Galaxy Burned in Shootout
There is no question the Galaxy possesses the most explosive offense in Major League Soccer this season.
Now, if someone would just mention that to the Chicago Fire.
For the second time in 10 days, the Fire defeated Los Angeles in a tightly marked, defensive game, winning at the Rose Bowl in a shootout after a 1-1 tie in regulation.
This was a matchup between a Los Angeles offense that was averaging a league-best 3.18 goals a game and a Chicago defense that was surrendering a league-low 1.20 goals.
Although the Galaxy (10-2) scored quickly, raising cheers from the crowd of 28,241, the game became a truly Chicago affair, often plodding, often rough-and-tumble with plenty of fouls and yellow cards to go around.
“It’s difficult to play a team that plays not to lose,” Galaxy Coach Octavio Zambrano said. “Obviously, they came to defend.”
No one understood that better than Galaxy forward Welton. The leading scorer in MLS found himself battling for breathing space against defenders who packed the box against every attack.
“They made it very difficult for me to move around on the field,” he said. “Most of the time I was receiving the ball with my back to the goal. That’s very hard.”
Any offensive notions the Fire (6-5) might have entertained coming into this game were quickly dampened when forward Roman Kosecki pulled a calf muscle in the locker room before warmups.
On Saturday night, Los Angeles started fast and it took only three minutes for Mauricio Cienfuegos to break loose for the game’s first goal.
The Salvadoran playmaker got his opportunity after Chicago defender C.J. Brown failed to clear the ball from the right side of the box. Cienfuegos intercepted Brown’s header on the fly, dribbled through three defenders and flicked a shot past diving goalkeeper Zach Thornton.
Time and again, the Galaxy rushed forward, Welton flying down the sideline or Clint Mathis sneaking through the middle of the defense, unleashing a shot that sailed high over the crossbar.
But around the 20th minute, the game settled into a more methodical pace, the kind Chicago prefers.
Then, in the 49th minute, when it seemed the Galaxy was lulled to sleep, Frank Klopas served the ball ahead to former Galaxy forward Ante Razov, who beat Greg Vanney and Robin Fraser to the box, slipping a shot just inside the left post.
“We had a crazy night from the beginning,” Fire Coach Bob Bradley said. “I thought our guys did a pretty good job of hanging in there.”
In the waning minutes, Zambrano tried a little bit of everything to crack the Chicago defense. He substituted Daniel Hernandez for starting forward Jose Vasquez. Next, Harut Karapetyan came in for Welton.
“Our team had a hard time getting behind them because they were so compacted in the back,” Zambrano said.
Finally, the rangy Ezra Hendrickson was switched up from defender to center forward. The move almost paid off in the 86th minute.
Welton and Thornton collided going after a ball that Cienfuegos had sent into the box. Hendrickson found himself with a momentarily open net, but Thornton was able to stretch out an arm and the shot sailed high.
Thornton came up big again in the shootout. First, he got a right foot on Mathis’ shot, deflecting it wide. Then he dived to block an effort by Cienfuegos.
Chicago sealed the 3-1 shootout victory with goals by Razov, Zak Ibsen and Peter Nowak.
Around the MLS
Stern John scored three goals, all in the second half, and Jeff Cunningham added a goal and an assist as the Columbus Crew beat the San Jose Clash, 4-1, before 10,903 at Columbus, Ohio. . . . Scott Garlick’s sliding save on Mauricio Ramos on the final shootout attempt gave visiting D.C. United a 2-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Mutiny before 8,324.
