Necaxa Barely Holds Off Galaxy

The danger for the Los Angeles Galaxy in staging international matches such as that played Wednesday night at the Rose Bowl is that it allows fans to see just how far the team has to go.

Of course, that can apply to the visiting team too.

There is little doubt that Coach Manuel Lapuente will be having a few words with his players this morning after Necaxa, the defending Mexican League champion, barely managed a 2-1 victory over the Galaxy in front of 12,992.

Much more was expected of Necaxa, whose starting lineup includes no fewer than nine national team players, seven from Mexico and one each from Argentina and Ecuador. On paper, this was a walkover.

But the Galaxy is a deceptive team, able to play up or down to the level of its opposition.

With goalkeeper Jorge Campos in even more adventurous form than usual, roaming far out of his net--on one occasion late in the game right up into the opposing penalty area--the Galaxy was not about to be intimidated in its first game against a foreign club.

Necaxa took the lead in the 15th minute when Campos came out to challenge Ricardo Pelaez on a breakaway and the ball got away from both of them and rolled 12 agonizing yards into the open net. No Galaxy defender was in a position to react.

Campos made a handful of excellent saves to atone for that mistake, but it was not until the final half-hour, when both teams had taken out most of their stars and had substituted freely, that the Galaxy came to life. For one 10-minute stretch, it dominated the Mexican champions, creating one opportunity after another.

The crowd, which had booed the fake cheers sent out over the public address system, suddenly gave voice to some real cheers. When Harut Karapetyan tied the game with another of his superb, long-range shots in the 77th minute, the fans rose to their feet as one in delight.

From then on, it was all Galaxy. A shot by Brad Wilson was tipped away for a corner kick. Curt Onalfo sent another shot just wide of the left post. Ante Razov saw his header from close range tipped onto the post by goalkeeper Raul Orvantanos. Another Karapetyan effort was deflected over the bar.

Try as they might, however, the Galaxy players could not get the ball in the net.

And then, on a counter-attack with 3:22 left and the score tied, Necaxa won it. Again Campos was faced with a breakaway situation, this time one-on-one against Jose Enrique Garcia. He came out to the edge of the penalty area in an effort to somehow strip Garcia of the ball, but failed. Garcia’s shot went in and it was all over.

“It was bad luck that they scored the second goal,” Razov, the former UCLA striker, said. “Right when we were hounding them, they countered on us.”

One of those in the crowd who left less than impressed by Necaxa’s performance was Bora Milutinovic, Mexico’s national team coach. Mexico has a World Cup ’98 qualifying game against St. Vincent and the Grenadines in less than three weeks and Bora is scouting his players.