Change Favors Galaxy

Was it the change of coaches or simply a change of luck?

Whatever the answer, the Galaxy looked like a new team Sunday, rolling over the Tampa Bay Mutiny, 4-1, in front of 19,234 understandably overjoyed fans at the Rose Bowl.

Suddenly, the season doesn’t seem so gloomy.

In the team’s biggest Major League Soccer victory of the year, Greg Vanney and Martin Machon scored their first goals of 1997, Cobi Jones his second and Mauricio Cienfuegos his third.

But as emphatic as the victory was, luck didn’t break well for all the Galaxy players. For example:

* Steve Jolley suffered a probable torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, faces surgery this week and might be sidelined for the season.

* John Jones was red-carded during a second-half brawl and will miss the next game, on the road at the Colorado Rapids.

* Mark Semioli is unlikely to be in Denver for that game. His trade to the New York/New Jersey MetroStars is expected to be announced today, a move that would free up enough money under the salary cap for the Galaxy to activate Paul Caligiuri.

But for now, the Galaxy is content to savor its first truly enjoyable win of the season.

“Victory is always pleasant,” said interim Coach Octavio Zambrano, “but there is a lot of work still to be done.”

Asked what he had told the players before his first game in place of the fired Lothar Osiander, Zambrano said:

“I told them basically just to go out and play like they know how to play, like they used to play back when there was no pressure. I told them that I wasn’t nervous and that I did not feel any pressure. I wanted them to feel at ease and go out there and just play.”

That they did, and whatever pressure remained evaporated in the 23rd minute when Jolley beat a defender on the right wing, swung a pass into the middle and saw Vanney hammer it into the net from about 10 yards.

“When Greg scored and we went up 1-0 and were moving the ball around, I think everyone kind of felt, ‘My God, this is what we did last year.’ It just felt like we had control of the game,” captain Dan Calichman said.

After Tampa Bay had wasted two scoring opportunities--most noticeably when goalkeeper Jorge Campos denied Giuseppe Galderisi with a fine save after a 3-on-1 Mutiny break--the Galaxy doubled its lead.

This time it was Cobi Jones who side-footed the ball home in the 56th minute after Tampa Bay goalkeeper Scott Budnick had only managed to partially block a shot by Harut Karapetyan.

The lead became 3-0 in the 69th minute when Machon scored, not long after a midfield brawl that resulted in Campos being yellow-carded and John Jones and Tampa’s former UCLA winger Frankie Hejduk tossed out by referee Rich Grady.

The Mutiny made it 3-1 in the 74th minute when last year’s MLS MVP, Carlos Valderrama--he of the hair--dropped a free kick onto the head of last year’s rookie of the year, Steve Ralston, who close-range header gave Campos no chance.

But the Galaxy sewed it up in the 88th minute, with Cienfuegos scoring after a give-and-go series of passes with Welton.

“It seemed like they played with a lot more desire, a lot more spirit,” said Tampa Coach John Kowalski, whose team has lost five of its last six and fell to 6-7. “They wanted to win the game.”

The Galaxy improved to 4-9, but, as Calichman pointed out, the team could have played just as well for Osiander.

“No way should this be seen as Lothar’s out, Octavio’s in, we win, 4-1,” Calichman said. “Lothar has coached this team the whole way and what we did out there is the same thing we would have done with Lothar sitting on the bench.

“Sometimes, things like that [a turnaround in luck after a change of coaches] happen. You saw Columbus last year. [Coach] Timo [Liekoski] was gone and all of a sudden the Crew went on a winning streak.

“We’ll take it one game at a time, but for whatever reason, we just looked like we were clicking today.”

MLS Notes

Ronald Cerritos scored two goals and Chris Sullivan one as the San Jose Clash beat the Kansas City Wizards, 3-1, before 7,431 at Kansas City, Mo. . . . Paul Bravo and Roy Wegerle scored goals as the Colorado Rapids beat Columbus, 2-0, before 12,694 at Columbus, Ohio, dealing the Crew its sixth consecutive defeat. . . . Damian Alvarez scored the go-ahead goal in the 62nd minute as the Dallas Burn got past the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, 3-1, before 10,897 at Dallas.