used to beautiful evenings like Saturday, when the Galaxy scored a dramatic 2-1 victory over the Kansas City Wizards in front of a spirited crowd of 18,683 and this lapsed fan of American pro soccer felt the thrill of experiencing the sport in its element.

``It's fantastic,'' Bob Gansler, the losing coach, said after his first match at the Home Depot Center. ``It's a tremendous setting for a game. It makes you feel like you're playing in Europe.''

Which, so far, is the highest praise you can give to a U.S. soccer match - that it feels as if it's happening somewhere else.

The canopies over the stands hold in the crowd's chants, whistles, horn blasts, drumbeats and foot-stomps. The crowd is close to the field. The field is blessedly free of football yard lines. You can walk all the way around the stadium on the inside, viewing from the standing-room vantage point of your choice. Your hips can be wider than Mauricio Cienfuegos' and still fit in the seats - which couldn't be said for the Rose Bowl chairs.

When I stumbled across the telecast of the Galaxy's first game at its new home, a 2-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids in front of a 27,000-seat sellout June 7, the setting made me think for a moment that it was an old English or South American match.

Saturday's was the Galaxy's second game here, and if you'd closed your eyes and listened, you couldn't have guessed there were 8,000 empty seats.

``Without cheerleaders, they (the fans) break into song, and without people with megaphones, they find ways to cheer on their team,'' said the Hungarian-born Gansler, a one-time U.S. national-team player and coach.

``That's how it goes in good soccer countries. We can't say, `Build it and they will come.' But if people experience this, unless they're somewhat comatose, they're going to get swept up in the energy.''

Alexi Lalas, the Galaxy defender and former U.S. national-team player who was the first American import of Italy's Serie A, said: ``Ninety percent of the teams around the world would kill or die for this stadium. Even when it's not sold out, it's loud.''

For $150 million - which includes the cost of the adjacent tennis, track, cycling and San Diego Chargers training-camp facilities - Anschutz Entertainment Group has built a stadium soccer fans should love and nonsoccer fans should try. This must be what it felt like when the Dodgers moved from the gigantic Coliseum to the tidy Dodger Stadium. Or what it would feel like if the Lakers moved back from the towering Staples Center to the intimate Forum.

For fans, the suffering will be financial, the top ticket prices having gone up from $33 last year to $45, the low prices from $13 to $22, youth prices from $8 to $16.

``This guy (Philip) Anschutz has built a cathedral to the sport, but he's priced out the congregation,'' said a fan who paid $45 for a mid-sideline seat. ``Those are the prices I paid last year to see Arsenal and Manchester United.''

The fan, who follows English soccer closely, felt as though he was seeing a lower-First Division-quality game in a lower-Premiership-quality setting.

Of course, that beats seeing a lower-First Division-quality game at the Rose Bowl.

``I'm probably going to go Wednesday night,'' the fan said.

The Galaxy (2-4-4), which has two victories in a row after opening its Major League Soccer championship defense by going winless in eight road games, hosts the San Jose Earthquakes (5-2-2) Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.

If it snows, I'm there for sure.

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Photo:

(color) Right down to the confetti-littered turf, some are comparing the new Home Depot Center in Carson to a European venue.

John Hayes/Associated Press