Late Fire Goal Leaves Galaxy in Tough Spot
The Major League Soccer season has come down to one game for the Galaxy.
Either it defeats the Chicago Fire on Friday night at Soldier Field in Chicago or its dream of an MLS championship has ended for another year.
That was the unpleasant prospect created by Saturday night’s cruel 1-0 loss to the Fire in front of 25,107 stunned fans at the Rose Bowl.
The game was dominated by Los Angeles from start to finish, but it was stolen by the Fire with an 86th-minute goal by Jesse Marsch, a former All-Ivy League forward from Princeton who played in college for Chicago Coach Bob Bradley.
“This is tough to swallow,” Galaxy captain Robin Fraser said. “They had one opportunity and they made the most of it.”
Chicago was outshot, 11-5, and managed only two shots on target. But the second left the Galaxy a game down in the best-of-three series for the Western Conference title.
It came after Steve Jolley had fouled Chris Armas just outside the Galaxy penalty area and referee Kevin Terry awarded Chicago a free kick.
Three of the Fire’s national team players from Europe--Peter Nowak and Jerzy Podbrozny of Poland and Lubos Kubik of the Czech Republic--gathered around the ball.
Kubik took the shot, bending his 20-yard effort around the Galaxy defensive wall and forcing goalkeeper Kevin Hartman to fling himself to his right to palm the ball away.
Had Hartman been able to hold onto it, the outcome might have been different. But it was a difficult enough save to make, so he was not to blame.
Marsch, sprinting in from the left, pounced on the rebound and cracked home a low shot that smacked into the back of the net and immediately silenced the crowd. The fans knew that the season might just have slipped away.
“L.A. had their chances and the break might have gone their way,” said Bradley. “But on a night like tonight when the break comes so close to the end, it doesn’t leave much time for the other team [to respond].”
All the same, the Galaxy came close. As it had done all evening, it attacked with determination, bordering now on desperation. Still, the goal would not come.
With only seconds remaining on the clock, Martin Machon hooked a bicycle kick just wide of the left post. It was as close to scoring as the league’s most potent offense came all night.
“We tried hard but we didn’t get the result we wanted,” said Galaxy Coach Octavio Zambrano. “It was a tough game against 11 guys who only defended.
“We are not out of the playoffs. We can’t put our head down. Never in my life will I believe, or let the guys feel, that this is over.”
But to win MLS Cup ‘98, the Galaxy must now win three games in a row. It has to beat Chicago on the road on Friday, then again at the Rose Bowl on Oct. 21.
Failing that, the Fire, an expansion team, will be playing in the championship game Oct. 25, against the winner of the Eastern Conference finals between Washington D.C. United and the Columbus Crew.
“Our backs are against the wall and we’re going to have to go out there and go for a win,” Fraser said.
Given the superb nature of Chicago’s defense, achieving that victory is going to take as strong an effort as the Galaxy put in on Saturday and a great deal of luck.
It might have been 0-0 for 85 minutes, but it was one of those nail-biting games where fans keep one eye on the game and the other on the clock. Soccer critics might scoff at scoreless games, but for true fans of the sport this was an edge-of-the-seat affair.
The first half was an intriguing battle, with the Galaxy applying all the offense and Chicago content to sit back and soak up the pressure.
The Galaxy sought ways to break down the Fire defense, but playmaker Mauricio Cienfuegos was shadowed wherever he went by former Galaxy player Armas, while defender Francis Okaroh kept equally close tabs on Welton.
Cobi Jones was not quite as closely marked, but the Galaxy’s top goal scorer was not able to get a clean shot on target. In fact, the Galaxy managed only two shots on goal in the first 45 minutes, one a lob by Cienfuegos that was easily caught by Zach Thornton and the other an effort by Carlos Hermosillo that Thornton stopped.
