One Bad Break Costs the Galaxy
One miscue and a lot of missing players. That was the story Wednesday night when the Galaxy lost a Major League Soccer game, 1-0, to the Colorado Rapids at Mile High Stadium.
First, the miscue.
It happened in the 34th minute when Colorado’s David Vaudreil curled in a cross from the left flank and Jorge Dely Valdes, the Rapids’ Panamanian national team striker, looped a header into the back of the Galaxy net.
Where was goalkeeper Kevin Hartman?
In “no man’s land,” according to Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid.
“Kevin said he slipped and that’s why he got stuck,” Schmid said. “He was caught in no man’s land [off his goal line but nowhere near the ball]. It was a bad goal to give up. I thought we played well. For the most part, I thought we were the better team.”
Surprisingly, Colorado Coach Glenn Myernick agreed.
“We were outplayed in just about every single department of the game tonight,” he said. “But there have been a lot of games where we have outplayed the opponent and lost too, so I’m not going to turn those three points back in.”
Especially since they increased the gap between the first-place Rapids (13-5) and the fourth-place Galaxy (11-8) to eight points in the Western Conference.
“We’ve given away a game that obviously we would have liked not to have given away,” Schmid said. “But if we win in Chicago [on Saturday], we can still put ourselves in second place.”
The Galaxy had beaten the Rapids seven times in a row coming into the game, but the absence of four starters on each team clearly affected the quality of play.
The most disappointing--and disappointed--absentee was Carlos Hermosillo. The Galaxy striker watched the match from the press box.
“He’s got a lower back injury, like a lower back strain,” Schmid said. “He hurt it a little bit before the Kansas City game [at the Rose Bowl on Sunday] and he tried to play through it in that game. We thought it was going to get better but it hasn’t.”
Hermosillo had an anti-inflammatory injection and will fly to Los Angeles today for treatment while the rest of the team heads for Chicago and Saturday afternoon’s game against the MLS champion Fire.
Midfielder Danny Pena will be back for that game, his one-game suspension having been served. But the Galaxy still will be missing Robin Fraser’s composure on defense and Cobi Jones’ speed on the wing.
Both players are with the U.S. national team at the FIFA Confederations Cup in Mexico.
The Rapids’ Marcelo Balboa, Matt McKeown and Paul Bravo also are with the U.S. team, while Colorado also was missing Canadian national team defender Jason Bent because of an injury.
“No league in the world has more players miss league games than MLS,” Myernick said. “And it’s something that we must address because I think after a while the fans have to wonder why.”
If each MLS team had its own stadium, as the Columbus Crew already does, could MLS switch to a winter season and thereby cut down on the number of club-versus-country conflicts since they usually occur in the summer?
“I think it would be tough,” Myernick said. “It’s sort of hit and miss in a lot of the climates. Even here in Colorado there are an awful lot of days in winter when we could play soccer in really nice conditions.
“If everybody had their own stadium that had a heated [playing surface] situation like they have in Europe, I think a winter league for us would be fine.”
The Galaxy and the Rapids, both owned by Philip F. Anschutz, already are exploring stadium sites and at least one, if not both, could have a new stadium in place within four years, according to Dan Counce, the Rapids’ general manager.
Perhaps then, the quality of play will improve and more fans than the 5,018 who showed up on a night of thunderstorms and flash flood warnings will come to MLS games.
