Crew Cut Can’t Stop Galaxy, 3-2

A few facts and then the story.

The Los Angeles Galaxy defeated the Columbus Crew, 3-2, in front of 15,220 at the Rose Bowl on Sunday to improve its Major Soccer League record to 7-0. Eduardo Hurtado scored the winning goal in the 68th minute.

All of which tells you precisely nothing about what really happened. Such as:

--Columbus defender Todd Yeagley launching himself studs-first at Galaxy midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos and smashing into the playmaker’s shin.

--Cienfuegos writhing in agony on the field, then being taken off by stretcher, then being hospitalized with a suspected broken leg.

--Yeagley minutes later committing another foul and being tossed out of the game, probably for his own good.

--Galaxy Coach Lothar Osiander and his players being more than a little upset at the incident and willing to say so afterward.

“I thought that [the foul on Cienfuegos] probably deserved a red card,” Osiander said. “His leg is in pretty bad shape. He has one cleat mark that is about an inch deep and the other cleats are showing as well.

“I assume it was intentional. He hit him above the shin guard. The leg is not broken, but he’s in the hospital and they’re doing the best they can for him.”

Defender Robin Fraser was visibly angry well after the final whistle had sounded.

“As a defender who has committed bad tackles in my time, I know an awful tackle,” he said. “I mean, that was brutal. It was so late and so high, I really, honestly thought then that it should have been a red card. I was blown away--the entire team was so angry--that he only got a yellow.

“If he can do that to one of the best players in the league and be allowed to continue to play, I don’t think it’s right.”

And it is the league that will suffer if such plays are not punished, Fraser said.

“The premise that supposedly has been laid down is that the creative, attractive, attacking players are going to be protected,” he said. “That’s what the word was from day one. Obviously, as defenders, we were like, ‘Wow, this means we can’t even sneeze on them without getting thrown out.’ And then an instance like this today happens.

“I’m the most live-and-let-live person you’ll ever meet and I’m usually not very opinionated, but that was as bad a tackle as I’ve ever seen. It really was, and it definitely hurts the league.”

For his part, Yeagley, the son of Indiana University Coach Jerry Yeagley, said it was not his intention to injure Cienfuegos, he was merely late on his tackle.

“I’m really not interested in what his explanation is,” Fraser said. “It was an awful, awful tackle. That really is the bottom line. That sort of thing needs to be penalized very, very harshly.

“There are a lot of ways he could have backed out of that tackle when he realized he wasn’t going to get the ball.”

Instead, Cienfuegos was carted off and will almost certainly miss Saturday’s game at Tampa Bay.

“It was an unfortunate mistake,” Yeagley said. “I did not mean to hurt Cienfuegos, it was just one of those things that you wish didn’t happen. I just came in a little late on the tackle and missed the ball. I’m not that kind of player, the kind that intentionally hurts people. . . And I’m sorry for Cienfuegos. I hope he is all right.”

It was a physical game from the start, with Columbus playing particularly hard.

“I think when you’re struggling, you do anything you can to subdue the opponent,” Osiander said of the Crew (3-6), which has lost three in a row and five of six.

But it was Columbus that scored first. In the 24th minute, goalkeeper Jorge Campos and defender Dan Calichman made a hash of stopping Adrian Paz, who passed for Pete Marino to slot the ball in the empty net.

The Galaxy responded five minutes later with the first of two goals by Harut Karapetyan, off a pass from Hurtado. The same combination clicked in the 50th minute, but Marino tied it seconds later.

Hurtado wasn’t about to let the Galaxy’s unbeaten record slip, however. He scored his game-winner in typical fashion, bulldozing his way past defender Janusz Michallik and sending a rising shot into the roof of the net past helpless Crew goalkeeper Bo Oshoniyi.