It’s Nothing Doing Again for Galaxy

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Urgent telegram for Jorge Campos: Hurry back from Mexico, your team needs you.

Not as a goalkeeper, as a forward.

Not leaping around the nets in lime green, but as a striker who can do what the current crop of Galaxy forwards can’t seem to do:

Score goals.

For the third game in a row and for the fourth time this season, the Galaxy was shut out Saturday night, losing, 1-0, to the Kansas City Wizards in front of 11,152 at Arrowhead Stadium.

The score might have been even more lopsided had Campos’ backup, David Kramer, not pulled off at least a half-dozen first-class saves. It was the former Fresno State player’s best Major League Soccer performance.

Even so, Kramer was merely another unhappy Galaxy player after the latest loss, one that leaves the team mired in last place in the Western Conference with a 1-7 record a quarter of the way through the MLS season.

“You hope, as a goalie, never to have to make those saves, because [that means] the team’s playing well,” Kramer said. “But right now we’re not playing well. I don’t know. We’ve got no answers right now.

“It seems like we play solid defense and are solid in the midfield, but once we get into the other penalty box, forget it. We have no answers.

“I don’t know if we’re focusing too much on [getting the ball to striker Eduardo] Hurtado. The other teams seem to have solved that problem. So we’ve got to come up with something else. Maybe play with eight forwards and one defender. We’ve got to try something.”

The Galaxy’s frustration is beginning to show in the locker room. Of course, if a little anger can break the team out of its slump, well and good.

“There’s always going to be dissent and friction,” Kramer said. “Even last year when we were winning there was dissent and friction. But it’s a team sport and we know at the end of the season we have to beat only one team in the conference to get in the playoffs.

“So maybe now, unfortunately for us, we aren’t striving for first place. We’re maybe striving for at least second, third or fourth. We’ve got to be realistic. We’ve dug ourselves a deep hole, but there’s a long season left.”

Kansas City improved to 4-3 on the strength of Preki’s 20th-minute goal off the rebound of a shot by Digital Takawira that Kramer had blocked. Meanwhile, Wizard Coach Ron Newman had his own explanation for Los Angeles’ woes.

“I didn’t think they should be 12-0 last year and I don’t think they should be 1-7 either,” he said. “They are a good side, if you look at them man for man.

“But now it’s the old confidence factor. They’ve stopped believing in themselves. They’ve got to get a good win. They’ve got to get a good result that will lift them all up. Because now they don’t think they can play, possibly.

“Last year, the same type of [Galaxy] players were cocky as hell and everything bounced right for them. Maybe when Campos gets back--not that [Kramer] isn’t playing well, he is; he had a hell of a good game tonight--but just a different figure there, just somebody who is a motivator and cheeky, like Campos is. You need somebody like that.

“It’s like the old saying: You can get used to losing and you can get used to winning. Once you get into those ruts, the winning ruts are fine, but the losing ruts are tough to get out of.”

It was the first shutout of the season for the Wizards, and a prime reason for it was the debut of Richard Gough in the heart of the defense. Gough, the former captain of Glasgow Rangers and the Scotland national team, arrived in town Thursday, one day after leading Rangers to their ninth consecutive Scottish League championship.

The 35-year-old, 17-year pro practiced once with the Wizards on Friday and then took charge of the defense Saturday night.

“He was always in the right place at the right time,” Newman said.

At one point late in the game, a bagpipe rendition of “Amazing Grace” echoed through Arrowhead Stadium, in Gough’s honor.

Perhaps when the Galaxy returns for its upcoming three-game home stand, the same thing can be done at the Rose Bowl. Of course, at 1-7, the tune will have to change. It’ll have to be “Amazing Disgrace.”