Galaxy Can’t Stay With Earthquakes
The Galaxy ended the Major League Soccer regular season on a sour note Saturday night, losing to the San Jose Earthquakes, 3-1, at the Home Depot Center to finish in fourth place in the Western Conference, ahead of only expansion teams Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA.
Coach Steve Sampson’s squad finished 13-13-6, the .500 record not what AEG had in mind when it replaced former coach Sigi Schmid with Sampson little more than a year ago.
Still, the Galaxy did win the U.S. Open Cup this season and it is going to the playoffs. The not-so-good news is that it opens with a two-game series against the Earthquakes, who won the season series, 3-1, and finished the year with an MLS-best 18-4-10 mark.
The first playoff game will be in Carson at noon Oct. 23, with the second game in the best-of-two, total-goals series at San Jose on Oct. 29.
The other playoff series in the West will pit the third-place Colorado Rapids against FC Dallas.
Probable coach of the year Dominick Kinnear’s San Jose team was in control for much of Saturday’s game, the Galaxy only coming to life late under the inspiration of Chris Albright and Landon Donovan.
Both teams played a man down after the ejection of Galaxy defender Tyrone Marshall and Earthquake defender Kevin Goldthwaite in separate first-half incidents. Both will be suspended for the first game of the playoffs.
The Earthquakes took the lead in the 42nd minute when Brian Mullan, one of four former Galaxy players starting for San Jose, crossed the ball from the right and Mark Chung, sprinting past Donovan at the far post, stooped to head it into the net.
Less than three minutes later, Canadian international Dwayne DeRosario doubled the lead with a free kick from 30 yards that rocketed into the upper right corner of the net.
The Galaxy pulled one back in the 68th minute when Donovan steered a penalty kick wide of goalkeeper Pat Onstad.
Mullan scored the Earthquakes’ third goal on a header in the 77th minute after a fine buildup by the Earthquakes.
