Galaxy Does Enough to Defeat the Wizards
The Galaxy did what it had to do Sunday night -- it won. Beyond that, nothing much could be said of its 2-1 victory over the Kansas City Wizards at the Home Depot Center.
That did not stop Kansas City Coach Bob Gansler from delivering his usual quota of one-liners, however. Even in defeat, Gansler was in fine form.
The Wizards had 11 shots compared to the Galaxy’s six, they hit the crossbar on a shot by Scott Sealy early on, hit the side netting a couple of times and were thwarted by some sharp work by goalkeeper Kevin Hartman.
Were the Wizards hard done by?
“I don’t travel with my violin,” Gansler said. “The end of the story is, they got two [goals] we got one. I feel like we played decently.... Tonight we needed to make one better defensive play and one better offensive play, because for sure we had the opportunities.”
By winning, the third-place Galaxy, which got goals from Herculez Gomez and Marcelo Saragosa, moved to within one point of second-place FC Dallas in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference.
That makes for an interesting week because the teams play each other twice in the next six days -- Wednesday night in the U.S. Open Cup final and Saturday in a league match that probably will determine which team gets home-field advantage in the MLS playoffs.
The question for Gansler was obvious: Which team is better, Dallas or Los Angeles?
“I think they have a better owner,” he said of Dallas, which is owned by Lamar Hunt, who also owns the Columbus Crew and Gansler’s Wizards.
Kansas City, which lost to D.C. United in last year’s MLS Cup final at the Home Depot Center, is without a victory in its last five games and is battling to hold on to the fourth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
For Gansler, this season’s results have been as baffling for the Wizards (11-8-10) as they have been for the Galaxy (12-12-6).
“The only [Eastern Conference] team that has beaten us twice is Columbus, and they’re supposedly the least of the Mohicans,” he said of the last-place Crew.
Sunday’s victory brought the Galaxy back to .500 with two regular-season games remaining. It was also the team’s first win against Kansas City since June 2003.
After the Wizards had made most of the early running, the Galaxy took the lead at 32 minutes 55 seconds when Gomez rifled a shot past goalkeeper Bo Oshoniyi from 17 yards after taking a long pass from Landon Donovan.
It was the Galaxy’s only shot of the first half and provided Gomez’s ninth league goal of the season. He has scored three goals in Open Cup play.
The Wizards tied it up in the 72nd minute when defender Jimmy Conrad sent a through pass to forward Josh Wolff and Wolff beat defender Ugo Ihemelu before sticking the ball past Hartman.
The response from the Galaxy was almost immediate.
Cobi Jones was fouled by Nick Garcia, Donovan floated the resulting free kick into the area, Conrad slipped and fell, and the recently reacquired Saragosa headed the ball just inside the left post for his first MLS goal.
