A Tour de Force for Ruiz
It was supposed to be Hong Myung-Bo’s night, the night when the Galaxy honored its four-time World Cup veteran defender and the Southern California Korean community in general.
It almost became Diego Serna’s night, with the Galaxy’s newly acquired Colombian forward making the most of his debut by creating one goal and scoring another in a 3-1 victory over the Columbus Crew.
In the end, however, it turned out to be Carlos Ruiz’s night, as the Guatemalan striker, perhaps inspired by at long last finding himself with some offensive help, scored a superb bicycle kick goal to ignite the crowd of 22,063 at the Home Depot Center in Carson.
It was highlight-reel material, an instant candidate for goal of the year in Major League Soccer.
That said, the first hour of the match was a succession of near misses, with both teams failing to finish their scoring chances. Defender Dan Califf cleared an Alex Pineda Chacon shot off the line to keep the Crew off the scoreboard and Columbus goalkeeper Jon Busch made a series of heads-up plays to keep Los Angeles at bay.
And then Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid sent Serna into the game.
The 29-year-old had not played in a match in MLS for more than a year, but he shook off the rust in a hurry.
In the 68th minute, after less than eight minutes in a Galaxy uniform, the former Miami Fusion, MetroStar and New England Revolution player charged into the penalty box, was blocked by Crew defender Mike Clark and fell to the turf.
Referee Alex Prus pointed immediately to the penalty spot, amid furious and not altogether unjustified protests from the Columbus players, who believed that Serna had dived.
Regardless, Ruiz stepped up, sent goalkeeper Busch the wrong way with his spot kick and gave the Galaxy a 1-0 lead. It was Ruiz’s ninth goal of the season and left him five for five on penalty kicks in 2003.
Columbus came back to tie it on a 74th-minute goal by Edson Buddle off a pass from Clark, and for a brief time it seemed that a tie was in the cards.
In the last five minutes, however, with Serna, Ruiz and Cobi Jones linking up in promising fashion, the Galaxy created two more goals.
The first, in the 86th minute, was the beauty by Ruiz.
Jones stole the ball deep in the Columbus end and lifted a high cross over Busch and toward the far post. Ruiz, with his back to the goal, flipped himself onto his back and his overhead kick flashed into the net, bringing a roar of approval from the fans.
Ruiz and Serna combined to add a third goal in the 89th minute, with Ruiz this time being the provider and Serna heading the ball home.
The Galaxy, after an appalling start to the season, is gradually beginning to right its ship. Saturday night’s victory improved its record to 5-6-7 with a .500 record now within sight.
For much of the season Coach Sigi Schmid’s team has been a snake with one fang -- Ruiz -- but the addition of Serna suddenly has given the team a little more bite, a little more venom.
That’s good news for the Galaxy, which had 16 shots compared to 12 for the Crew (5-8-5). The defending champions are not yet entirely awake -- as evidenced by the first 60 minutes of play -- but they are stirring.
