No Settlement for Galaxy, Wizards
One-quarter of the way through the Major League Soccer season, Galaxy players can ask themselves this increasingly pertinent question: Who needs Luis Hernandez?
While the league and the Los Angeles front office continue to argue over just what the Galaxy must relinquish to acquire the Mexican striker, Coach Sigi Schmid’s team goes from strength to strength.
On Saturday evening, in front of a Rose Bowl crowd of 17,098, it played the Kansas City Wizards to a standstill for 100 scoreless minutes--90 minutes of regulation and 10 minutes of sudden-death overtime.
Neither team gave an inch and both kept intact their unbeaten records. The Galaxy is 5-0-3 and still trails Kansas City (6-0-2) by two points in the Western Division.
Would Hernandez have made a difference? Possibly, but it is difficult to imagine the Galaxy playing any more determined on offense than it did Saturday. It attacked throughout the game, outshooting Kansas City, 16-10, including 8-1 in shots on target.
The problem was the Wizard defense and in particular goalkeeper Tony Meola, who earned his sixth shutout of the season.
The game was a classic case of irresistible force meeting immovable object and the fact that it ended all square probably is a fair result.
One play late in the game summed up the Galaxy’s evening of frustration.
In the 76th minute, Cobi Jones sent a pass from the left wing to Mauricio Cienfuegos just outside the penalty area and directly in front of the net. Cienfuegos fed Roy Myers and the Costa Rican midfielder chested the ball down and then took a shot on the turn from no more than 10 yards.
Somehow, incredibly, Meola managed to get a hand on it and pushed it out of bounds. It was easily the save of the night.
Perhaps Hernandez--if indeed that is who MLS is pursuing since the league refuses to discuss specifics--might have scored, given the number of chances the Galaxy created. But the cost to acquire the forward might be the destruction of the chemistry on a solid team that last year reached the title game and could do so again this season.
Most of the first 45 minutes were spent in Kansas City’s half of the field as the Galaxy tried in vain to break down the Wizards’ disciplined defense.
Coach Bob Gansler’s 4-4-2 formation, with the midfield foursome dropping back deep, meant that Galaxy forwards Jones and Clint Mathis usually found themselves having to beat as many as eight players even before getting a chance at Meola.
Not surprisingly, scoring chances were few and far between.
Galaxy offensive midfielders Cienfuegos and Myers worked tirelessly trying to pry open the Kansas City defense, but the numbers were too much to overcome.
The closest either team came to scoring in the first half came in the 38th minute when Wizard midfielder Chris Klein sent a cross into the penalty area from the right wing and Canadian forward Alex Bunbury executed a near-perfect bicycle kick. The ball passed inches above the Galaxy crossbar, bringing a gasp from the crowd.
In the final minute of the half, Danny Pena did well to block a shot by Kansas City’s Matt McKeon and sparked an 80-yard offensive play. Pena passed the ball to Simon Elliott and the New Zealand midfielder found Jones out on the right wing with a long pass.
Jones cut into the box and fired a low shot that Meola, his longtime teammate on the U.S. national team, did well to turn away at the near post.
Jones almost broke the spell in the 60th minute when he got to a pass from Cienfuegos a split second before Meola, who had rushed out of his net when he spotted the danger. Jones barely got a touch to the ball, but did not have time to do more than redirect it into the side netting.
On a night of near misses, it was yet another to add to the litany of lost chances.
And the Hernandez saga continues.
