Galaxy Can’t Close It Out
A disgusted look on his face, Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid could barely look in the direction of his team’s dressing room as he sat in a stairwell in the bowels of Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday night.
The way he was talking, you’d have expected to walk into the cramped quarters and find Galaxy team members combing the carpet for their teeth.
“Reality doesn’t really sink in until you get slapped squarely in the face and we got kicked in the face. We got kicked by a mule,” Schmid said after the Galaxy’s 4-1 loss to Kansas City in front of 9,484, a loss that evened the first-round, first-team-to-five-points Major League Soccer playoff series at three points apiece and set up a Game 3 Wednesday night at the Rose Bowl.
“Hopefully there’s some pain in that locker room and hopefully they can turn that pain into what they need to do on Wednesday,” Schmid said. “It’s been a long time since we got our butt kicked.”
More than three months.
The only time this season that the Galaxy lost by more than one goal happened June 15 at the Meadowlands, where the New York/New Jersey MetroStars thumped the Galaxy, 5-0.
In fact, the four goals the Galaxy gave up to Kansas City on Saturday night tied a franchise playoff high, equaling the four the MetroStars scored in a 4-1 game in the first round last season.
In its locker room, the Galaxy seemed aware of its plight.
A stunned Carlos Ruiz, who’s normally flashing smiles to everyone within sight, sat slumped in his chair staring at the ground after being limited to one shot three days after setting an MLS playoff record with six.
Meanwhile, a spent Cobi Jones limped to the greaseboard at the front of the room, picked up the blue pen and scribbled “PRIDE” for his teammates to see and ponder.
“That’s right,” yelled Tyrone Marshall. “That’s what it all comes down to: one game.”
It could have been over after two.
But, as it did in its postseason opener, the No. 1-seeded and Western Conference champion Galaxy inexplicably came out lackadaisical.
Eighth-seeded Kansas City, which is known for its deliberate style, stormed the Galaxy from the first whistle, knowing that it needed at least a tie to extend the series.
The Wizards dominated the midfield in the first half, when the Galaxy took only two shots, none on goal, and they took a 2-0 lead into the half courtesy of goals by Igor Simutenkov, in the 19th minute, and Eric Quill, in the 37th minute.
“They had more play, more grit in the midfield, especially in the first half when they were running through us very easily,” Jones said. “We wanted to cope with it in the second half but by that point we were down two goals and we had to open up a little bit more.”
Schmid tried to jump-start the Galaxy offense by replacing midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos, 34, with forward Chris Albright, 23, to start the second half.
It didn’t matter.
With the Galaxy pushing the tempo, the Wizards’ counterattack thrived and Preki’s goal in the 70th minute made it 3-0.
On the ensuing kickoff, Ruiz quickly passed to Albright, who lofted a high volley from 55 yards out and, with Wizard goalkeeper Tony Meola’s back to the play, the ball went over Meola’s shoulder and into the net for the score.
The Wizards answered, though, two minutes later when Dario Fabbro beat goalkeeper Kevin Hartman on a breakaway.
“[The Wizards] came out with a lot of energy and pressed up,” Schmid said. “They took risks and they sent people forward. We got overwhelmed in midfield, we didn’t win tackles, we didn’t win 50-50 balls. I mean, we made a change at halftime but there were 10 other guys I could have taken out and it wouldn’t have mattered.”
