Galaxy Reels In Revolution
For the Galaxy, Sunday afternoon’s Major League Soccer game at the Rose Bowl was a tale of no sex, no lies, but some crucial videotape.
Having viewed it during the week, the Galaxy was able to discover a gaping hole in the New England Revolution’s defense and exploit it in a 1-0 victory that brought the team back to .500 at 5-5.
The game was barely three minutes old when Greg Vanney powered a corner kick across the net to the far post, where Steve Jolley stooped to head the ball past a surprised Walter Zenga, the Revolution’s goalkeeper and coach.
“Sigi [Schmid, the Galaxy coach] did a great job about telling us how they defend,” Jolley said. “He told me I was going to be open all day if I kept running to the back post. It was an incredible ball by Vanney. It was right there.”
Said Vanney: “I thought on the first one I’d try to swing it deep and Steve usually gets there. He’s pretty good in the air. It just happened to work out, and obviously we needed it.”
Obviously.
The Galaxy, which now has six goals in 10 games, had to make this one stand up for 87 minutes, but with New England as flat as a Grand Banks halibut, it wasn’t that difficult. In fact, it was so easy that Schmid was able to give two players their MLS debuts.
He sent in newly signed midfielder Simon Elliott of New Zealand for Joe Franchino for 55 minutes and put in forward Marvin Quijano for Welton for the final 21 minutes. Each did well.
“It’s always nice to win,” said Elliott, 24, a Stanford graduate from Wellington. “The guys have certainly made it easy to fit into the team. I’ve only been here two weeks, but everyone’s welcomed me, especially the older players. It’s been a lot of fun so far.”
When Schmid was asked how a New Zealand national team player could possibly help put fans in the seats in Los Angeles--Sunday’s crowd was an announced 7,581--he had his answer ready.
“He won’t bring us any people, but he might help us win games and winning games, I think, will bring people,” Schmid said. “I thought he played very well today. He’s a very smart player.
“Sometimes when you don’t score goals it’s not always the attackers’ [fault]. Sometimes it’s the service that they get.
“Simon knows that for Los Angeles having someone from New Zealand as the fourth foreigner doesn’t make much sense. But for right now he makes sense for us.”
Quijano, 19, from Rio Hondo College, managed to earn a yellow card in his first professional game, for dangerous play. It was one of the few calls that referee Sandra Hunt got right all day.
“I was nervous, but I felt confident,” said Quijano, who came to California at age 11 from El Salvador, where his father played for Municipal in the first division.
The closest he came to scoring was in the final minute when Zenga blocked a fierce shot by Vanney and Quijano pounced on the rebound but blasted his shot wide right.
“A goal could have changed my whole 20 minutes of game time,” he said. “I could have been the hero.”
Meanwhile, the Galaxy’s goal-scoring woes continue, but the weekend brought two bits of good news for L.A. Former Galaxy winger Harut Karapetyan was waived by Tampa Bay and will be back in L.A. for a tryout this week. Also, striker Carlos Hermosillo is heading back to L.A.
Hermosillo’s Mexican league club, Cruz Azul, was eliminated from the playoffs on Saturday. He is expected to report to the Galaxy next week and begin playing by June 6.
“The cavalry is on the way,” Schmid said.
