Latest Galaxy Loss Not a Big Surprise
The Galaxy’s whistle-stop visit to Soldier Field ended on a predictably unhappy note Saturday night.
After dominating the Chicago Fire for 45 minutes and taking a 1-0 lead into the locker room, the Galaxy allowed another Major League Soccer game to get away.
Second-half goals by Hristo Stoitchkov--on a questionable penalty kick--and Evan Whitfield earned the Fire a 2-1 victory in front of 20,248.
Right from the beginning, this was a game that had every likelihood of going wrong for the Galaxy. Noel Kenny’s name on the starting lineup as referee was a guarantee of that.
A few weeks ago, the whistle-happy Kenny called an astonishing 51 fouls when the Galaxy defeated the Tampa Bay Mutiny, 5-3, at Tampa, Fla. This time he was more conservative. He stopped the game only 45 times, or every other minute.
Once was to award Chicago (13-9-5) a 52nd-minute penalty kick when Kenny ruled that Galaxy defender Paul Caligiuri had fouled Fire forward Ante Razov. Replays showed contact but no foul.
Another time was when the referee yellow-carded Galaxy defender Ezra Hendrickson for fouling Razov. That provoked an outcry from the Fire bench, and Kenny had to correct the call and give Robin Fraser the yellow card instead.
Since it was the Galaxy captain’s second of the game, he was ejected, leaving the Galaxy to play a man short for the final 14 minutes, plus four minutes of stoppage time.
“We were not pleased with some of the decisions that were made by the referee,” said Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid. “I don’t think Chicago was either.
“Maybe we need to institute [a rule] that if you commit six or seven fouls, you foul out of a game. But repetitive fouling was never carded in this game. Yet Fraser commits two or three fouls and he gets tossed. Other people commit five or six fouls and they’re still out there.”
Final statistics showed Fire defender C.J. Brown with six fouls, midfielder Jesse Marsch with four and Razov with five. Fraser had three, as did three other Galaxy players.
The constant whistling did not help an otherwise interesting game, as Fire Coach Bob Bradley pointed out.
“I thought for the most part it was a pretty hard but clean game,” Bradley said. “There was some contact, obviously, between defenders and forwards, but I wouldn’t overplay them. The players on both teams have a lot of respect for each other. It was a good game.”
The Galaxy (12-8-8) took the lead in the 26th minute when midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos split the Chicago defense with an excellent pass to Cobi Jones.
Jones’ shot beat Fire goalkeeper Zach Thornton but hit the right post. Incredibly, the ball rebounded across the face of the goal and hit the left post. Fortunately for the Galaxy, Sasha Victorine was on hand to tap it into the empty net.
Luis Hernandez came within inches of doubling the Galaxy’s advantage in the 31st minute but clanged his shot off the crossbar. Earlier, Hernandez had hit the side netting when an empty net yawned in front of him.
The two misses proved costly.
Seven minutes into the second half, Caligiuri was called for the foul on Razov as both were chasing the ball. Stoitchkov scored on the resulting penalty kick.
“If there was contact, I don’t think it was any sort of a foul,” Caligiuri said. “He [Razov] totally took a dive, in my opinion.”
The winning goal came in the 75th minute. Razov passed to Josh Wolff seconds before being taken down hard by Fraser on the play that led to Fraser’s ejection. Wolff passed to Whitfield, who beat Galaxy goalkeeper Matt Reis from close range.
Other than that, Reis was in top form, making five excellent saves. He also provided the most astute post-match comment.
“If I gave you all my thoughts on the game I’d definitely have to take out a loan to pay off all my fines from the league,” he said.
