Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 32

8 Section 3 Chicago Tribune, Sunday. August 9, 1998 SOCCER brings 5th straight defeat GALAXY 2, FIRE 1 Late goal By Bob Foltman Tribune Staff Writer The standings show the Los Angeles Galaxy and Fire are the top two teams in Major League Soccer's Western Conference. But judging from the play at times Saturday, those standings seemed hard to believe. The Galaxy got a 90th-minute goal from Steve Jolley to finish off a frenetic final three minutes and give Los Angeles a 2-1 victory in front of a season-high crowd of 37,122 at Soldier Field. The loss was the fifth straight for the Fire clamped down in one of its best defensive efforts in a couple of months.

The Galaxy finished with only six shots. Against Colorado Wednesday, the Galaxy scored six goals. Los Angeles returned the own-goal favor in the 87th minute to level the match. Danny Pena, the first pick by the Fire in the expansion draft who was traded back to the Galaxy for Chris Armas and Campos, tried to clear a Zak Ibsen cross. Instead, he sent it past Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman.

Machon sent a free kick into the Fire penalty area that sailed over the head of forward Carlos Her-mosillo. Fire defender Francis Okaroh attempted to head the ball back to goalkeeper Jorge Campos, but the ball eluded Campos and went into the net. "As hard as we try to get the first goat we seem to find a way to get down 1-0," Fire coach Bob Bradley said. Despite its high-powered offense, the Galaxy were once again stymied by the Fire defense. After allowing 13 goals in the last four games, the Fire INSIDE THE FIRE ft a i -Ja i Ant Goach shoulders blame for last-minute mixup V'' V'V The Fire's only goal brings the Soldier Field crowd to its feet Satur-, day.

Meanwhile, Chicago's Francis Okaroh lies injured on the field. Not the way it's done in the German leagues Overseas observer sees a different game (13-10). The wild finish was in stark contrast to a rather dull first 87 minutes. "I don't think it was a great game from a technical standpoint," Los Angeles coach Octavio Zambrano said. "But it was great from an emotional and physical standpoint" The loss put the Fire 15 points behind Los Angeles.

Chicago must concern itself with surging Colorado, just eight points away in third. The Galaxy was on the board first in the 37th minute. Martin Tribune photo by Wes Pope Bundesliga fans would go crazy, boo and shout. Meanwhile, Soldier Field is as quiet as a graveyard. The man behind me orders a hot dog.

"We have no real soccer atmosphere here," Peter Nowak complains. In Germany, there is a group of blind soccer fans. They can't see tacklings, fouls or goals. But they experience the game as part of the shaking crowd. If they plan to see the Fire at Soldier Field, they may miss the game.

Editor's note: Stefan Kruecken is part of a journalist exchange program working for the Tribune. He is a reporter for Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger in Cologne, Germany. 13 By Bob Foltman Tribune Staff Writer He wasn't anywhere near the play, but Fire coach Bob Bradley took the blame for the Galaxy's 90th-minute goal in Saturday's 2-1 Los Angeles victory. "I take responsibility for making what I thought was a bad move at the end," Bradley said. In the final minute with the match tied, Fire defender Francis Okaroh took a blow to his ribs, already sore for the last month.

He couldn't continue, but the Fire had exhausted all three of its substitutions. A goalkeeper can be subbed for at any time, however, and Bradley inserted Zach Thornton and moved goalie Jorge Campos up front While Campos was changing uniforms, play continued and the Fire committed a foul near its goal line. Mauricio Cienfuegos sent a free kick into the area, Greg Vanney flicked it from the near post to the far post and Steve Jolley flew in to send a header past Thornton, who hadn't been in the game a minute. The goal was Jolley's first in his MLS career. Bradley said one of the reasons he made the move was in anticipation of a shootout.

"I think Zach is better in shoot-outs," he said. But in the end, the confusion surrounding the substitution and Thornton being thrown into the match staring at a difficult situation proved costly. "You don't want to do something stupid that took the game away," Bradley said. No, it's my fault: Fire defender C.J. Brown said Bradley took too much blame for the loss and said maybe he was the one at fault.

