It’s All Roses for Galaxy
Can 109,602 fans be wrong?
That’s how many have turned out for the Los Angeles Galaxy’s first two Major League Soccer games at the Rose Bowl.
On Sunday, 40,347 showed up to see goals by Jose Vasquez and Mauricio Cienfuegos earn the Galaxy a 2-1 victory over the San Jose Clash on a hot but thankfully smog-free afternoon in Pasadena.
The victory improved the Galaxy’s record to 3-0, best in the league, and left it in first place in the Western Conference.
It was the team’s third 2-1 victory in as many games, but judging by the number of clear scoring opportunities the Galaxy created, the score could easily have been 4-1 or 5-1. Poor finishing was to blame.
Three games, no goals. That seems a sign that Eduardo “Tank” Hurtado, is running on empty.
Don’t ask Eric Wynalda to sympathize with the Los Angeles striker, however. The Clash forward is having enough woes of his own. With 36 seconds to play Sunday and his team trailing by one goal, Wynalda curled a free kick past the Galaxy’s defensive wall, only to see it bounce off the left goalpost.
Wynalda has not scored since the MLS’s inaugural game on April 6. The Clash (1-3) hasn’t won since then, either.
“I hit it well,” Wynalda said. “It was everything I wanted it to be except about three inches that way. Maybe I didn’t judge the wind, I don’t know. I thought I scored. Really, I did.”
It was close enough to prompt Galaxy owner Marc Rapaport to comment afterward that, “I’m glad now that FIFA didn’t allow us to enlarge the goals.”
But it was only one of at least a half-dozen chances that went begging in a game in which the missed goals were as much a part of the story as the real ones.
Hurtado, in particular, flubbed several glorious opportunities.
“He came from South America [on Thursday] after scoring two goals for the [Ecuador] national team [in a 4-1 World Cup ’98 qualifying victory over Peru in Guayaquil on Wednesday],” Galaxy assistant Octavio Zambrano said. “You would think that he would come and score a few for us.
“He had the opportunities, and so did some other guys. But the time will come when we’re going to score more than two goals.”
But two was enough Sunday to leave Los Angeles as the league’s only unbeaten team.
The Galaxy created the early chances. Clash goalkeeper Tom Liner was forced to dive to his left in the sixth minute to block a shot by Hurtado, who had been set up by a useful pass from fellow striker Jose Vasquez, making his first start for Los Angeles.
In the 15th minute, midfielder Arash Noamouz squirmed his way past two defenders and into the penalty area before lifting a shot over the crossbar with only Liner to beat.
San Jose’s first opportunity came in the 22nd minute when Galaxy goalkeeper Jorge Campos had to make two saves within a minute, the first off a sharp header by Chile’s Victor Mella and the second off a low drive by Wynalda.
But Los Angeles scored first, a perfect pass from Cobi Jones giving Vasquez the opportunity to steer the ball past Liner and inside the right post in the 26th minute.
Vasquez, from Santa Ana, raced back to the Galaxy bench to be congratulated by Jorge Salcedo, the former UCLA midfielder who scored the winning goal off a Vasquez pass in last weekend’s victory at Washington.
Five minutes later, Nigerian defender Michael Emenalo earned his third yellow card of the season, this one for dangerous play, when he kicked Galaxy defender Dan Calichman in the chest. Jones put the resulting free kick over the crossbar. Another miss.
San Jose Coach Laurie Calloway, sensing the need to inject some life into his team, took off Eddie Lewis and replaced him with Jamaican national team midfielder Altimont Butler.
The Galaxy almost made it 2-0 in the 33rd minute, but midfielder Mark Semioli of Stanford somehow managed to hoist his shot from close range high over the crossbar.
Five minutes before the half ended, Liner denied Hurtado his first goal by rushing out of his net to deflect the Ecuadorean striker’s shot wide of the right post on a one-on-one break.
Vasquez was shaken up when fouled by Guatemala’s Jorge Rodas at midfield, but it was a foul by Mella, who elbowed Jones in the face at the edge of the penalty area, that brought the second goal.
An excellent free kick by Cienfuegos curled into the upper right corner of the net, beyond the fingertips of Liner, and the crowd erupted in response as the Salvadoran midfielder sprinted the sideline, sliding on his knees with his arms upraised, before being engulfed by teammates.
“It was a tremendous free kick goal by Cienfuegos,” Wynalda said. “Impressive, very impressive. I said, ‘Hey, great kick.’ I was right behind him. That was a world-class goal. Sometimes, when you’re playing against guys like him, you can’t prepare for goals like that. You’re just going to have to hope that he screws up.”
The second half opened with the Galaxy continuing to force the pace. It was only Liner’s ability in the nets that kept the score from increasing. He made back-to-back saves from close range off Cienfuegos in the opening minutes of the half and later denied the midfielder again after Cienfuegos had dribbled past three defenders.
Los Angeles came close to scoring a couple of other times, but the final shot always went astray. Jones and Hurtado missed high and wide when it might have been easier to score.
Finally, San Jose struck back when a corner kick by Wynalda found Paul Bravo unguarded in front of the net. Bravo’s header from point-blank range gave Campos no chance.
Los Angeles deserved the victory, but made it more difficult than it should have been.
“Despite the fact that I don’t think they’re yet playing as good as they can, they’re still probably the best team in the league right now,” Wynalda said. “They’re the team to beat.”
On Sunday at the Rose Bowl, Washington D.C. United (0-4) gets the opportunity to see if it can do so.
