Galaxy falls on penalty kicks
For a while Wednesday night, it seemed as if the Galaxy might at least have a storybook chapter, if not an ending, to its strange soccer season.
A bicycle-kick goal by Chris Klein three minutes into stoppage time earned Los Angeles a 1-1 tie with Pachuca of Mexico in the final of the SuperLiga tournament and sent the game to overtime.
Galaxy hopes rose.
Only to be dashed.
After 30 minutes of overtime had failed to separate the teams, the game went to penalty kicks.
The Galaxy made three of its six chances. Pachuca made four of its six opportunities.
Just like that, it was over.
Pachuca, which already in the last year had won the Mexican league championship, the CONCACAF Champions Cup and the Copa Sudamericana, added a fourth bit of silverware to its trophy cabinet.
The Galaxy players came away empty handed but with heads held high after playing their most inspired game of the season.
All in all, it was a night to remember at the Home Depot Center, as a tournament that initially was greeted with some skepticism but caught the fancy of fans produced a pulsating and incident-filled final.
The night began inauspiciously for the Galaxy, however, as three more fangs were sunk deep into its already snake-bit season.
First, Real Salt Lake defeated the Kansas City Wizards, 3-1, a result that dropped the Galaxy into last place in Major League Soccer.
Then, midfielder Pete Vagenas steered the ball into his own net in the first half of the final and Pachuca buckled down and came within one minute of making the goal stand up all the way.
Finally, only three minutes after the Vagenas faux pas, David Beckham sprained his right knee in a clash with Pachuca defender Fernando Salazar and had to leave the game after only half an hour.
Galaxy fans might have cringed at the own goal, which could have cost the team its only chance at a trophy this season, but England fans were more concerned with Beckham’s injury.
England plays Israel and Russia in consecutive Euro 2008 qualifying games Sept. 8 and Sept. 12, needing to win both, and Beckham was expected to fly to London on Sunday to join the team.
It appears he still will be able to do so. After receiving treatment, he returned to the Galaxy bench in a suit and tie to watch the overtime session.
Before that arrived, however, there was one more snake waiting to strike.
In the 86th minute of regulation, Klein sent a hard cross in from the right. The ball evaded everyone except Landon Donovan at the far post. His shot from close ranged was blocked by goalkeeper Miguel Calero, but the ball squirted out from beneath the goalkeeper’s body and rolled behind his back and narrowly wide of the left post.
It seemed the Galaxy’s last chance had evaporated, but then came Klein’s score-tying heroics.
With the clock ticking away and the Galaxy applying sustained offensive pressure, the Mexican champions were looking a bit rattled.
A header by Mike Randolph clanged against the crossbar and a Pachuca defender tried to head the ball out of danger. It fell instead to the Galaxy’s Troy Roberts, who headed it hopefully in Klein’s direction.
The veteran midfielder, dragooned into playing right back this season because of the spate of Galaxy injuries, threw himself into the air and executed a flawless bicycle kick, the ball flashing into the Pachuca net between a defender and Calero.
The stadium erupted. Galaxy players mobbed Klein. Seconds later, the final whistle sounded and the game went to overtime.
The storybook finish awaited.
But for Pachuca, not the Galaxy.
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