Galaxy’s Ruiz Is Double Trouble
Carlos Ruiz scored the goals Sunday evening, but credit for the Galaxy’s 2-1 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes in front of a Home Depot Center sellout crowd of 27,000 should be spread around more generously than that.
There was, for instance, the fine performance by rookie Ned Grabavoy, who started at right midfield in place of the injured Sasha Victorine and set up Ruiz’s game-winning goal in the 55th minute, beating defender Ryan Cochrane and setting up Ruiz with a perfect cutback pass.
Then there was defender Tyrone Marshall, who returned after sitting out nine games because of a ligament sprain in his left knee and helped calm what, at times this season, has been a somewhat flustered back line.
Credit also defender Ricky Lewis, who cleared Craig Waibel’s potential game-tying goal off the goal line in injury time to preserve the victory that pushed the Galaxy (8-5-3) back into first place in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference. The victory earned Coach Sigi Schmid the conference’s coaching spot in the July 31 All-Star game at Washington, D.C.
“It’s my first All-Star game, I don’t know what you do,” Schmid joked. “I just hope they have stuff that’s big enough to fit me.”
Throw in the performances of midfielder Andreas Herzog, whose in-swinging corner kicks gave the Earthquakes fits all night; defender Chris Albright who took advantage of one of those corners to set up Ruiz’s first goal in stoppage time at the end of the first half; and rookie defender Chris Aloisi, who filled in ably in not one but two positions, and it was a solid effort all round by the Galaxy.
The only negative aspects were the loss of defensive midfielder Marcelo Saragosa near the end of the first half, when he got tangled up on the sideline with San Jose goal scorer Dwayne DeRosario and emerged with a severely twisted right ankle, and the yellow card given to Herzog that will mean he is suspended for Saturday’s game against the Colorado Rapids.
The defending MLS champion Earthquakes (4-4-5) also lost a player when winger Brian Mullan was ejected in the 83rd minute after picking up his second yellow card.
The Earthquakes took the lead in the 41st minute when they had three chances to score and finally managed to do so after goalkeeper Kevin Hartman had blocked DeRosario’s initial shot and a second effort also had been blocked as the ball caromed around the box.
DeRosario finally found the back of the net from about six yards, and the goal stood despite protests from the Galaxy bench that the Canadian international was offside.
“I couldn’t tell if he was offside or not,” Schmid said. “I’ve heard that he wasn’t off, so fair enough, the guy scored.”
Schmid was more interested in praising rookies Grabavoy and Aloisi, especially Aloisi, who started in the back line in place of the injured Danny Califf and then moved from defense to defensive midfield when Saragosa was sidelined.
“He’s never really played there before, and I thought overall he did a pretty good job,” Schmid said. “I thought he had a very good game at left back [before that].”
Schmid had told Ruiz before the game that he had been overtaken as the league’s top scorer.
“That’s always been a great motivator for Carlos,” Schmid said. “He said to me, ‘I want to be back on top by the end of the day.’ ”
*
Alberto Delgado scored his first MLS goal, leading the Colorado Rapids over the New England Revolution, 1-0, at Denver.
