Loss Comes With Territory
Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid had warned that Washington D.C. United would “fight, claw, scratch and bite” to reclaim the Major League Soccer championship.
He was right.
But he forget to tell the Galaxy that D.C.’s players also would kick, shove, trip and elbow to get back the title they lost last season to the Chicago Fire.
Playing a style of soccer that has become bruisingly familiar, D.C. United defeated the Galaxy, 2-0, in front of 44,910 fans on a bright afternoon at Foxboro Stadium to win its third MLS title in four seasons.
In a disappointing game that didn’t live up to expectations, the outcome was seldom in doubt.
* Not after defender Robin Fraser had been sent to the locker room with a broken left collarbone in the seventh minute, courtesy of a rude shove from behind by D.C. striker Roy Lassiter.
* Not after the player who replaced Fraser, Steve Jolley, gifted Jaime Moreno’s opening goal for D.C. United with an errant backheader in the 19th minute.
* Not after Galaxy midfielder Danny Pena’s shot clanged into the foot of the left post in the 32nd minute and Richie Williams was on hand to clear the rebound off the D.C. goal line.
* Not after referee Tim Weyland apparently saw no reason to award the Galaxy a penalty kick after Cobi Jones had been tripped by Washington’s John Maessner after dodging past him inside the penalty area.
* And certainly not after Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman made a complete hash of trying to clear Jolley’s back pass in injury time at the end of the first half, allowing Ben Olsen to score Washington’s second goal.
In short, it was a game in which little went right for the Western Conference winners, who also lost the championship game to D.C. United in 1996. The Galaxy was bedeviled by its own mistakes, bewildered by the refereeing and beaten by a D.C. team that was not afraid to get physical.
Pena did well to keep Marco Etcheverry pretty much contained, but Williams did a similarly competent job on Galaxy playmaking midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos.
D.C. United’s back line of Jeff Agoos, Carlos Llamosa, Eddie Pope and Carey Talley was more than enough to blunt any threat offered by Carlos Hermosillo, Clint Mathis and Jones.
But bad calls played their part in the outcome.
Schmid was bitingly sarcastic in his postgame comments, saying: “It’s amazing to me that a gifted athlete like Robin [Fraser] would fall down on his own without anybody near him and no foul or nothing.”
Later, he was even more forthright about the officiating.
“I just think there was a lot of stuff that wasn’t called,” he said. “I might as well say it because I’m alluding to it: I thought the refereeing was crap. They can fine me for that, [but] I thought the refereeing impacted the game today. And it started with the first foul on Robin.”
The fact that Weyland did not call Lassiter for sending Fraser crashing to the ground with a shove from behind as both chased the ball was bad enough, but the missed call on Jones infuriated Schmid.
“For sure, Cobi’s foul was a PK [penalty kick],” he said. “And that puts us back in the game. And if we’re back in the game it forces them to play a little different in the second half and maybe things open up a little bit.
“The guys are disappointed. They’re obviously upset. I don’t think there’s any pointing of fingers or anything like that, but they worked hard to get here and they’re disappointed at walking away without more to show for it.”
Thomas Rongen, who took over D.C. United after Bruce Arena had led the club to the MLS championship in 1996 and 1997 and to the final last year, denied that the team plays an overly aggressive brand of soccer.
“A hard edge I think is needed on the professional level,” he said. “A hard edge, besides all the other qualities, will make you a winner. I think L.A. has a hard edge. They’ve been proving that all year. This was a one-off game and anything could happen. If the ball bounced their way, I might be talking like Sigi.”
It was somber in the Galaxy locker room after the final whistle, the players feeling as if they had not been outplayed but rather outmuscled. Finesse had fallen to force.
“We’ve been successful for the most part with the style of soccer that we’ve played,” Pena said. “Unfortunately it hasn’t gotten us to where we want to be, and that’s to be champions.
“As physical as they were, I don’t thing their aggressiveness really stopped us from playing the way we wanted. . . . But I’d like to see us, when we’re down, 2-0, be a little more aggressive and say, ‘Hey, if you’re going to win this game, you’re going to pay the price a little bit more.’ We didn’t do enough of that today.”
The narrow field, chewed up down the center by the Patriots, didn’t help the Galaxy’s cause. Nor did the fact that some D.C. supporters were able to make the trip whereas there were few to cheer for Los Angeles.
“We made a couple of mistakes and gave them some goals, but overall I was not that displeased with my team’s performance.” Schmid said. “Taking nothing away from D.C. United. They’re an outstanding team and they’re certainly a worthy champion of this league, but I felt we had our opportunities and I felt we had some chances to score.
“I felt we were unlucky at certain times. I didn’t think we caught many breaks, and when you make mistakes and they bury you for them, sometimes that’s the way it goes in soccer.”
*
FRASER FRUSTRATED
Galaxy’s Robin Fraser is bitter after being sidelined early by a collision that did not result in a foul. Page 10
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BY THE NUMBERS
0: Major pro sports titles won by L.A. teams in the ‘90s.
3: Times D.C. United has won MLS championship game in the four-year history of the league.
4: Times L.A. major pro teams have reached championship finals in the ‘90s.
11: Years since L.A. team won a major pro sports title (Dodgers, October 1988)
4,084: Days since L.A. team won major pro sports title (Dodgers)
