Pulling Out The Stops
Of all the goals scored against the Galaxy this season, this was perhaps the most cruel.
It came with only four minutes remaining in Game 1 of Major League Soccer’s best-of-three Western Conference finals at the Rose Bowl last Saturday night.
A 20-yard free kick by the Chicago Fire’s Lubos Kubik was blocked by Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, but Jesse Marsch was on hand to score off the rebound.
The result was a 1-0 Chicago victory that left Los Angeles having to win Game 2 at Soldier Field tonight or see its best season end without the MLS championship it has pursued since March 21.
Hartman has watched the replay of the goal and is confident he did everything he could to prevent it.
Was the Galaxy’s defensive wall correctly positioned on the free kick?
“The wall is supposed to cover the near post, which it did,” Hartman said. “I still thought maybe [Fire playmaker Peter] Nowak was going to come back over the wall [with a shot], so I was watching that. When the ball was hit, it deflected off somebody going through the wall.
“It [Kubik’s shot] was really wide, and I’d already gone [dived to the right to make the save] and then the ball came back toward me, kind of, and I perhaps got too much of my palm on it to put it over the end line, so I put it back into play.
“I thought it was a good save.”
No one disputes the quality of Hartman’s effort. Zak Abdel, the Galaxy’s goalkeeper coach who played for Egypt in the 1990 World Cup in Italy, said it was a first-class save.
“He made a great save,” Abdel said. “The ball was hit hard and low on the ground. It was a very difficult save. I’m very hard on him. I tell him, ‘Every ball in the net, that’s your fault.’
“But this was very hard. The defense was 99% [at fault], Kevin 1%. He did what he could.”
Galaxy defender Steve Jolley, who committed the foul on Chicago’s Chris Armas that led to the free kick, took responsibility for not having reacted as quickly as Marsch and covering the rebound, but it was not entirely his fault either.
“The only problem on the goal was the fact that as defenders we have to be between the goal and their players,” Hartman said. “If you look at the replay, there are two or three [Fire] players that are goalside of the defenders. That just can’t [be allowed to] happen.”
One reason was that defensive midfielder Danny Pena had been taken off earlier and replaced by an attacking player as Galaxy Coach Octavio Zambrano sought to bolster his offense.
“If Danny’s in there, he loves that [defensive] stuff,” Hartman said. “That’s what I admire so much about his game. Defense is his strong point, and he doesn’t let that sort of stuff happen. He would be the first one to come back and cover any rebounds.”
Could Hartman have held onto the ball?
“No, not at the Rose Bowl,” he said. “At that point during the night, it [the grass] is really slick. The field plays very quickly. And the ball took a deflection; it was kind of knuckling.”
Zambrano was not about to blame Hartman for the goal.
“I think it was a heads-up play by Jesse Marsch,” he said. “He earned that goal. We were still shook up a little bit [by giving up the free kick] and Jolley didn’t cover, but that’s part of the game, that’s not Kevin’s fault.”
And so the season comes down to tonight’s game, when the pressure will be even more intense on the two goalkeepers, Hartman and Chicago’s Zach Thornton.
Oddly, both keepers replaced the man who was supposed to be a marquee player in MLS, Mexico national team goalkeeper Jorge Campos.
Hartman, 24, from UCLA, was Campos’ understudy with the Galaxy last season, then was picked up by the Fire, along with Pena, in the MLS expansion draft. The Galaxy reclaimed both players when it traded Campos and Armas to Chicago, and Hartman became the Galaxy’s starting goalkeeper.
Thornton, 25, from Loyola (Md.), took over as the Fire’s No. 1 when Campos left for World Cup duty in France this summer and subsequently won the job from Campos, who has since rejoined UNAM in the Mexican League.
“Jorge was very well-liked here,” Fire Coach Bob Bradley told the Chicago Tribune. “But as time went on, the feeling on the team was that Zach was our goalkeeper . . . that he had earned the right to play in the playoffs.
“If this league is going to get to where we want it to be, it’s about Americans developing into stars. I’m not ready to call Zach a star yet. He needs to keep improving his game, and I hope he gets a chance in the national team pool. But he’s one of the great stories in the league this year.”
Thornton, an intimidating 6 feet 3 and 210 pounds, compiled a league-best 1.17 goals-against average in 25 regular-season games and had eight shutouts. Hartman, who is 6-1 and 174 pounds and whose own average was second-best at 1.38, recognizes Thornton’s talent but believes the Chicago defense had a lot to do with his success.
“Obviously, you have to respect his defense,” Hartman said. “I think Kubik is unbelievable at what he does. The way he reads the game far exceeds how anyone else in the league reads it defensively.
“His ability to sweep that well really makes the game easier for Zach.”
Hartman, meanwhile, is still trying to earn the respect in Los Angeles that Campos enjoyed. In a single season, his game has made giant strides.
“I think it’s been an incredible development for a player in one season,” Zambrano said. “I think it was clear from the first match that he played on opening day that he was feeling the pressure of taking over Campos’ position and now being under the magnifying glass.
“It was different when he was coming on as a sub. You do your best, and whatever your best is is good enough. But when you are the starting goalkeeper, it places a different type of pressure on you.”
Hartman has worked exceptionally hard, pressed all the time by his backup and fellow former Bruin, Matt Reis. His confidence has risen with each difficult save made and with each victory earned.
“I felt that I got better throughout the year, which is something you always want to see,” he said. “I think that the guys I had in front of me believed in me, and as the year continued I felt more and more comfortable within the goal and within my role on the team.
“I know that there are things I’ve got to continue to work on, but I’m not somebody who sits on my laurels, so I’ll continue to improve and continue to try to impress upon people the messages that I want to get across.”
Abdel has the final word.
“All the pressure is on him,” the goalkeeper coach said. “A forward can waste many chances, but if he scores one goal, he’s a hero. A goalkeeper can make 100 saves, but just one mistake and everybody wants to kill him.
“It’s a very, very difficult position. You’ve got to work, you’ve got to be focused, you’ve got to make no mistakes.”
Especially not tonight, not with the season on the line.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Tonight’s Game
MLS Playoffs
Western Conference Finals
Galaxy vs. Chicago
at Chicago, 5:30 p.m.
Fox Sports West
