Albright’s Persistence Pays Off Temporarily
Denied once by the crossbar, Chris Albright was not about to be thwarted twice on Saturday night.
Rising to meet a corner kick by Josh Gardner in the 79th minute, Albright powered a header just beneath the bar to score the Galaxy’s only goal so far in the 2006 Major League Soccer season.
But it wasn’t enough for the defending MLS champion.
Seven minutes later, Chicago Fire defender Jim Curtin leaped to send a header of his own spinning into the back of the Galaxy net and the teams then played out a disappointing 1-1 tie at the Home Depot Center.
Until Albright’s intervention, the dreary match appeared headed for a scoreless stalemate, and it was not surprising that one section in the announced crowd of 19,107 was calling for Galaxy Coach Steve Sampson’s dismissal -- two games into the season.
Albright had almost put the Galaxy ahead in the 63rd minute when his header, also off a Gardner corner kick, slammed into the crossbar. Teammate Tyrone Marshall’s follow shot off the rebound curled wide left.
The two late goals did little to salvage a lackluster game, and for the second week in a row the final whistle was greeted with booing by Galaxy fans.
The final statistics showed the Fire with a 14-7 advantage in shots, including a 5-4 edge in shots on target. For the second game in a row, urgency seemed to be missing from the Galaxy’s play.
There were no fireworks from Landon Donovan, who has taken only two shots in 180 minutes this season. Last season he scored a team-high 12 goals.
There were precious few dramatic moments from Herculez Gomez, who scored 11 times in an impressive rookie season last year.
For Chicago (0-1-1), which was coming off a 3-2 loss at FC Dallas in its opener, the point earned was a plus, especially considering that the Fire plays nine in a row on the road before its new stadium opens in Bridgeview, Ill., in June.
“When I look at the tape, I would like to think we may have had a few more chances in the game overall,” Fire Coach Dave Sarachan said. “But this is not an easy place to play.
“We felt we needed to come away with a point or three and we accomplished that.”
Having been shut out, 1-0, by the New England Revolution in its season opener a week earlier, the Galaxy (0-1-1) was looking for more from its forwards.
Sampson had talked during the week about the productivity, or the lack thereof, of Donovan and Gomez, and wanted to see improvement.
“Teams now know how he plays,” Sampson said of Gomez. “He’s got to bring a lot of energy to the game in order to get the opportunities that he got last year. There are no surprises any longer. Herc has to have a good game against Chicago.”
Gomez worked hard, but the spark was missing. Like Donovan, he took only one shot Saturday.
Donovan will be available for only one more month before joining the U.S. national team’s pre-World Cup camp on May 9. Sampson had hoped for more in the early part of the season.
“We’d like to take advantage of Landon being here,” he said. “But when he leaves we have to have a solution as well. So it isn’t all about Landon.”
To beef up its attacking play, the Galaxy on Thursday signed free agent Brazilian striker Thiago, 21, and Friday acquired Trinidadian international forward Cornell Glen, 24, from the Colorado Rapids. Glen came on as a late substitute Saturday.
But it was Albright, a defender, who led the Galaxy in shots with two, and it was Albright who scored the only goal. He and Donovan will fly to Cary, N.C., today to join the U.S. national team for Tuesday night’s World Cup warm-up match against Jamaica.
Albright might yet make the World Cup roster.
“I think Chris can play at that level,” Sarachan said. “I don’t know if the numbers shake out for him. It may be a little bit of a longshot, because he was out with that injury, but he’s probably close.”
Saturday’s goal will only have helped.
