Galaxy Sees Positive Side of Deadlock
The last time the Galaxy played to a scoreless draw, the coach paid for the lackluster affair with his job.
But these are different times for the Galaxy, days when a tie at your rival’s field -- where you’ve given up nine goals in your last two appearances -- can be seen only as a good thing. And that’s what the Galaxy was taking from Saturday night’s 0-0 draw in front of a lively Spartan Stadium crowd of 27,030, the third-largest in franchise history.
“It’s good to get the point but we should have stolen three points,” said Coach Steve Sampson, who replaced the fired Sigi Schmid on Aug. 18 and is 1-2-2 since. “Cobi Jones had two clear shots and Carlos Ruiz had one.
“But I’m proud of how we played and protected our discipline [in the 4-5-1 alignment] more than anything.”
The Galaxy (10-8-9) moved into a second-place tie with the Colorado Rapids, five points behind Western Conference-leading Kansas City with three matches remaining in the Major League Soccer regular season. The Galaxy has a home-and-home set remaining with the Wizards, beginning Saturday at the Home Depot Center.
The Earthquakes (9-10-8) pulled into a tie for fourth with the Dallas Burn.
“It wasn’t exactly beautiful soccer,” Earthquake Coach Dominic Kinnear said. “It was pretty much a fight.”
Still, Kinnear was not referring to the brawl in the stands involving fans of the Galaxy and Earthquakes.
“Over the course of nine years of MLS,” Kinnear said, “this is a big rivalry. I don’t know if it’s hatred as much as ‘not like.’ ”
In a physical match in which neither team could impose its will on the other, the Galaxy out-shot San Jose, 10-6, overall and 4-2 in shots on goal.
The Galaxy, which has not scored in its last 195 minutes, had perhaps its best chance in the 71st minute. But Ruiz, who was playing for the first time since Aug. 21 because of injury and duty with the Guatemala national team, blew a breakaway opportunity when his right-footed shot from the middle of the box went wide left.
“It was close,” said Ruiz, who was left scratching his head. “The field is very small and there’s not a lot of space to play so I think I rushed it.”
San Jose’s best shot came a minute later, when Landon Donovan weaved his way through the box and had a clean look at the net until goalkeeper Kevin Hartman dove to his right and punched the shot away and Sasha Victorine cleared it.
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Mortgage banker Tony Amanpour, who heads a group of 70 investors and has been in negotiations with Anschutz Entertainment Group to buy the Earthquakes, said he would keep the team in the Bay Area should negotiations end in his favor.
“That’s the only market that we’re interested in,” said Amanpour, who added that he will give a letter of intent to AEG with a deposit Friday and has plans on announcing his road map for the franchise within two weeks.
Amanpour also said he had an inkling as to why AEG, which runs five MLS franchises, is looking to unload San Jose, as well as D.C. United. AEG is also investor-operator of the Galaxy, the Chicago Fire and the New York/New Jersey MetroStars. It sold the Colorado Rapids last year.
“When you’re losing money it’s not a good feeling, especially if you’re not patriotic in that area,” Amanpour said, referring to AEG’s seeming lack of commitment to soccer in the Silicon Valley. “But they carried the league with all the teams from the start so they should be more thanked than criticized.”
