It’s Another Road Loss for the Galaxy
For a minute after the final whistle blew, Galaxy defender Pablo Chinchilla stood alone, staring dejectedly out at the field at Giants Stadium. He had seen this before, players on the home team congratulating one another on yet another win over visiting Los Angeles.
Despite encouraging performances from the team’s younger players, the Galaxy fell to the MetroStars, 2-1, Saturday night to extend its winless streak away from the Home Depot Center to 15 games. The Galaxy (7-6-4) fell to third place in the Western Conference after San Jose defeated Columbus.
For the record:
12:00 a.m. July 22, 2005 For The Record
Los Angeles Times Friday July 22, 2005 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 News Desk 1 inches; 42 words Type of Material: Correction
Soccer -- An article about the Galaxy’s game against the MetroStars that appeared in the Sports section on July 10 incorrectly reported who scored the winning goal for the MetroStars. Eddie Gaven scored the goal after taking a pass from Amado Guevara.
The MetroStars (6-4-6) are hardly a dominant team at home, having won only three of nine at Giants Stadium this year. But with four players out on national team duty and several others hampered by injuries, the Galaxy’s starting lineup looked a lot like a typical reserves game. Only three players who started in the team’s season opener were on the field at the start of Saturday night’s match, and three starters were rookies.
“When you got guys like Landon Donovan and Tyrone Marshall [out], these are guys who are the best players on their respective national teams, and it does make a difference,” Galaxy Coach Steve Sampson said. “However, tonight we saw that guys like Troy Roberts can play. Mike Enfield can play. Ned Grabavoy can play. So I think we got a lot of positive things out of this match, and we can now rely on these guys going forward.”
The MetroStars got on the board early when Eddie Gaven passed the ball ahead to a streaking Amado Guevara, who was fouled on a breakaway by Ugo Ihmelu in the 13th minute. Guevara converted the ensuing penalty kick in the 14th minute to put his team ahead, 1-0.
The deficit could have been worse for the Galaxy, which was outshot, 8-2, in the half. But captain Kevin Hartman registered two saves in goal and the MetroStars’ Ante Razov missed a free kick off the crossbar during injury time to keep it 1-0 at the half.
The Galaxy came out more aggressive in the second half with three shots in the first four minutes. The third tied the score as Herculez Gomez scored from the outside right of the box on an assist from Paulo Nagamura.
In the 67th minute, Gaven scored the winner for the MetroStars. Gaven took the ball on a pass from Guevara and his header was deflected by Hartman, but Guevara tapped in the rebound.
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