Galaxy Is All Wet in Loss to Wizards
Eighty-one minutes into the Galaxy’s rain-drenched and hail-bombarded game against the Wizards in Kansas City, Mo., on Saturday night, Los Angeles found itself trailing, 2-1.
Then lightning intervened.
With only nine minutes left, referee Alex Prus pointed to the Arrowhead Stadium tunnel and stopped the game for safety reasons. The weather delay lasted 57 minutes.
In the end, it didn’t matter. The nine minutes finally were played, the score remained the same and the Galaxy lost for the second time in as many Major League Soccer games this season.
Conditions were not conducive to soccer, with the field little more than a patchwork of puddles, but the defending MLS champion Wizards (1-1) waded through them, getting goals in the third minute by Chris Brown and in the 53rd by Chris Klein.
The Galaxy’s lone goal was scored by Greg Vanney in the 80th minute on a rebound of his own penalty kick after Kansas City goalkeeper Tony Meola had blocked the initial shot.
A foul against Galaxy forward Sasha Victorine, who was knocked off the ball by a trio of Wizard defenders, brought the penalty call.
The Galaxy had been coming off a 3-2 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes at the Rose Bowl a week earlier in a game in which it gave up a goal after nine minutes and three goals in the first 27 minutes.
This time, it took only three minutes for Los Angeles to fall behind.
Kansas City winger Klein passed the ball to forward Mo Johnston, then collected the return pass on the right flank. Klein wrong-footed Galaxy defender Adam Frye before sending a high cross into the goal area.
Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman got one hand to the ball and pushed it away, but it fell to Brown, whose powerful right-foot shot found the back of the net.
Kansas City doubled its lead eight minutes into the second half when Francisco Gomez’s through pass found Klein, whose low shot from the right flashed past Hartman from 16 yards to the delight of the 13,042 fans.
In other games Saturday:
Miami 1, New England 0--A 55th-minute goal by Tyrone Marshall in front of 15,576 at Foxboro, Mass., kept the Fusion (2-0) perfect in 2001 and left the Revolution (0-2) still seeking its first victory of the new season. Miami was reduced to nine players for the final 13 minutes after first Diego Serna and then Carlos Llamosa picked up second yellow cards and were ejected by referee Brian Hall.
Columbus 2, Tampa Bay 1--The Crew (1-0-1) defeated the Mutiny (1-1) to earn its first victory of the season on the road in front of 16,823 at Tampa Bay, Fla., where Colombian midfielder John Wilmar Perez scored the game-winner in the 62nd minute.
Chicago 2, Washington 0--A crowd of 19,241 at Soldier Field saw the Fire (1-0-1) defeat United (1-1) in Chicago on second-half goals by Josh Wolff and Dema Kovalenko. Zach Thornton earned the shutout and Washington’s Marco Etcheverry was ejected in injury time when he got a second yellow card.
Colorado 1, New York/New Jersey 1--Marcelo Balboa’s goal with seven minutes left earned the Rapids (0-1-1) a tie in front of 18,495 at Denver. Pedro Alvarez scored for the MetroStars (1-0-1) in the 19th minute.
Dallas 1, San Jose 0--Bobby Rhine, starting in place of injured forward Jason Kreis, scored a first-half goal to lead the Burn (1-1) over the Earthquakes (1-1) in front of 13,919 at San Jose.
