Elliott’s Goal Lifts Galaxy

Carlos Ruiz, the Galaxy’s new striker from Guatemala, made his Southern California debut Tuesday night, but the capacity crowd of more than 10,000 that showed up at Cal State Fullerton’s Titan Stadium wasn’t there to see him.

Apart from a small pocket of Galaxy faithful, the crowd consisted almost entirely of blue-clad fans of Mexican league power Cruz Azul, but they went home disappointed after Los Angeles scored a 1-0 victory on a well-created and well-taken goal by Simon Elliott.

The Galaxy, which finished second behind the San Jose Earthquakes in the 2001 Major League Soccer season, is unbeaten in 11 tune-up games as it prepares to open its seventh MLS campaign one week from Saturday.

Elliott’s goal came in the 32nd minute of a game that frequently threatened to escape the control of referee Richard Grady. Fouls were frequent and by the final whistle Grady had issued yellow cards to four players, including Galaxy defender Danny Califf and winger Chris Albright.

With 7:09 to play, Grady ejected Cruz Azul midfielder Victor Gutierrez after his off-the-ball confrontation with Cobi Jones and that red card ended Cruz Azul’s chance of tying the score.

Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid paired Ruiz, who had scored five goals in his first six games for Los Angeles, with Brian Mullan, and the two forwards caused the Mexican team’s defense numerous problems.

But it was a neat bit of combination play by defender Adam Frye, midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos and Elliott that brought the goal.

Frye, playing at left back in place of injured newcomer Tyrone Marshall, overlapped down the left wing and crossed the ball into the penalty area, where it rebounded off a defender for Cienfuegos to feed Elliott.

Elliott’s shot into the lower left corner of the net beat Adrian Zermeno.

Word from France on Tuesday was that Galaxy and U.S. national team defender Greg Vanney will remain with Bastia in the French league.

The French daily newspaper L’Equipe reported that Vanney had agreed to a four-year contract with the club, which is based on the Mediterranean island of Corsica.

The Galaxy declined to confirm the story Tuesday night, saying only that Vanney is on loan to Bastia and that, by Friday, the French club must exercise its option to keep or return him.

Meanwhile, forward Eric Wynalda has failed to sign with MLS and said he will not be playing for the Galaxy this season.