Hendrickson, Galaxy Have Champion’s Look
It was a picture worth savoring, the tallest player on the Galaxy delightedly hugging the shortest in the wake of the team’s most significant victory.
Ezra “E.Z.” Hendrickson, captain of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines national team and all of 6 feet 3, and Mauricio Cienfuegos, the veteran playmaker from El Salvador and 5-6 at a stretch, made quite a combination.
Just as they had done in the 78th minute of Sunday’s CONCACAF Champions Cup final at the Coliseum, when Cienfuegos threaded the ball through to Hendrickson and the lanky midfielder scored the deciding goal in an improbable, 3-2, come-from-behind victory over Olimpia of Honduras.
It was Hendrickson’s second goal of the game, to go along with one by Cobi Jones, and after each score he pulled his Galaxy jersey over his head to show the 8,147 fans a brightly colored Bob Marley T-shirt.
“It was just for inspiration,” Hendrickson said. “Bob’s one of my favorite artists. I listen to his music a lot as motivation for games.
“Usually, I wear my country’s flag or something pertaining to my country. That hasn’t been working so I switched today, and Bob came through.”
Twelve minutes after Hendrickson buried his side-foot volley in the roof of the Olimpia net, the Galaxy had its first title. The Major League Soccer team, founded only five years ago, is the champion of North and Central America and the Caribbean.
As such, it advances to the second FIFA World Club Championship in Spain in July as the top team from this region. Olimpia also goes, but as runner-up.
“The history of the Galaxy has been that they can’t win the big game,” champagne-soaked Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid said. “Today, we showed that we can. We came through.
“We got ourselves behind, but we came back from that adversity. I can’t say enough for the spirit of this team, the spirit of the group. That was just outstanding , all the work they put in. They came through obstacles, they came through injuries, they came through missing players, they came through contract disputes, but they never lost their focus on what they needed to do.
“I’m just immensely proud of what they did today.”
It was an open, entertaining final, with all five goals worthy of mention. The first half produced three of them, with the Galaxy first falling behind, then fighting back to take the lead with two goals in a five-minute span.
Olimpia had the better of the early play, the Galaxy’s only threat being a header by Jones that soared over the crossbar in the 17th minute.
The Honduran team sustained its pressure midway through the half. Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, the hero of the penalty-kick victories over Real Espana of Honduras and Washington D.C. United earlier in the eight-team tournament, smothered Carlos Paes de Oliveira’s shot at the near post in the 21st minute.
Two minutes later, Christian Santamaria--a player MLS should seriously consider--sent a scorching shot just over Hartman’s bar, a feat repeated by Danilo Tosello a few minutes later.
Olimpia was rewarded after 34 minutes when Alex Pineda Chacon floated a cross from the right intended for Paes de Oliveira. Alexi Lalas appeared to head the ball, but replays showed he swatted it away with his hand.
Referee Peter Prendergast of Jamaica was not fooled and awarded Olimpia a penalty kick from which Tosello scored, beating Hartman low to his left.
“That was the hand of the devil, man,” Lalas said, in joking reference to Diego Maradona’s “Hand of God” goal in the 1986 World Cup.
“If there’s one thing that I’ve learned over the years, it’s don’t let one mistake become another mistake. Put it out of your head and just go on. When you get an opportunity to make up for it, try.”
That opportunity came almost instantly.
One minute after Olimpia had taken the lead, Galaxy midfielder Peter Vagenas sent a deep cross in from the right. Lalas, at the far post, headed the ball back across the goalmouth and Hendrickson rose to power a header into the net before setting off on his Bob Marley celebratory run.
It took only four minutes for the Galaxy to again stun Olimpia, and Lalas again was involved.
The defender’s pass from the right reached Jones and the Galaxy captain, who wore a black armband in memory of his maternal grandmother who died Saturday night, crashed a sharply angled shot into the net to give the Galaxy the lead.
Olimpia, blessed with its own weapons on offense, tied it six minutes into the second half on a superb header by Uruguayan defender Robert Lima.
Schmid then brought Sasha Victorine into the game in place of Adam Frye, meaning that the former UCLA coach had seven former Bruins on the field.
But it was the 78th-minute give-and-go between Hendrickson and Cienfuegos that was the key to the Galaxy’s championship.
“This is priceless,” an emotional Cienfuegos said of his first major honor in a 16-year career. “The truth is, I never imagined that at this stage of my career I would accomplish something like this. God challenges you sometimes, but he does not forget.”
Said Hendrickson: “We came into this to win it, and we did just that.”
In the third-place game that preceded the Galaxy match, Pachuca of Mexico defeated D.C. United, 2-1, in a foul-marred encounter that saw referee Kevin Stott hand out nine yellow cards and eject two players.
Pedro Pineda gave Pachuca the lead in the 14th minute and Carey Talley tied it for D.C. in the 33rd before Omar Arellano netted the game-winner five minutes later.
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NOWHERE TO BE FOUND
Luis Hernandez was absent from Champions Cup and perhaps it’s time for MLS to cut its ties, Grahame L. Jones writes. D10
