Galaxy gets upstaged by one-man show
Playing against one of the league’s premier defensive teams, the Galaxy anticipated that goals would be hard to come by.
What it failed to anticipate Friday night at the Home Depot Center was that the New England Revolution’s Adam Cristman, a second-year forward from the University of Virginia, would lead a first-half onslaught of six shots on goal, twice as many as the Galaxy had all game. Cristman scored twice in one game for the second time in his career and set a personal best for goals in a season with six as the Revolution won, 2-1.
A finalist for MLS rookie of the year last season, Cristman saw Shalrie Joseph’s shot off of a corner kick stopped by goalie Steve Cronin, but Cronin failed to hold on to the ball and Cristman netted the rebound to give New England a 1-0 lead.
Four minutes later, Cristman took a corner from Steve Ralston and headed it in to push the lead to 2-0 at the 37-minute mark.
“If you see the first half, our biggest problem is midfield,” Galaxy Coach Ruud Gullit said. “People panic under a little bit of pressure, give the ball away to the opposition and get out of your rhythm. There’s no need for that.”
The Revolution defense, which had given up only nine goals in its eight road games entering Friday, did not give up a shot on goal in the first half. However, it could not hold the highest-scoring team in MLS down the entire game. League points leader Landon Donovan, who did not start and missed practice this week because of an illness, entered the game in the second half and spurred the Galaxy offense to attempt 12 shots.
After many failed attempts, David Beckham settled under a headed ball 66 minutes in and knocked it past goalie Matt Reis to bring the score to 2-1. Despite some close calls, the Galaxy failed to score again.
“I think that it’s a huge compliment to the team the way they interpreted the game,” Gullit said. “For that reason, we created a lot of chances and a lot of possibilities. For that reason, it looks and feels as if we’ve been unfortunate to lose this game.”
With its second loss in a row, the Galaxy sits only one point ahead of Houston and Real Salt Lake in the Western Conference.
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