Galaxy Works Overtime to Gain Tie With Dallas
The Galaxy apparently has the pages of its 2002 Major League Soccer script stuck together.
For the fourth game in a row, Los Angeles was taken to overtime, emerging with a 1-1 tie against the Dallas Burn in front of 17,388 on a hot and humid Saturday evening in the Cotton Bowl at Dallas.
And for the fourth game in a row, Carlos Ruiz was the only Galaxy player to score a goal, giving the Guatemalan striker six in his first four MLS matches.
It was one of those strange games that the Galaxy, the league’s only unbeaten team at 2-0-2, could have won by four goals or lost by two. The luck cut both ways.
Ruiz gave Los Angeles the lead in the 26th minute, slipping in at the back post and redirecting Alexi Lalas’ glancing header into the net after Lalas had received the ball from a Simon Elliott corner kick.
Ruiz could have secured the victory in the final minute of the first half, but his rising shot off a pass from Tyrone Marshall, who was making his first start in place of injured Ezra Hendrickson, struck the crossbar and Burn goalkeeper Matt Jordan smothered Ruiz’s follow-up shot.
Jordan also made a superb save against Elliott in the ninth minute of overtime when he threw himself to his right to tip the New Zealander’s fierce shot around the post to preserve the tie.
The Burn, which extended its unbeaten streak against the Galaxy to seven games, with the last four ending in ties, got its goal in the 62nd minute when Lalas shielded the ball, expecting goalkeeper Matt Reis to come and get it, only to see Jason Kreis sneak between them, steal the ball and fire it into the empty net, clipping the right post on the way.
The Galaxy nearly gave Dallas (1-1-2) the victory late in the game when Reis, believing that the ball was going wide, purposely allowed a high back pass from Adam Frye to go past him, only to see the ball hit the right post.
Earlier in the day, the Galaxy acquired Jamaican national team midfielder Winston Griffiths, 23, from the MetroStars for a conditional draft pick.
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In other MLS games:
Washington 2, Kansas City 1--A headed goal by defender Ivan McKinley off a cross from Bobby Convey two minutes into overtime lifted D.C. United in front of 12,759 on a wet afternoon at Washington. Ali Curtis gave United (2-3) the lead in the 71st minute, but Preki tied the score two minutes later. The Wizards are 1-1-1.
New England 2, Columbus 0--A crowd of 13,493 saw the Revolution (1-2) get first-half goals from rookie Taylor Twellman and Jim Rooney to beat the Crew (1-3) at Columbus for the first time since 1996.
Chicago 2, New York/New Jersey 0--The Fire (2-2) earned its fourth consecutive victory over the MetroStars as rookie defender Kelly Gray scored his first goal and DaMarcus Beasley scored in front of 20,047 at East Rutherford, N.J. The MetroStars (3-2) played a man short for nearly an hour after Tab Ramos was ejected for a studs-up tackle on Peter Nowak.
San Jose 2, Colorado 0--The Earthquakes (3-2) shut out the Rapids (2-2-1) behind goals by Ariel Graziani and Landon Donovan in front of 8,188 at San Jose.
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In Women’s United Soccer Assn. games:
San Diego 6, New York 1--Shannon MacMillan and Zhang Ouying each scored twice, Lori Lindsey got one goal and the Power contributed an own goal in front of 5,216 at San Diego, and the Spirit (1-1) set a WUSA record for most goals in a game. Emily Janss scored for New York (1-1).
Boston 3, Atlanta 1--Norway’s Dagny Mellgren gave Boston (1-1) the lead in the 10th minute, and Angela Hucles and Kristine Lilly also scored in front of 6,305 at Boston. China’s Liping Wang scored for the Beat (0-2).
