Galaxy’s Hartman Wins Guessing Game
A bellicose Sigi Schmid screamed toward fourth official Ramon Hernandez, his words nearly drowned out by the booing and hissing of the boisterous crowd.
The Galaxy, nursing a one-goal lead, was deep into six minutes of injury time to close the game Saturday night when a penalty kick was awarded to the Kansas City Wizards after a strange-looking play in the box, and the Galaxy coach was beside himself.
“It doesn’t matter what you do,” Schmid bellowed to Hernandez, “he’s going to save this.”
And when goalkeeper Kevin Hartman successfully punched out Preki’s penalty kick to save the Galaxy’s 2-1 win over the Wizards before 18,683 fans in its second game at the Home Depot Center, Schmid again motioned toward Hernandez.
“I told you,” Schmid said, who also used more colorful language that seemed appropriate for a game in which seven yellow cards were issued, all in the second half.
“It was huge, but that’s what he gets paid for,” Schmid said of Hartman. “That’s what he’s supposed to do ... and it’s something he does well.”
Hartman was also downplaying his game-winning save, especially with an early error contributing to the Wizards’ lone goal.
“I anticipated that he was going to go left,” Hartman said of the left-footed Preki on the penalty kick. “I read the way he was going to shoot and luckily he hit it that way. Because, with a guy like Preki, he can put the ball on the top of his foot and go the other way.”
Hartman’s heroics became necessary for the Galaxy because defender Alexi Lalas was hit with a yellow card by referee Ricardo Salazar for a “professional foul” on Wizard midfield Eric Quill, who went down in a heap after an in-box collision,
Replays, though, seemed to show Lalas merely obstructing Quill, which would have led to an indirect kick from the spot of the foul, rather than a penalty kick.
“I’ve done that a hundred times,” Lalas said, “shielding a guy off a high ball. It will be interesting to see what the call was because if I was obstructing, then that’s just obstruction.”
Salazar explained his reasoning by saying that Lalas initiated the contact “by throwing his body into the attacker.”
But that was after midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos, who left the game in the 87th minute, chased down Salazar after the final whistle and picked up two yellow cards for the way he vehemently objected to the officiating of Salazar, who, after failing to add any extra time in the first half, tacked on six minutes to close it out.
Cienfuegos is ineligible to play Wednesday against San Jose.
The Galaxy (2-4-1), though, is on a roll, of sorts, winning its second straight after failing to garner a victory during its season-opening eight-game road trip while the Home Depot Center was under construction.
Kansas City (4-2-5) broke through in the 49th minute on a mad scramble in the box.
With Lalas and Wizard forward Igor Simutenkov tied up and on the ground, Simutenkov was able to get a foot on the ball and pass it out to an onrushing Josh Wolff.
With Hartman wandering out toward the play, Wolff easily deposited the ball into an empty net for his second goal of the year.
But the Galaxy answered five minutes later, and the only remaining original members of the Galaxy made it happen.
Cienfuegos sent a cross pass into the middle of the goalkeeper’s box, where 5-foot-7 midfielder Cobi Jones outjumped 5-11 Wizard midfielder Chris Brown and headed the ball past Kansas City goalkeeper Tony Meola.
It was Jones’ second goal of the year.
The duo played a part in the game-winning goal as well.
Taking a throw-in from the right corner from Cienfuegos, Jones broke immediately into the box, where he was met by Wizard midfielder Francisco Gomez.
The ensuing collision left Jones on the field and Salazar racing to the center of the box, finger pointing to the spot, to award the Galaxy a penalty kick.
Carlos Ruiz stepped up to the marker and deposited the ball into the right corner of the net for his sixth goal of the season, his third in the last two games.
