A Pointless Exercise for Galaxy
Los Angeles last used a shutout loss at Colorado to catapult from third to first place in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference.
What the Galaxy does with Saturday night’s 1-0 defeat to the Rapids remains to be seen. Colorado, king of the Western Conference before the All-Star break, maintained its hopes of reclaiming first place before a crowd of 8,952 at Mile High Stadium.
The Galaxy (18-10, 48 points), which still holds a two-point lead in the conference race, lost to a Rapids team (18-9, 46 points) that broke a scoreless string at home of 457 minutes. Colorado’s last goal at home came in a 1-0 victory over the Galaxy July 28.
Jorge Dely Valdes scored the game’s only goal in the 41st minute with the Galaxy sluggish more from illness than injury. Valdes redirected a pass from Paul Bravo past goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, who entered the game with eight shutouts and a 0.82 goals-against average.
The play began with the one-touch combination of Ross Paule to Bravo to Matt McKeon. Bravo converted the give-and-go pass from McKeon into a low drive across the 18-yard box to Valdes for the finisher.
The Galaxy, however, was far from finished, outshooting Colorado, 12-6, in the second half.
Still, the Galaxy failed to gain the three points and command of the West that Coach Sigi Schmid sought with four games to play.
“We will not let a loss deter us from our goal,” Schmid said. “We learned how to play Colorado in the second half. The chances we created would normally end in scores for us.”
After his team managed only four first-half shots, Schmid directed forward Cobi Jones and midfielder Roy Myers to stretch the field by pulling the Colorado defense out of the middle of the pitch.
The move created numerous scoring chances for Jones, who nearly beat Colorado goalkeeper Ian Feuer twice on second-half rushes to the goal.
“Feuer won the game for us,” Rapid Coach Mooch Myernick said. “They had four good looks at a goal, and he stopped them.”
On the Galaxy’s most dangerous scoring chance of the evening, Jones broke free of the Rapids’ back line in the 32nd minute and apparently had beaten Feuer from 15 yards. But defender Peter Vermes sneaked behind Feuer to head away Jones’ scoring chance and preserve the 1-0 halftime lead.
The Galaxy, despite winning 13 of its last 17 games, now returns home for another important game Saturday as only the league’s second-hottest team. D.C. United (22-7), which has a 10-match unbeaten streak, is next up for the Galaxy at the Rose Bowl, in what could be a preview of the MLS championship game.
“I might give them a couple of days off,” Schmid said of his flu-ridden team. “We had eight guys miss some practice time for one reason or another. The sharpness was not there.”