Jolley went flying over Brown to head the ball past Thornton. "It could have been my fault," Brown said. "If I would have gotten an elbow or something up it could have disrupted things. "There are 11 guys on the field and we all have our responsibilities. It was just a mental lapse." Day to forget: Okaroh probably wishes he had stayed in bed Sat The Galaxy's Steve Jolley (left) shoves the Fire's Roman Koseckl to the ground during second-half action Saturday.

the pitch and strange entertaining games like overweight supporters dribbling around Subway advertisements. There's a certain kind of aggression in a Bundesliga stadium too. If old rivals meet each other, it is also a problem of safety. During the last Bundesliga-game of FC Cologne against Bayer Leverkusen about 500 police officers were on duty, a precaution because of the so-called hooligans. The only officers around Soldier Field are traffic cops.

It's around the 70th minute, when Fire defender Francis Okaroh suddenly sinks to the ground. While his teammates are desperately trying to turn the game around, he's just lying there, two meters beside the sideline. In urday. Traffic congestion downtown delayed his arrival until about 15 minutes before game-time. He was a late insert into the lineup, was credited with an own goal for the Galaxy's first score and suffered cracked ribs leading to the hectic Campos-Thornton substitution in the final minute.

Both Okaroh and Campos blame the own goal on bad luck. "I was in perfect position," Okaroh said. "I did what I had to do." "I was expecting it," Campos said of the backpass from Okaroh, which ended up in the Fire net. "It just went away from me a little. That's one of the hardest things to do head the ball to someone's feet.

Francis is a very reliable teammate, don't judge him by that." Some good news: Not everything was bad Saturday. Injured captain Peter Nowak reported progress in rehabilitating his knee. He wants to play Saturday against San Jose. Bradley, however, said the team is "hopeful" Nowak will be ready by Aug. 21 in Colorado.

Sorry: The last time the Fire and the Los Angeles Galaxy met, at the Rose Bowl on May 30, Galaxy coach Octavio Zambrano criticized the Fire's style of play. The Fire won the previous two meetings and Zambrano said the Fire played "not to lose." "That was played up more than I wished," Zambrano said. "My statements were out of line. I expressed my apologies to both coach Bob Bradley and General Manager Peter Wilt. Anything said about the Fire has to be positive because the record speaks for itself." Not so easy: When the Galaxy acquired forward Carlos Her-mosillo, it was thought he would add even more firepower to an already potent offense.

But Her-mosillo is still looking for his first MLS goal "It takes time for someone to jump into a new situation. It's not easy to step in and do things," Zambrano said. "I think deep down he's feeling the pressure because he's a goal scorer." 3 WEAR BLACK. Tribune photo by Wes Pope club colors an hour before the game. Teams get 5,000 or 10,000 for away games.

What I saw in Soldier Field is the kind of soccer some managers in the Bundesliga want: family- friendly entertainment For a goal, the fans stand up and applaud. The rest of the game, they are almost quiet For me, it was a kind of nightmare, and I hope the managers never have success. During the World Cup in France, I accompanied a football fan named Bernd and reported how he saw the games. When Austria played, he pulled an Austrian flag out of his window and kept his fingers crossed, as if the Germans kicked. Why? Austria's striker, Toni Pol-ster, was the star of Bernd's favorite club FC Cologne.

"I have to support him, you understand," he told me. Soccer means passion for fans like Bernd, pure emotion, part of their culture. A smell of beer and cigarettes Is typical on the stands. In Soldier Field a voice tells you that smoking is forbiddea Welcome to a sweet show, welcome to sugar-free cola, huge crisps running over Cu SPORTS OS if .1 I fci'jmgSEaBfS- By Stefan Kruecken Special to the Tribune Peter Nowak is a professional who likes to crack jokes. Asked by a European journalist if any Major League Soccer team can compete with the squads in the German Bundesliga, a wide smile appears on the face of the Polish midfielder and former star of 1860 Munich.

"Sure, Washington and L.A. could easily play in the Bundesliga And Fire, too, of course," Nowak says. What the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Fire presented before 37,122 fans at Soldier Field on Saturday definitely was not the quality of Germany's top class. At times, it wouldn't even qualify for second division. "Some MLS teams play very roughly and have not many ideas," Nowak says.

But actually it isn't the action on the field that is the main difference between the MLS and European soccer, it's in the stands. Observing the MLS is like being part of a family picnic. There's not the slightest threat of the brawling inferno inside the stadiums in Germany. Fans arrive in icago I i.s lie Cubs ft t' a the: San Francisco Giants Monday at 9:00 p.m. San Francisco Giants Wednesday at 2:30 p.m.

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