Galaxy Lets One (Point) Slip Away
The Galaxy came into Saturday night’s match against the Kansas City Wizards unbeaten at home this season.
The Wizards came in without a victory on the road.
The outcome should have been predictable, but Major League Soccer doesn’t work that way. The surprises are sometimes unpleasant, as the Galaxy discovered to its dismay.
After taking the lead after an hour of hard work, the Galaxy let the game slip away in a half-hour of defensive disarray and ended up losing, 2-1, in front of 22,774 at the Home Depot Center.
The winning goal came in the 86th minute, just when it seemed as if the Western Conference-leading Galaxy (5-3-3) might escape with a tie.
It was Diego Gutierrez who scored it, taking a pass from Josh Wolff, who in turn had received the ball from Chris Klein.
“It’s disappointing,” said Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid. “When you’re leading 1-0 at home, you should at least come out with a point.”
The Kansas City goals were fair reward for the commitment the Wizards brought to the game. Far from packing their defense, as Schmid had predicted they might do, they played in a relatively wide-open manner.
After the first half ended scoreless, the Galaxy took the lead in the 59th minute on a goal by the team’s -- and the league’s -- hottest player, Alejandro Moreno.
Midfielder Sasha Victorine crossed the ball into the goal area from the right and defender Ricky Lewis leaped to send a downward header bouncing off the turf in front of the Wizard net. Moreno was on hand to power a second header past goalkeeper Tony Meola from close range as Meola clattered into Moreno and the left post.
Moreno has more than lived up to expectations after taking over the starting striker position from the injured Carlos Ruiz, whose turned ankle still has him on the sideline three weeks after the injury occurred.
In May, Moreno scored five goals and assisted on two others. Saturday’s goal brought his total to six, tying him with Ruiz and with the Chicago Fire’s Damani Ralph for the league scoring lead.
But the Galaxy could not hang on. Francisco Gomez tied it six minutes later, Gutierrez won it and Kansas City (3-4-2) walked off with the three points.
“We knew we had to score some goals in order to get a result,” said Kansas City Coach Bob Gansler. “That’s what the guys went and did right from the outset. I think we came out of the chute very well.”
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In other MLS games:
Chicago 3, Washington 0 --The Fire’s Ralph scored three goals to lead it to a convincing victory in front of 25,810 at Soldier Field.
The hat trick came on goals in the 15th, 55th and 69th minutes and lifted Chicago to 4-2-4 one-third of the way into its season. D.C. United fell to 3-5-3.
Dallas 2, New York/New Jersey 0 -- The Burn (3-4-2) ended its four-game losing streak by shutting out the MetroStars (3-2-4) in front of 11,519 at the Cotton Bowl. Eddie Johnson and Toni Nhleko scored second-half goals for Dallas.
