Injury to Calichman Tempers Galaxy’s Victory Over Rapids
Steve Sampson came to the Rose Bowl on Wednesday night to check on two of his World Cup-bound players, Cobi Jones and Marcelo Balboa.
Both gave the U.S. national team coach and the crowd of 12,013 something to think about.
Jones, in his final appearance for the Galaxy until after the France ’98 tournament, scored three goals in a 7-4 rout of the Colorado Rapids. It was his finest game of an already electrifying season.
Balboa, who also will be lost to Major League Soccer for the next two months while with the American team, had a far less enjoyable evening. It was his tackle in the early minutes of the second half that sent Galaxy captain Dan Calichman to the hospital with a broken right leg.
There was no vicious intent behind the tackle, even though Calichman was angrily screaming and pointing at the Colorado bench as he was carried off the field.
He was taken to St. Luke’s Hospital in Pasadena for X-rays, where it was determined he had broken both bones in his lower right leg. “We both went for the ball,” a subdued Balboa said afterward. “It’s 50-50, you never know what’s going to happen.
“This is the first time anything like this has happened to me. After that, I didn’t even want to play, I felt so bad.”
The game got no better for Balboa. Perhaps distracted by the injury to Calichman, he later lost possession of the ball in his own penalty area, allowing Welton to steal it and steer a shot past Rapids’ goalkeeper Paul Grafer from close range.
If Balboa’s night was long, Grafer’s was interminable.
The seven goals the Galaxy scored were a team record. The combined 11 goals in the game set an MLS record.
“We scored four for ourselves and gave them three,” Colorado Coach Glenn “Mooch” Myernick said. “I feel like we had seven goals. Our team, in terms of basic one-on-one defense, is really letting us down.”
Three goals by Jones--taking his league-leading total to eight--two by Welton and two by Mauricio Cienfuegos gave the Galaxy its most lopsided victory of the season. The score was 7-2 in Los Angeles’ favor before Colorado’s Waldir netted two essentially meaningless goals in the final three minutes.
The Galaxy, which improved to 8-0 with its 14th consecutive regular-season victory, has outscored its last three opponents, 14-5. Overall this season, it holds a 26-11 edge in goals.
But Galaxy Coach Octavio Zambrano was not concerned with such numbers. His somber postgame mood had to do with the loss of Calichman, who along with teammate Robin Fraser anchors the center of the Los Angeles defense.
“I’m glad that we won the game, but I’m not happy about the situation,” Zambrano said. “Definitely, more bitter than sweet. We lost our captain and it’s going to have an impact on our team, no doubt.”
Danny Villanueva, the Galaxy’s president and general manager, initially thought Calichman might be lost for eight weeks, but Ron Kvitne, the team doctor, had a less optimistic forecast.
“He might need surgery,” Kvitne said. “If he does, he’ll be out for . . . about three months, plus rehabilitation of several weeks.”
That would be almost playoff time. The combined removal of Calichman and Jones from the team for such a lengthy period is likely to even things out in the Western Conference. The Galaxy might no longer be able to run away with it as the team has been doing.
Of course, Cienfuegos and Welton might beg to differ.
It took the Salvadoran midfielder less than five minutes to give the Galaxy the lead. He has scored in four consecutive games. Colorado’s Paul Bravo tied the score two minutes later, but then Jones took over.
“Cobi is playing with an enormous amount of confidence right now,” Sampson said. “He’s playing with a lot more fluidity and rhythm in his game than I’ve ever seen.”
MLS Notes
Jason Kreis scored in the 19th minute in the Dallas Burn’s 1-0 victory over the New York-New Jersey MetroStars before 25,576 at East Rutherford, N.J.
