Galaxy Rallies to Beat Fuego in U.S. Open Cup
Well, that was scary ... for two minutes.
The Galaxy, the sometimes lackadaisical defending Major League Soccer champion that it is, came out flat Wednesday for its fourth-round U.S. Open Cup match against the Professional Development League’s Fresno Fuego, the lone amateur team remaining in the field.
And Fresno, spurred on by a Home Depot Center crowd announced at 6,860 that was surprisingly pro-Fuego, took advantage, scoring first.
But all that seemed to do was wake up the Galaxy, which had seven starters riding the bench to open the match.
The Galaxy then dominated the run of play and finished with a 3-1 victory over the plucky Fuego. The Galaxy, which won the country’s oldest domestic tournament in 2001 and advanced to its final last year, will play a quarterfinal match at Seattle’s Seahawks Stadium on Aug. 27 against the Sounders of the A-League. The Sounders upset the San Jose Earthquakes, 1-0, on Tuesday.
Fresno forward Eddie Gutierrez gave the Fuego a 1-0 lead in the 23rd minute when he emerged from a scrum in the middle of the box and blasted a rising shot over Galaxy goalkeeper Dan Popik, who was playing in his first match since May 18.
Two minutes later, Galaxy rookie forward Arturo Torres, a second-round draft choice from Loyola Marymount who went to high school at nearby Banning in Wilmington, bounced a ball over two defenders before his left-footed volley from just outside the eight-yard box beat Fuego goalkeeper Jeremy Proud.
“It was one of those where you don’t think about it, you just create and go along,” said Torres, who started the season on the injured list because of a broken right foot. He raced the length of the field to the stadium’s south end after his first Galaxy goal to salute the 150-plus friends and family members who came to see him.
“All day, I knew it was my opportunity to show what I got,” he said.
Alejandro Moreno scored in the 33rd minute when he converted his own ricochet off Proud and Paul Broome scored on a breakaway off a Torres assist in the 89th minute.
In other U.S. Open Cup matches, D.C. United beat the A-League’s Virginia Beach Mariners, 1-0, in overtime; the Wilmington Hammerheads of the United Soccer Leagues-Pro Select League hammered the Dallas Burn, 4-1; the New York-New Jersey MetroStars outlasted the defending tournament champion Columbus Crew, 4-3; the New England Revolution beat the A-League’s Rochester Rhinos, 2-1; and the Chicago Fire thumped the A-League’s Milwaukee Wave United, 4-1.
