Galaxy Fails to Take Advantage
When does a tie feel like a loss?
When you score the same number of goals as the team you’re chasing in Major League Soccer’s Western Division standings.
Such was the case at the Rose Bowl Saturday night when the second-place Galaxy could only muster a 1-1 draw with the first-place Kansas City Wizards in front of 33,112.
“A tie for us today is basically the same as losing,” Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid said. “I’m not happy with how we played.”
Especially not after the Galaxy (11-7-8, 41 points) played the entire second half and the two overtime periods with a man advantage over the Wizards (13-6-7, 45 points).
Kansas City midfielder Matt McKeon was red-carded and ejected after a vicious slide tackle on Galaxy midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos on a breakaway down the right sideline in the 41st minute. McKeon had earlier nailed Galaxy forward Cobi Jones in the game’s opening seconds.
“I think maybe we let down a little psychologically because we did have the man advantage,” Schmid said. “And sometimes a team with a man down digs in.”
With the speed in which the Galaxy scored, however, it looked as though the match was headed toward a repeat of the previous Saturday’s 5-1 Galaxy thumping of the Wizards in Kansas City.
In the third minute, a Jones cross pass from the right side into traffic was headed into the net by rookie midfielder/forward Sebastien Vorbe, past a flat-footed and helpless Wizard goalkeeper Tony Meola. It was the quickest goal allowed by the Wizards this year, the previous fastest coming in 15 minutes by the Dallas Burn’s Ariel Graziani on June 17.
Vorbe was playing in place of Mexican striker Luis Hernandez, who was home in Monterrey, Mexico, with his wife Nancy after the birth of their third child this week.
“It’s my third goal and it felt great but we were looking for three points [that the Galaxy would have earned in the standings with a win],” Vorbe said. “This is very disappointing for us. We were a little impatient today. I think we thought we could beat them easily.”
Galaxy defender Paul Caligiuri was also credited with an assist on Vorbe’s goal.
But a miscommunication on a pass back between Caligiuri and goalkeeper Matt Reis, making his fifth consecutive start at goal for the injured Kevin Hartman, resulted in Kansas City’s score in the 29th minute.
While neither Caligiuri nor Reis cleared out a ball in front of the net and bumped into each other, Wizard midfielder Chris Klein booted the ball into an empty net to tie the score.
“One of them has to kick the . . . ball 18 million rows into the stands, either Caligiuri or Reis,” Schmid said.
After gaining the man advantage, the Galaxy played tentatively and didn’t start to push the tempo until late in second half.
It appeared as though the Galaxy had taken a 2-1 lead on a close shot from near the six-yard box by Cienfuegos at the 77th minute. But referee Tim Weyland, a last-minute replacement for Ricardo Valenzuela, called off-sides on Cienfuegos and disallowed the goal.
More frustration for the Galaxy, whose record is now 10-0-2 in games when scoring first: they couldn’t take advantage of four yellow cards and a red card on the Wizards.
The Galaxy, whose record in overtime games is 0-1-8, outshot the Wizards, 19-6. The Galaxy had more shots on goal as well, 7-3.
