Galaxy Shifts Clunker Down to Second
The way Ron Newman figures it, the Los Angeles Galaxy is still in the driver’s seat, even though the wheels long ago fell off the Major League Soccer team.
For the past two months, the Galaxy has been falling apart quicker than a clunker off a used-car lot. A few more pieces came unglued Wednesday night when the Galaxy was defeated, 2-1, by Newman’s Kansas City Wiz, failing in the shootout, 5-4
As a result, the Galaxy (15-9) finds itself in second place behind the Wiz (16-12) in the Western Conference, a precarious two points ahead of the third-place Dallas Burn (15-10). The Burn can overtake the Galaxy with a victory at San Jose tonight, before making the trip south to play Los Angeles at the Rose Bowl on Sunday.
By Monday morning, the Galaxy, which started out 12-0, could be stalled in third place.
But Newman, the winningest coach in the history of North American professional soccer, still feels Galaxy Coach Lothar Osiander can get the team back on track.
“I didn’t think they were a 12-0 team,” Newman said Wednesday night. “I think Lothar now wishes he could have had some losses back then, to shake the team up. But he has plenty of time to turn it all around by the last four or five games of the season. The Galaxy has several games in hand, but they’ve still got to win them.”
The Galaxy, which was held to a season-low seven shots Wednesday night, including a season-low three on target, has eight games remaining. Kansas City has four and Dallas seven. But in order to take advantage of that cushion, the Galaxy needs to rediscover its winning formula.
On Wednesday night, in front of a Rose Bowl crowd of 13,078, the team played with yet another new lineup, the most obvious feature of which was the appearance of Curt Onalfo as starting forward and the relegation of reliable defender Robin Fraser to the bench.
The Galaxy played with more spirit than in recent games, but the luck it enjoyed in the first half of the season is gone.
Still, Los Angeles scored first, Eduardo Hurtado slotting a penalty kick past Kansas City goalkeeper Garth Lagerwey in the 24th minute after Wiz defender Uche Okafor was ruled to have impeded Onalfo in the penalty area. It was referee Richard Grady’s most dubious call of the night.
“For penalty [to be awarded] you want to see bodies flying around or a hand sticking out,” Newman said. “I still don’t know what that one was for.”
Within seconds, however, Kansas City tied the score, Mark Chung broke through the middle of the Galaxy defense, fending off the pursuing Chris Armas and fired a fierce shot past Jorge Campos into the right corner of the net.
That was all the scoring in regulation, despite several close calls at both ends of the field.
Inevitably, with first place in the conference on the line, it came down to a shootout.
Chung, Preki, Mike Sorber, Diego Gutierrez and Ukafor scored for Kansas City. Paul Wright’s shot went wide right and Campos saved Digital Takwira’s attempt.
For Los Angeles, Greg Vanney, John Garvey, Guillermo Jara and Hurtado each scored, but Jorge Salcedo lifted his shot over the crossbar, Mauricio Cienfuegos missed wide left and Dan Calichman’s effort was saved by Lagerwey to clinch the victory.
So Kansas City leads the conference, but Newman is not impressed.
“In America, nobody knows who wins the division,” he said, “they only know who wins the championship. I found that out long ago.”
With 13 national championships in 27 years of coaching, both indoors and out, Newman knows what he is talking about. So perhaps the Galaxy’s season is still alive, after all.
