Galaxy Settles for a Tie, 1-1
In the end, honor was served, but whether justice was done is another matter.
The Galaxy and the New York/New Jersey MetroStars launched their three-game Major League Soccer playoff series in intense and sometimes physical fashion Sunday night, each team seeing a player ejected before they settled for a 1-1 tie after overtime in front of 11,580 at the Rose Bowl.
For both, it was a victory of sorts. At least that’s what the respective coaches claimed.
“I’m pleased from the standpoint that we didn’t lose the game,” Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid said. “All that this means now is that we’ve got to go to a Game 3.”
The teams play Game 2 on Wednesday night at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., before returning to Pasadena for the decider on Saturday. “It was a good result for us, I think,” said MetroStars’ Coach Octavio Zambrano. “Obviously, coming out of the Rose Bowl with a point against a very good team has to build our confidence.”
Taking only statistics into account, the Galaxy dominated. It outshot the MetroStars, 29-8, and earned eight corner kicks to none for the visitors.
But it was one of those frustrating nights where the ball could not find the back of the net. At least not often enough.
“I felt we had five really high-quality chances that we needed to score goals on,” Schmid said. “Sometimes in games like that when you miss that amount of chances it can come back and bite you in the rear, so to speak, and you end up losing the game.”
In fact, the Galaxy had to come from behind simply to tie it.
The MetroStars came close to taking the lead in the 22nd minute when Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman--who had painted patriotic blue stars across his blond hair--flung himself to his left to parry a free kick by Daniel Hernandez.
Cobi Jones and Sasha Victorine missed a couple of good scoring opportunities and then the MetroStars struck for real.
In the 29th minute, Adolfo Valencia sent the ball downfield to Rodrigo Faria and the Brazilian forward, a strong candidate for MLS rookie of the year honors, did the rest.
He side-stepped defender Ezra Hendrickson’s attempted tackle and then fired a low shot that eluded defender Danny Califf’s lunge and Hartman’s fingertips, the ball sneaking into the net at the foot of the right post.
Faria celebrated his ninth goal by tugging up his jersey to reveal a T-shirt that said: “Just Peace.” Faria almost grabbed a second in the closing minutes of the half, but Jones tackled the ball away from him at the last moment and the half ended with the MetroStars leading, 1-0.
Schmid had not started Luis Hernandez because of the Mexican striker’s lingering hip injury, but he sent him into the game when the Galaxy still trailed an hour into the contest.
The move sparked a period of intense Galaxy pressure, with MetroStars’ goalkeeper Tim Howard making a superb save on Jones, who five minutes later hammered another shot off the crossbar.
In between those efforts, the Galaxy tied it in strange fashion. A corner kick by Simon Elliott was headed on by Adam Frye at the near post to Luis Hernandez, who headed the ball back to Frye for him to head it over to Paul Caligiuri, whose own header hit the right post and then bounced off Califf’s head into the net.
After 63 minutes, it was 1-1, and after 65 the MetroStars were a player short because Gilmar was ejected by referee Terry Vaughn for a dangerous, studs-up tackle on Jones.
Things evened up in the 82nd minute when Vaughn sent goal scorer Caligiuri to the showers early for a tackle from behind on Daniel Hernandez. Gilmar and Caligiuri will be suspended from Wednesday’s game.
“I just felt it was a situation where the referee was probably looking to even the score a little bit,” Caligiuri said. “It wasn’t a foul where I left my feet. I was clearly going for the ball. Maybe there was some contact.
“He [Hernandez] made it look worse than it was. I think the ref made a poor decision.”
Later, Luis Hernandez was shoved to the ground by Steve Jolley and was fortunate not to get a red card of his own.
Feeling still will run high in Game 2.
“No one in this locker room is really afraid of that team over there,” Galaxy midfielder Peter Vagenas said. “We could just as easily go into New York and win, 3-0. We could just as easily lose, 3-0. And we know that.”
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MLS Playoffs
Quarterfinals, best-of-three, three points for victory, one point for tie:
No. 6 New York-New Jersey vs. No. 3 Galaxy
* Game 1: New York-New Jersey 1, Galaxy 1.
* Game 2: Wednesday, at New York-New Jersey, 5 p.m.
* Game 3: Saturday, at Galaxy, 7 p.m., if necessary.
Other Series
* No. 2 Chicago leads No. 7 Dallas, 4-1. Next: Saturday, at Chicago, 5 p.m.
* No. 1 Miami leads No. 8 Kansas City, 3-0. Next: Wednesday, at Kansas City, 5:30 p.m.
* No. 5 San Jose leads No. 4 Columbus, 3-0. Next: Wednesday, at San Jose, 7 p.m.
