Galaxy Hits the Bottom in Loss to Earthquakes

The wheels have not only come off the Galaxy, they’ve rolled down the hill and disappeared.

Playing in as disjointed a manner as it has in a long while, the Galaxy lost its fifth game of the Major League Soccer season Saturday night, 3-0, to the San Jose Earthquakes in front of an announced 15,917 at Spartan Stadium in San Jose.

How bad was it?

All three goals were scored by Galaxy players, past or present.

Former Galaxy forward Alejandro Moreno gave San Jose the lead, finishing an exceptional passing move involving Brad Davis and Ronald Cerritos in the 37th minute when he steered a Cerritos cross from the right into the left corner of the net.

Then, in a comical and error-filled three-minute spell in the second half, the Galaxy defense scored two own goals, putting the ball into its own net in the 65th and 68th minutes.

On the first, San Jose’s livewire veteran Mark Chung made what was intended as a through pass between four Galaxy players but rolled into the net off defender Michael Umana.

A mere 2:34 later, it happened again. This time defender Tyrone Marshall headed the ball back to where he thought goalkeeper Kevin Hartman was, but failed to notice that Hartman had come out of his net. The header sailed over Hartman and trickled into the open net.

Earthquake fans, who had come out in larger numbers than usual to taunt Landon Donovan in his first game back at San Jose after leaving to join the Galaxy, had thought they were in for some drama.

Instead, they got a comedy.

The loss dropped Los Angeles to 7-5-3 and left it nine points behind first-place FC Dallas (10-2-3) in the Western Conference. It also allowed third-place San Jose (5-3-6) to close to within three points of the Galaxy.

The match was the fourth in a row on the road for Coach Steve Sampson’s team, which was 0-3-1 in the games.

Worse still, the goals that once flowed freely early in the season have vanished. The Galaxy has scored only two goals in its last five games.

Donovan, the team’s leading scorer, was shut out while he dealt with the barrage of abuse from fans who once idolized him for leading the Earthquakes to two MLS championships. His only positive contribution was a well-struck free kick that forced San Jose goalkeeper Pat Onstad to tip the ball over the crossbar.

Jones reported from Los Angeles.