Galaxy Misses Big Chance
Both men have been around the block, both have coached the United States at the World Cup -- Bob Gansler at Italy ’90 and Steve Sampson at France ’98 -- so they know only too well the surprises that soccer can produce.
So their reactions to Saturday night’s 1-1 tie between the Galaxy and the Kansas City Wizards in front of a sellout crowd of 27,000 in the Home Depot Center were almost predictable.
“Inexcusable,” Sampson said of a series of missed scoring opportunities, including a blown penalty kick by Carlos Ruiz, that cost the Galaxy a chance to move within striking distance of the Wizards in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference.
“We’re a resilient bunch and we don’t panic, even when we’re getting outplayed,” Gansler said. “The guys fought back and I think they deserved a goal.”
That goal came at the 88-minute 10-second mark, with the Galaxy less than two minutes away from a victory that would have pulled it to within two points of the conference-leading Wizards with two games to play.
Kansas City and U.S. national team striker Josh Wolff drove the ball across the face of the Galaxy net from the left and luckless Los Angeles midfielder Sasha Victorine, who had played superbly all evening, accidentally deflected it into his own net from less than a yard.
Sampson, who is 1-2-3 since taking over from Sigi Schmid on Aug. 18, called it “a lapse in concentration” by the defense.
“It was,” he said, “a series of situations where we mistimed tackles, mistimed closing down, let the cross come in ... if we had just cleared the ball instead of letting the ball come across us ... it was unfortunate to say the least.”
The Galaxy, which has won only one game in its last 11, should have put this one away in the first half.
Los Angeles was assured of a spot in the playoffs without stepping onto the field because the Dallas Burn had been beaten earlier by the New England Revolution.
Even so, there still was first place in the conference and home-field advantage in the playoffs at stake, and the Galaxy applied intense pressure for the first 45 minutes.
Victorine had a shot deflected just wide and a header saved by goalkeeper Bo Oshoniyi. Cobi Jones slammed a shot into the side netting and curled two others agonizingly wide.
But the clearest scoring opportunity came in the 16th minute, when Oshoniyi threw himself to his right to turn Ruiz’s penalty kick around the post, denying the Guatemalan striker his 12th goal of the season.
The penalty was awarded by referee Michael Kennedy when he ruled that defender Jimmy Conrad had fouled forward Jovan Kirovski.
“We obviously didn’t do ourselves any favors by not putting the ball in the back of the net,” Sampson said. “We earned the penalty, we should have finished that.
“We had three or four clear opportunities in the first half. This team has to learn to reward itself when we put ourselves in that situation.”
As it was, it was left to Jamaican international defender Tyrone Marshall to end the Galaxy’s 259-minute scoring drought by heading in Kirovski’s corner kick 64:28 into the game.
One goal, however, was not enough.
In other MLS games:
Chicago 3, Columbus 3 -- The Crew (11-5-10) extended its unbeaten streak to a league-record 15 games with a tie at home.
The Crew’s streak is the longest season run in MLS history, and matches a 15-game streak by the Galaxy from 1997 to 1998.
San Jose 1, Colorado 1 -- Dwyane DeRosario’s goal in the 82nd minute gave the Earthquakes (9-10-9) a tie at Denver.
The Rapids (10-9-10) earned a playoff berth.
D.C. United 1, New York/New Jersey 0 -- Freddy Adu scored on a deflected shot early in the first half at East Rutherford, N.J.
It was the fifth goal for the 15-year-old rookie and his second against the MetroStars.
New England 2, Dallas 0 -- Taylor Twellman and Steve Rolston scored at Foxboro, Mass., and the Revolution kept its playoff hopes alive.
The Revolution trails fourth-place Chicago by three points in the Eastern Conference.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
