It’s a Comedy, but Galaxy Isn’t Laughing in 1-0 Loss to Fire
CHICAGO — A couple more games like this and Major League Soccer will be able to take the act on the road.
Saturday night’s encounter between the Galaxy and the Chicago Fire--a match that was won, 1-0, by the Fire--had moments of drama, moments of comedy and moments that fell somewhere in between.
In short, it was an entertaining game whose outcome was quite certainly determined by the strange calls and non-calls of referee Kevin Terry.
The game turned on three key plays, the first occurring in the 10th minute when Chicago midfielder Chris Armas tripped over the ball and the Galaxy’s Mauricio Cienfuegos stole it.
Cienfuegos spotted Cobi Jones to his left and passed the ball to him. Jones beat Lubos Kubic, the 1998 MLS defender of the year, and was sprinting toward the net when Fire goalkeeper Zach Thornton threw himself into his path, upending Jones in the process.
Penalty kick?
Not according to Terry.
“I was going straight toward the keeper and cut it [the ball] inside and Zach dived right into me,” Jones said. “I know he didn’t touch the ball. It was a blatant penalty kick but the referee didn’t want to call it. That’s the referee’s decision. What can you do?”
The second crucial play was a bit of heads-up magic between Fire winger Roman Kosecki and Kubic.
It came in the 19th minute when Chicago earned a corner kick on the left. Instead of floating the ball into the goal area as usual, Kosecki cut it back sharply to an unmarked Kubic, lurking about 20 yards out. Kubic’s first-time shot flew into the lower right corner of the Galaxy net.
“The difference in this game was the quality of the foreign players,” Galaxy Coach Octavio Zambrano said. “There’s no doubt that Chicago possesses the best group of foreign players in the league [in Polish players Kosecki, Peter Nowak and Jerzy Podbrozny, and Kubic, who is from the Czech Republic].
“We have a fine group of American players, young players, but in the end experience does have value. I don’t think there are many defenders in this league who can score a goal like Kubic did.”
The third incident worth recording was one that remained the talk of the 9,972 fans long after the game had ended.
It occurred in the 70th minute, when Paul Caligiuri was trying to launch a Galaxy attack from midfield. Kosecki deliberately stuck out his arm to knock down Caligiuri’s pass and the former U.S. national team veteran angrily confronted the Polish winger.
What followed was a comedy skit for the highlight films. Kosecki reached out and tweaked Caligiuri’s nose. Caligiuri fell backward.
Terry could have sent both players off--Kosecki for striking another player and Caligiuri for feigning injury. Instead, all he dished out was a yellow card to Kosecki for the handling the ball.
“I think Kosecki hit Caligiuri in front of the referee--unless I was watching a ‘Three Stooges’ movie,” Zambrano said. “It pretty much looked like he put his fingers in his eye or did something to his face.
“Those are the kinds of things that referees need to have the intestinal fortitude to call, and they don’t.”
Fire Coach Bob Bradley was amused. “The rules are always interesting,” he said. “On the one hand, you have Kosecki’s nose-grabbing, but I tend to think it really didn’t do that much to Paul, either.”
Said Caligiuri: “That was the most surprising thing that has ever happened to me in soccer. And I’ve been playing a long time. I’ve never had my nose squeezed.”
Right now, though, it’s the Galaxy that is feeling the pinch. The loss dropped its record to 2-3 and left it in last place in the Western Conference. Chicago (4-1) is in first place.
