Galaxy looks ‘scared’ in loss
David Beckham got his first close look at the Galaxy on Tuesday night and suddenly it’s his head that’s probably hurting, not his ankle.
The Galaxy was shut out, 3-0, by Tigres UANL of Mexico in the first half of a doubleheader at the Home Depot Center. Los Angeles was outplayed in every part of the game and afterward a bitterly disappointed Coach Frank Yallop talked of his players being “scared.”
Beckham was not on the field. Beckham was not on the bench. Beckham was up on the balcony of a luxury suite, his left ankle covered in plastic bags of ice. Just before halftime, Galaxy assistant trainer Cecelia Gutierrez strapped the ailing ankle and Beckham, accompanied by Alexi Lalas, the team president, hobbled off toward the stadium club.
It appears doubtful that his ankle will heal in time to play Saturday when the Galaxy, already dispirited, has the formidable challenge of taking on Chelsea, which will be intent on finishing better than it did in a 1-0 victory over South Korea’s Suwon Bluewings in Tuesday’s nightcap.
Chelsea carried the game to its opponent but was thwarted by some superb goalkeeping by Kim Dae Hwan, until Didier Drogba scored in the 80th minute. Kim made some stops bordering on the miraculous.
The Galaxy, meanwhile, is looking for a miracle. Yallop was at a loss to explain his team’s pitiful showing.
“It’s not good,” he said. “It’s not good. I think we were very nervous, to be quite honest. I think we were very -- how can I say it? -- scared to get on the ball and scared to make a mistake.
“Every time you step on the field, you’ve got to be prepared to play. We let ourselves down tonight.”
Former Galaxy player Mauricio Cienfuegos, who was a midfield key in the days when the Galaxy threw fear into the opposition, said it appeared that the current team has no heart.
He said it is also without identity now that it has changed players, changed colors, and changed its logo. Fans do not recognize it, he said.
The Galaxy players, with Beckham in the room, were told in no uncertain terms what Yallop thought of their performance. The offense was virtually nonexistent and the defense was stumbling blindly in the dark.
“They played like they didn’t want to make a mistake and scared and afraid to commit themselves to anything,” Yallop said. “The team’s a reflection of me, and that’s not what I’m all about.”
Mexico national team striker Francisco “Kikin” Fonseca scored in the 11th minute, fellow forward Walter Gaitan made it 2-0 in the 72nd minute and Alejandro Vilalobos rounded out the scoring one minute before the end in front of 15,349.
The Galaxy played the final 25 minutes a man down after midfielder Chris Klein was ejected after picking up a second yellow card. Just before that incident, the Galaxy had its only bright spot -- a surging run by Kelley Gray followed by a shot from Landon Donovan that was barely deflected by Tigres goalkeeper Cirilo Saucedo.
Yallop’s post-game dressing down of the team was not loud, merely forceful and to the point.
“There were lots of verbs and adjectives and all sorts of words,” midfielder Kyle Martino said.
It won’t get any easier for the Galaxy. On Saturday, the team plays Chelsea and its dripping-in-diamonds lineup. How else to describe a team whose wealth allows it to field such players as Drogba, John Terry, Andriy Schevchenko, Frank Lampard, Claude Makelele, Joe Cole, Arjen Robben and Michael Essien, to name a few?
After that comes Pachuca, one of Mexico’s leading teams, on Tuesday night in Carson, followed by Chivas de Guadalajara on July 28 at the Coliseum.
“The heart and the desire and the determination should be there every game and it just wasn’t tonight,” Martino said. “Everyone needs to go home and kind of look in the mirror and really do some soul-searching.”
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