Cienfuegos Gets It Straight for Galaxy
All in all, it was a peculiar Saturday night for Mauricio Cienfuegos.
With the Galaxy and the Colorado Rapids battling for playoff position in Major League Soccer’s Western Division, the veteran midfielder from El Salvador was presented with the simplest of opportunities to give Los Angeles a useful advantage.
But in front of a crowd of 12,068 at the Rose Bowl, Cienfuegos missed a first-half penalty kick. Not to worry. In the second half, Cienfuegos scored twice, one of the goals coming on a rare diving header, as the Galaxy shut out the Rapids, 4-0, to record its biggest win of the season.
More important than the margin of victory was the fact that it pushed the Galaxy above the Rapids into third place in the division and also moved Coach Sigi Schmid’s team to within three points of the first-place San Jose Earthquakes.
“We got our [rear end] kicked,” admitted Colorado Coach Tim Hankinson.
Only six games remain in the regular season for Los Angeles, and two of them are against the defending champion Earthquakes, who were held to a 2-2 tie at home Saturday by D.C. United.
“We’re still looking at San Jose,” said Alexi Lalas, who scored the first goal of the night on a looping header in the 20th minute that bounced off the right post and caromed off Colorado goalkeeper David Kramer into the net.
The goal came only eight minutes after Cienfuegos’ penalty miss.
Referee Jair Marrufo awarded the penalty kick after Rapid defender Wes Hart tripped the Galaxy’s Tyrone Marshall, but instead of powering his shot from 12 yards, Cienfuegos tried to steer it into the lower right corner.
Kramer guessed correctly and dived to his left to turn the ball around the post.
Colorado was outplayed in midfield by the Galaxy trio of Simon Elliott, Peter Vagenas and Cienfuegos and the Rapids did not manage a shot on goal. They trailed by only one goal at the half, but in the second 45 minutes Los Angeles took complete control, with Cobi Jones leading the way.
Jones assisted on three goals Saturday and has three goals and nine assists since returning from the World Cup. Schmid said he had told the winger at the beginning of the season that he wanted him to be more of a creator than a scorer this year.
With Carlos Ruiz, the team’s leading scorer, sidelined because of accumulated yellow cards, Schmid started Jones and Alejandro Moreno up top, with Sasha Victorine also in more of an attacking role.
Schmid sent Gavin Glinton on in place of Moreno at the start of the second half, but Glinton lasted only nine minutes before landing awkwardly and breaking a bone in his left ankle.
Brian Mullan came on in Glinton’s place in the 54th minute and within five minutes had helped the Galaxy double its lead.
Ezra Hendrickson sent the ball down the right to Mullan, who sent a high cross into the goal area, over the head of leaping defender Steven Herdsman. Cienfuegos launched himself at the ball, connected with it squarely and powered it past Kramer.
Finally, in the 89th minute, Mullan and Jones combined to set up Cienfuegos for his second goal after he had failed to score in his previous 16 games this season.
