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Extra effort Needing a tie, Galaxy defeats Fire to reach MLS finals
Updated: Sunday October 21, 2001 1:46 PM
CHICAGO (AP) -- A tie was good enough. A win was even better. Mauricio Cienfuegos scored in the eighth minute of overtime Wednesday night and the Los Angeles Galaxy beat the Chicago Fire 2-1 to advance to the MLS Cup. Los Angeles will face the San Jose Earthquakes, who beat the Miami Fusion in the other semifinal, in Sunday's championship game in Columbus, Ohio. It will be Los Angeles' third appearance in the MLS Cup. "It's a battle of the West," Galaxy head coach Sigi Schmid said. "And we think West Coast soccer is pretty good." It was the Fire's first playoff loss at Soldier Field in the team's four-year history. "We just ran out of time," Chicago's Ante Razov said. "Everybody is shocked, surprised and saddened. That's the way the game is. But we'll regroup, and we'll be back strong as ever next year."
The Galaxy needed only to tie the Fire to get the one point they needed in the "first-to-five" points series. Danny Califf took care of that, scoring in the 44th minute to make it 1-1. But Cienfuegos gave the Galaxy the win when he took a crossing pass from Brian Mullan and shot left-footed from about 35 yards out. The ball hit the back of the net with a solid thud, and the Galaxy players rushed across the field in celebration. "It gives you a better sense of accomplishment," captain Cobi Jones said. "You feel more confident going into the finals knowing your last game was a victory." The Fire players watched in stunned silence. Eric Wynalda, who missed a potential game-winner in the 80th minute by inches, sat at midfield, his legs pulled up to his chest and his arms wrapped around his knees. "We had a lot of chances in all three games with these guys," Wynalda said. "It's been disheartening not to get some of those." Chicago was playing without captain Peter Nowak, who had five assists before straining his hamstring in Game 2 of the semifinals. And his absence showed. Chicago outshot the Galaxy 9-8, but Los Angeles had five shots on goal compared with the Fire's two. Chicago got close to the Los Angeles goal countless times, but just couldn't finish its shots. Take Wynalda's miss. He took a shot from about a foot in front of the goal only to watch it skid past the left side of the goal. "We had good opportunities and good advantages at the goal, and we just didn't handle them," Los Angeles head coach Bob Bradley said. "You have your chances and, in the second half, any one of those plays makes a difference." The Fire took the early lead, thanks to DaMarcus Beasley. In the 30th minute, Beasley took a crossing pass from Chris Armas, dribbled and then shot from about 15 yards out. The ball sailed just over Kevin Hartman's head and hit the upper right corner of the net. The crowd of 13,444 erupted in cheers, and Beasley pulled the front of his shirt up and over his head as he ran, screaming, toward the sidelines. "Just from the fact we lost today made it not that good," said Beasley, whose goal was the first of his career in the playoffs. "I scored, but we lost." But Los Angeles wasted little time tying the game. In the 44th minute, Jones was dribbling up the right sideline when he sent a crossing pass straight across the field to Sasha Victorine. Victorine headed the ball, and it went underneath C.J. Brown and Jesse Marsch, landing near Califf's foot. Califf then tapped the ball in, and was mobbed by his teammates. "There's an old adage about the Galaxy that it plays pretty soccer but doesn't have a lot of heart and fortitude," Schmid said. "But now we've shown we do have a lot of heart and fortitude."
SummaryScoring: CHI--D. Beasley (Armas) 30 LA --Califf (Victorine, Jones) 44 LA --Cienfuegos (Mullan) 98 LOS ANGELES GALAXY--Kevin Hartman, Danny Califf, Greg Vanney, Paul Caligiuri, Adam Frye (Ezra Hendrickson 74), Simon Elliott, Sasha Victorine (Brian Mullan 82), Mauricio Cienfuegos, Peter Vagenas, Luis Hernandez (Alexi Lalas 91), Cobi Jones TOTAL SHOTS: 8 (Califf 2, Hernandez 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 5 (Califf 2); FOULS: 16 (Califf 3, Hernandez 3, Victorine 3); OFFSIDE: 3; CORNER KICKS: 4; SAVES: Hartman 1; CAUTIONS: Hernandez 46, Vanney 65; EJECTIONS: none; POSSESSION PERCENTAGE: 44% CHICAGO FIRE--Zach Thornton, C.J. Brown, Carlos Bocanegra, Evan Whitfield (Hristo Stoitchkov 79), Chris Armas, David Vaudreuil (Eric Wynalda 60), Diego Gutierrez, DaMarcus Beasley, Jesse Marsch, Jamar Beasley (Ante Razov 91), Dema Kovalenko TOTAL SHOTS: 9 (Wynalda 2, Armas 2, D. Beasley 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 2 (J. Beasley 1, D. Beasley 1); FOULS: 24 (D. Beasley 5); OFFSIDE: 3; CORNER KICKS: 6; SAVES: Thornton 3; CAUTIONS: Brown 46, D. Beasley 84, Stoitchkov 84, Bocanegra 97; EJECTIONS: none; POSSESSION PERCENTAGE: 56% Referee: Gerry Corrie; Referee's Assistants: George Gansner, Steven Davidson Attendance: 13,444; Weather: Clear, 52 degrees
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