For Ruiz, Overtime Is His Prime Time
A drenched, sweaty mess, Sigi Schmid was roaming the Rose Bowl field late Wednesday night, dodging celebrating fans and teal and gold confetti while searching for that someone special with whom to share the moment.
As the sea of television cameras parted, the Galaxy coach spotted him, an exhausted Carlos Ruiz. The burly Schmid zeroed in on the slight Ruiz, grabbed him by the shoulders and kissed him on the crown of his head, the same body part that had just given the Galaxy a dramatic, come-from-behind 3-2 overtime win over the Kansas City Wizards in Game 1 of the first-round Major League Soccer playoff series.
“That’s what he does,” Schmid said of Riuz’s penchant for the spectacular. “He’s always down there [around the net] sniffing around. That’s who he is.”
Ruiz’s game-winning header, which was his second goal of the night, came with one minute remaining in overtime, in the 99th minute, off a left-footed Simon Elliott free kick from about 35 yards out. Ruiz jostled his way free and outjumped the Wizard defense to redirect the curling kick off the top of his head and into the left corner of the net, past Kansas City’s prone goalkeeper, Tony Meola, and setting off the celebration among the crowd of 14,585.
“That was a set piece that we work on in practice during the week,” Ruiz said. “I know that Simon usually goes for the far post on that kick but this time he went for the first post and I was there for it.
“This was a distinct win for the team.”
It was almost a disappointing loss.
The No. 1-seeded and Western Conference champion Galaxy, which won six of its last seven league matches, came out flat against the No. 8-seeded Wizards and fell behind in the 25th minute.
The Wizards, who won one of their last seven and usually play a more deliberate game, forced the action in the early going and broke through on the left foot of Preki.
From the left sideline, Kansas City forward Chris Brown found the Wizard midfielder in the middle of the field. The 39-year-old Preki juked past Elliott, 28, and, with Alexi Lalas coming over a bit late, the Wizard midfielder unleashed a true shot from 20 yards out past Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman.
It was Preki’s fourth goal against the Galaxy this year.
Then Kansas City began packing it in, moving its entire team in front of the ball when the Galaxy held possession, a strategy that frustrated the Galaxy mightily.
The Wizards, though, cracked in the 60th minute. With Ruiz dribbling at the top of the box, he was pushed to the ground by Nick Garcia a foot inside the box.
Referee Richard Heron awarded a penalty kick to the Galaxy, much to the chagrin of Meola, who had not faced a penalty kick in league play this year and cursed Heron long and loud.
With the crowd rising to its feet, Ruiz fired to the upper-right corner of the net.
But 10 minutes later, the Galaxy seemed beaten again.
That’s when Brown headed in Chris Klein’s corner kick on a broken play in which Hartman fell to the ground after running into Galaxy defender Ezra Hendrickson in the scrum.
But as was the case all night, the Galaxy answered.
With the Galaxy forcing the momentum in the 85th minute and the ball bouncing around the perimeter of the box, Tyrone Marshall attempted a bicycle kick from the left side. The ball skimmed off the side of his right foot and toward the middle of the field.
Cobi Jones was there and immediately pounced on the wayward ball, firing from the top of the box and into the net, setting up Ruiz’s heroics in overtime.
Said Kansas City Coach Bob Gansler: “That’s playoff soccer. Entertaining for the fans and exciting for the players. Game 1, there will be a Game 3.”
Only if the Wizards can get at least a tie Saturday at Arrowhead Stadium in Game 2 of the series, in which teams earn three points for a victory and one point for a tie.
