As Osiander Sees Red, Galaxy Stays Unbeaten

Galaxy Coach Lothar Osiander, ejected in the eighth minute of Saturday’s showdown against the Tampa Bay Mutiny, watched the rest of the half from the press box.

Who knows? Maybe the distance helped because the Galaxy won, 2-1.

On his long walk down to the locker room at the half, Osiander decided to scrap a defensive style for a more aggressive one, and the Galaxy dominated the game thereafter before a crowd of 19,717 at Tampa Stadium to remain undefeated at 8-0.

“It was a big win,” said goalkeeper Jorge Campos, who made a dazzling save in the waning minutes to preserve the victory.

“It’s huge for several reasons,” defender Robin Fraser added. “We were missing [leading scorer Eduardo] Hurtado. We have a lot of injured people and we had to have a lot of young players go in there.”

Guillermo Jara, a developmental player starting in place of Hurtado, who was called up by Ecuador for a World Cup qualifier against Argentina today, scored the game’s first goal.

“And we won on the road,” Fraser continued. “We won five at home and this is the first of a long road swing and should give us a lot of momentum.”

The Galaxy can thank the change in strategy for that.

“The first half, certainly the Mutiny dominated,” said Osiander, who earned his red card when he walked onto the field near his bench and berated referee Raul Dominguez, who, he said, missed a hard foul that left midfielder Chris Armas limping. Armas was substituted eight minutes later. “But the game was one of two different halves.”

The Galaxy applied little pressure in the first half, perhaps respecting the breakaway speed of Mutiny forward Roy Lassiter and winger Evans Wise too much. That strategy allowed the Mutiny to pass the ball around effortlessly. So, even though it was without playmaker Carlos Valderrama (on World Cup duty with Colombia), the Mutiny methodically created chances.

In the opening minutes, newly acquired forward Giuseppe Galderisi had a goal nullified by an offsides call, midfielder Goran Hunjak hit the post with a shot from just outside the box on the right.

“The low pressure gave them too much time to establish rhythm,” Fraser said. “That’s why their attack was in sync. We definitely talked about that.”

Said Mutiny Coach Thomas Rongen: “With Giuseppe and Goran, I thought we played some tremendous soccer; the best soccer I’ve seen us play in eight games.” It didn’t stop Tampa Bay from falling to 6-3.

Despite playing on its heels, the Galaxy took a 1-0 lead compliments of a Mutiny gaffe. In the 30th minute, Los Angeles winger Cobi Jones knocked a ball into the box that Mutiny sweeper Frank Yallop could have controlled and played. Inexplicably, Yallop, a member of the Canadian national team, let the ball go.

“Steve [Pittman] shouted, ‘Time,’ but it was a bad play on my part,” Yallop said. “I should have cleared it. . . . It was my decision; it was the wrong one.”

Jara ran onto it unmarked and easily beat goalkeeper Scott Budnick from close range.

“I was surprised, but I thought, ‘This is going to be my chance, this is going to be my opportunity,’ ” Jara said of his first MLS goal. “The guys told me before the game, ‘Make yourself famous.’ ”

But the Mutiny tied the game five minutes later when defender Manny Motajo headed a ball out of the box--right to Lassiter beyond the circle.

Lassiter controlled the ball, then fired it past the diving Campos. In the 59th minute, Galaxy forward Harut Karapetyan gathered a ball from an attempted clearance, juked a defender and scored his second game-winning goal in as many weeks.

“We wanted to be the best team after this game,” Rongen said. “But unfortunately, L.A. is still the best.”