Galaxy Gets 86’d by the MetroStars

The Galaxy was watching a good game Saturday night.

Unfortunately for the defending Major League Soccer champions, it was one in which they were playing and the resultant brain cramp late in the match led to the Galaxy blowing a lead and having to settle for a 1-1 draw with the New York/New Jersey MetroStars.

“We’re only concentrating in stints,” Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman said in a somber locker room. “It seems like some guys are concentrating at times and then others at other times.

“The reason we can’t get shutouts is we can’t [all] concentrate for 90 minutes.”

The Galaxy (5-6-8) was less than five minutes away from winning a third consecutive game when its defense took a mental nap. The MetroStars (8-5-7) took advantage with a slow- motion goal as ugly as Clint Mathis’ latest mohawk haircut in the 86th minute, stunning the until-then festive Home Depot Center crowd of 22,189.

A Mark Lisi free kick from the right side of the box found Mathis in the middle and the forward outjumped a flat-footed Danny Califf for the ball, his looping header bouncing off the crossbar to the right toward an oncoming John Wolyniec.

“I had just switched with Pete [Vagenas] and just turned to face Lisi so I was facing the sideline,” Califf said. “Clint was behind me.... I was wrong-footed and couldn’t jump.”

Mathis, a former member of the Galaxy, was too eager to redirect the ball.

“Danny’s going to win that header a majority of the time,” Hartman said. “I look up and Wolyniec is absolutely wide open. I don’t know whose responsibility he was.”

With the Galaxy defense watching the play unfold, Wolyniec headed the ball down and past a prone Hartman. It was Wolyniec’s third goal of the year.

“They reacted quicker than we did,” Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid said. “That’s something we all have to look at.”

Earlier in the match, matters were a thing of beauty for the Galaxy, courtesy of recently acquired forward Diego Serna, who joined the team in an Aug. 8 trade and started his first MLS game since June 29, 2002.

His addition to the lineup was supposed to add offensive firepower to the Galaxy attack and he has not disappointed.

Serna’s goal in the 13th minute was the Galaxy’s earliest score of the season and gave it a 1-0 lead.

The score was set up when Cobi Jones corralled the ball at the top of the arc and found a streaking Serna coming from the left. The physical Serna ran through Eddie Pope’s futile attempt to mark him and slid toward the goal when he blasted a right-footed shot into the net, leaving MetroStar goalkeeper Jonny Walker seeing red.

It was Serna’s second goal in 15 minutes -- he scored in the 89th minute of last week’s 3-1 victory over Columbus -- and he is suddenly tied for third on the Galaxy in goals scored.

It was also the third consecutive match in which Jones had an assist.

The Galaxy, which lost midfielder Sasha Victorine because of a sprained right hip when he tripped over himself running down the left sideline late in the first half, also blew a number of chances.

“We pretty much lost two points tonight,” Hartman added. “We didn’t win one [with a draw]. We had no business tying that game tonight.”