Stars Align as Galaxy Ties D.C. United, 1-1
Never mind the teenager from Ghana, what about the tactician from Poland?
The real coup that D.C. United made in the Major League Soccer off-season was not in signing 14-year-old Freddy Adu but rather in acquiring Peter Nowak as coach.
Nowak, whose blood ran Chicago Fire red for five seasons as an MLS player, is unbeaten two games into his coaching career. Strangely but typically, he isn’t necessarily pleased about it.
Three-time champion United (1-0-1) was within five minutes of a victory Saturday night when Carlos Ruiz snatched a goal for the Galaxy (1-0-1) for the 1-1 tie in front of a Home Depot Center sellout crowd of 27,000.
If Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid was relieved, Nowak’s mood bordered on subdued anger.
“We just forgot to play 90 minutes [of] soccer,” the former Poland World Cup standout said, “and I’m not happy with that.
“We played overall very well and we scored a very nice goal [by Ronald Cerritos in the 68th minute], but we forgot the game is 90 minutes.”
The visitors were in control for virtually the entire first 45 minutes, thanks to an energetic and aggressive midfield of Earnie Stewart, Brian Carroll, Ben Olsen and Bobby Convey --not to mention lively forwards Alecko Eskandarian and Jaime Moreno -- that kept the Galaxy pinned back on defense.
Los Angeles did not take a shot on goal in the first half, even though the shots ended up even at nine apiece by the final whistle.
“In the first half, D.C. had a bit more of the game than us and we were probably a bit fortunate to come off at halftime [tied] at 0-0,” Schmid said. “We defended well at times but we certainly didn’t possess the ball well.
“In the second half, we were much better. I thought we created a lot more [scoring] chances.”
But it was United, which had brought Adu into the game in place of Eskandarian at the start of the half, that scored first.
Stewart sent the ball to overlapping defender Joshua Gros--perhaps the best all-around player on the field Saturday--and Gros got the ball to Cerritos, who had entered the game only one minute beforehand in place of Moreno.
Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman had no chance to save Cerritos’ rising shot and just like that United had the lead. With it, the team grew in confidence and might have scored again but for a couple of good saves by Hartman, one of them off Adu.
Adu’s first road game in MLS was only 17 seconds old when he felt the force of an emphatic tackle from behind by Galaxy defender Hong Myung-Bo, a signal from the four-time South Korean World Cup veteran that the teenager would not be treated differently than any other player.
Later, the youngster had the ball stripped from him by Galaxy midfielder Andreas Herzog and responded by fouling the Austrian player.
“I lost the ball, I wasn’t going to let him go on a breakaway, I had to do something to disrupt the play and obviously it was a foul and I admit it,” Adu said. “But I did that to help my team out.”
Later still there was a fine race down the left sideline between Adu and Cobi Jones. Jones won.
“Cobi’s still got some wheels on him, man,” Adu said, laughing. “I thought I had him that one time and he just caught up. I was surprised.”
The fact that the Galaxy caught up surprised United.
Midfielder Sasha Victorine sent the ball in from the right, rookie forward Joseph Ngwenya managed to beat the United defenders to the ball and poked it forward to Ruiz, who fired it into the net from about 18 yards.
Ngwenya, from Zimbabwe, might have capped an impressive debut with a goal, but twice contrived to miss from close range in the dying moments.
In the end, the tie was a fair result, even if Nowak disagreed.
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Freddy’s Night
Highlights of 14-year-old Freddy Adu’s play for D.C. United against the Galaxy on Saturday night at Home Depot Center:
* Halftime -- Enters the game at the start of the second half, replacing Alecko Eskandarian.
* 46th minute -- Fouled by Hong Myung-Bo, 15 seconds into the half.
* 55th minute -- His crossing pass doesn’t result in a shot on goal.
* 56th minute -- After being roughly dispossessed of the ball, fouls Andreas Herzog in return.
* 90th minute -- Dribbling into the box, he puts a hard, low shot on goal at point-blank range, forcing Kevin Hartman to make a diving save.
