Galaxy Receives Proper Backing
Rebounding from a Wednesday loss to the Columbus Crew at the Rose Bowl, the Galaxy on Saturday night handed three-time Major League Soccer champion Washington D.C. United a comprehensive 3-0 defeat on its own turf.
The surprising thing about the game was not that D.C. lost at home--its 5-10-1 record this season is not much better than last year’s feeble 8-18-6 mark--but that many of the 23,704 fans at RFK Stadium supported Los Angeles.
The “Screaming Eagles” and the “Barra Brava,” United’s two main support groups, were drowned out by the rest of the crowd, which was definitely behind the Galaxy.
One of the loudest cheers of the night came one minute into first-half injury time when Ezra Hendrickson stopped to head a Cobi Jones corner kick into the net for the Galaxy’s first goal.
That broke a scoreless streak of 240 minutes--exactly four hours--for the Galaxy (7-6-5).
Hendrickson ran over to the sideline, where Coach Sigi Schmid briefly polished the 6-foot-3 defender’s bald head.
“My teammates are always telling me that I haven’t scored with my head in MLS yet,” Hendrickson said. “So I told the coach, when I do score with my head I’m going to run over to him and he’s going to have to rub my head. So that’s what that was all about.”
Hey, if it worked for France’s smooth-domed goalkeeper, Fabian Barthez, at the 1998 World Cup, then why not for Hendrickson?
The Galaxy, whose only lineup change from Wednesday was to start the lively Adam Frye for injured forward Sasha Victorine, polished off United with two goals in a one-minute span late in the game.
The first, in the 83rd minute, was scored on a penalty kick by Luis Hernandez after Mauricio Cienfuegos had been upended in the penalty area by goalkeeper Mike Ammann.
Hernandez waived off Greg Vanney, who normally takes the penalty kicks, then sent Ammann the wrong way while collecting his fifth goal of the season.
The third goal came a mere 60 seconds later.
Cienfuegos danced into the top of the box and sent a square pass across the front of the net. Hernandez dummied a shot, allowing the ball to roll through to Jones, who cracked it from 18 yards into the net for his fifth goal.
“We knew after losing our last game at home to Columbus we had to come here and get three points, and we accomplished just that,” Jones said.
At the other end, Galaxy goalkeeper Matt Reis, partially to blame for the 2-0 loss Wednesday, solidified his starting position with his sixth shutout.
The victory, combined with the San Jose Earthquakes’ 3-1 loss to the Colorado Rapids in Denver, moved Los Angeles into a tie on points for first place in the Western Division.
