Galaxy’s Hartman Delivers Shutout
SAN JOSE — There is a very good reason Kevin Hartman is the Galaxy’s starting goalkeeper.
No matter how well backup Matt Reis played while Hartman was recuperating from knee surgery, Los Angeles’ No. 22 showed Saturday night why he is No. 1.
The San Jose Earthquakes, fighting desperately to keep their Major League Soccer playoff hopes alive, earned a club-record 15 corner kicks and peppered the Galaxy net with a club-record 25 shots.
Not one got past Hartman, who was in spectacular form in his first game since July 15.
His performance, combined with two goals by Simon Elliott and one by Luis Hernandez, earned Los Angeles a 3-0 shutout in front of a Spartan Stadium crowd of 15,683.
More important, it allowed the Galaxy to clinch a place in the MLS playoffs for the fifth consecutive year.
Three other teams, the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, the Tampa Bay Mutiny and the Kansas City Wizards, also assured themselves Saturday of a place in the eight-team playoffs.
“The two losses to Chicago [in the last eight days] were very emotionally and physically draining and right now we’re probably in a bit of a funk,” Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid said. “So it wasn’t a pretty win but it was an effective win. We finally scored some goals.”
But before that happened, Hartman was instrumental in stopping some goals.
* Barely 1:55 into the game, he tipped a blazing shot by Richard Mulrooney over the crossbar.
* At the 6:42 mark, he made a superb save, diving low to his right to deflect a downward header from Giovanni Savarese around the right post for a corner kick.
* With 12:28 gone, he dived full-length to his right to turn a fierce drive by Khodadad Azizi around the same post.
“He was big time,” Schmid said. “I think he wanted to make a statement that he’s back and that he doesn’t mind playing.”
With the Galaxy having survived the intense pressure applied early on by San Jose, the team finally got its offense on track.
After Hernandez had hit the left post with a shot in the 24th minute, then collected the rebound only to hit the right post, Elliott gave Los Angeles the lead.
In the 29th minute, Sasha Victorine sent a pass in to Hernandez, who played the ball back to Elliott. The New Zealand midfielder’s shot flashed into the back of the net for his fourth goal of the season.
There was still time in the half for Hartman to throw himself to his left to block a hard shot by Abdul Thompson Conteh, who also bounced a header off the left post six minutes into the second half.
Elliott put the game out of reach in the 60th minute, heading in a cross from Mauricio Cienfuegos. That set the drums beating among the Galaxians and the Ultras Amarilla, two Galaxy fan groups who made the trek north from Los Angeles for the game.
Elliott has scored five goals this season and needs “only” 18 more in the last three regular-season games to catch MLS leading scorer Mamadou Diallo of Tampa Bay.
“I think it’s do-able,” he joked. “What is it, six goals a game?”
It’s not entirely a joke. MetroStars’ and former Los Angeles forward Clint Mathis scored five Saturday night. The Galaxy (13-8-8) took longer to get going.
“We started off really badly, I thought,” Elliott said. “We kept giving the ball away. We were under a lot of pressure and Kevin came up with some good saves. The [first] goal really settled us down more than anything. We were a little bit lucky to be one-nil up going into the half.”
With its season slipping away, San Jose (6-15-8) kept firing and Hartman was kept busy to the end. In the closing minutes, he made two more great saves, first going high to his left to deny Ian Russell, then throwing himself to his left to again thwart Mulrooney.
“I had to prove something to myself,” Hartman said. “I don’t ever feel I have anything to prove to Sigi. He’s seen me play for eight years now. I just had to prove to myself that I’m back [from the injury]. I can go left, I can go right. It was a quality game for me.”
On Saturday, that was an understatement.
