San Jose Breaks Down Galaxy
Mauricio Cienfuegos was in tears, clearly the most distraught of a stunned group of Galaxy players who trudged off the field Sunday after losing their third Major League Soccer championship game in six seasons, 2-1, in overtime to the San Jose Earthquakes.
Cienfuegos had endured defeat before, in the MLS finals of 1996 and 1999, but this year’s loss was the worst. He is the oldest of the three remaining original Galaxy players and this was, very likely, his last chance to win a title for Los Angeles.
And so he wept, profusely and unashamedly.
Over in the Earthquake locker room, San Jose forward Ronald Cerritos, Cienfuegos’ teammate on the El Salvador national team, didn’t know quite what to think. He could only sympathize.
“I wanted to play in the final game with him,” he said of Cienfuegos. “If we lost, we cry together. If we win, we smile together. But soccer is like this. Only one team can win. It’s unbelievable. For him, it is the third final and he is crying like every final. For me, it’s my first time in the final and I win. That’s soccer.”
The Galaxy appeared set to break its title-game jinx when Mexican striker Luis Hernandez gave it the lead with a well-taken half-volley in the 21st minute, but goals by Landon Donovan in the 43rd and Dwayne DeRosario 6:02 into overtime killed the dream in front of 21,626 on a cloudy afternoon at Columbus Crew Stadium.
“Everybody loves to beat Los Angeles,” Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid said. “It’s the national pastime in every sport. That’s just something we have to live with. This one hurts.
“There’s not really much you can say right now. Everyone is going through their own individual things. There are tears being shed and there are guys who swallowed a little bit more, while others just want to get out of there. It’s a really empty feeling.”
The Galaxy players left in a hurry, with only Schmid and 37-year-old defender Paul Caligiuri sticking around to explain the defeat.
“For every success story, there’s sorrow and pain on the other end,” said Caligiuri, who was playing in his final MLS game. He will retire after Saturday’s U.S. Open Cup final against the New England Revolution at Cal State Fullerton.
“As much as I would have liked to go out with a championship, especially with this being the third trip to the final for the Galaxy, there was a great story on the other end with the Earthquakes going from last place to first place and the great successes of players like Landon Donovan.”
San Jose’s 7-17-8 record in 2000 was the worst in the league.
A year later, it is the league champion.
“It’s hard to put into words what I’m feeling, to be honest,” first-year Coach Frank Yallop said. “We talked about it all year: ‘Why can’t we win it? Why not us?’ Right now there is nothing I can say to describe the feeling.”
The Earthquakes won with a first-year coach and got both goals from first-year players.
Donovan, 19, provided the exclamation point to a spectacular debut season--he scored four goals in the MLS All-Star game--by scoring in the final. It was, as usual, an opportunistic strike, well conceived and well executed.
Ian Russell and Richard Mulrooney got behind the Galaxy defense deep in the right corner, with Russell crossing the ball into the goal area.
Cerritos purposely let the ball get past him to Donovan, the dummy move catching the Galaxy by surprise.
Donovan, who had dropped a few steps back from defender Ezra Hendrickson, sent a shot into the upper-right corner of the net for his fifth playoff goal.
“It was a good goal,” Schmid said. “They put a lot of pressure on us in the first half and got a lot of good wing play with a lot of crosses. As the ball got dummied on through, that left him [Donovan] wide open, and he finished it well.”
Earlier, it was a long downfield pass by Greg Vanney--who, along with Cobi Jones and Cienfuegos, also was playing in his third final--that set up Hernandez’s goal. Vanney’s pass soared over San Jose defender Jeff Agoos and Hernandez sprinted to the ball before cracking a shot into the back the net.
It was the only mistake Agoos made and afterward he was delighted by his fourth MLS championship, having also won with D.C. United in 1996, 1997 and 1999.
“When you win one, you want more,” he said. “To me, four’s not enough. So I’ll celebrate this tonight and tomorrow and then in a week or two I’ll start planning on how I can get another ring.”
The Galaxy’s chance for a first ring disappeared six minutes into overtime.
The move started when goalkeeper Joe Cannon rolled the ball out to former Galaxy player Zak Ibsen, who won the CONCACAF Champions Cup with Los Angeles before being traded to San Jose in the spring.
Ibsen, a 75th-minute substitute, passed to veteran Danish midfielder Ronnie Ekelund, another first-year Earthquake, and Ekelund’s long diagonal pass downfield caught the Galaxy defense out of position and put DeRosario one on one against Galaxy defender Danny Califf.
DeRosario, who had come into the game with five minutes left in regulation, cut inside Califf and unleashed a fierce right-footed shot that Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman managed to get his fingertips on but could not prevent from going into the net off the right post.
All that was left was for a forlorn Cienfuegos to walk slowly off the field, the tears flowing freely.
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MLS Champions
2001--San Jose d. Galaxy, 2-1
2000--Kansas City d. Chicago, 1-0
1999--D.C. d. Galaxy, 2-0
1998--Chicago d. D.C., 2-0
1997--D.C. d. Colorado, 2-1
1996--D.C. d. Galaxy, 3-2
