Fire Beats Galaxy in U.S. Open Cup as Play Gets Out of Control
The Galaxy and the Chicago Fire battled--often literally--for 112 minutes in the semifinals of soccer’s U.S. Open Cup Wednesday at Cal State Fullerton.
The foul-filled match ended with the Fire winning, 2-1, on a goal by U.S. Olympic team forward Josh Wolff 22 minutes into sudden-death overtime in front of 7,124 at Titan Stadium.
But the story of this encounter wasn’t goals but rather the inability of the two referees, Sergio Vega and Terry Vaughn to control a game that often threatened to degenerate into a brawl.
Los Angeles and Chicago are talented teams. There is no real animosity between them and the respect among the players and coaches is mutual--at least until now.
U.S. Soccer is using this year’s Open Cup to test the two-referee system, under special dispensation from FIFA. But, in this case, the referees were incapable of keeping tempers cool in a tense and incident-packed game, in which the play frequently boiled over into ugly scenes that could have been avoided.
By the time Wolff’s winning goal flashed into the net, the referees had called 45 fouls, dished out an amazing 15 yellow cards and ejected Fire defender Carlos Bocanegra.
It was a wild and out-of-control evening, and both coaches--the Galaxy’s Sigi Schmid and the Fire’s Bob Bradley--could be seen on the sideline, angrily denouncing questionable calls and throwing their hands in the air in frustration.
More than once, the two referees appeared to be making contradictory calls.
Bocanegra, a rookie from UCLA, was ejected after fouling Luis Hernandez in the 52nd minute, meaning that the Galaxy played with a one-man advantage for a full hour but was unable to turn that advantage into a victory.
The Galaxy took the lead in the 79th minute when Cobi Jones scored from close range after Hernandez had chested down a cross from Mauricio Cienfuegos. The Fire protested that Jones had been offside, but to no avail.
Six minutes later, and with the Galaxy only five minutes from a place in the final, Chicago tied it.
Passes from Wolff and Peter Nowak left Ante Razov free on the right. Greg Vanney tried to strip Razov of the ball with a sliding tackle, but Razov evaded him and beat Reis from close range to make it 1-1.
Earlier, the Fire had come close to scoring when Beasley banged a shot off the crossbar only one minute after Bocanegra’s ejection.
Wolff, who scored a club-record four goals in the Fire’s quarterfinal victory over the Dallas Burn, started and finished the winning play. With Chicago attacking down the right flank, he passed inside to Razov and Razov sent the ball out to 18-year-old DaMarcus Beasley on the left wing.
Beasley, traded to Chicago by the Galaxy in the preseason, cut inside and unleashed a shot that Los Angeles goalkeeper Matt Reis was able to parry but not hold. Wolff, following up, tucked the ball into the empty net to set off a celebration by the Chicago players.
The Fire, winner of the Open Cup in 1998, will play either the New York/New Jersey MetroStars or the Miami Fusion in the tournament final on Oct. 22. The MetroStars-Fusion semifinal is Sept. 12 in Long Island.
