It’s Real Bad for Galaxy
It might be scant consolation to the Galaxy players in the wake of Saturday night’s 3-0 loss to Real Salt Lake, but at least they were a small part of Major League Soccer history.
Real came into the match at the Home Depot Center never having won on the road. That’s now history.
Coach John Ellinger’s team was on an MLS-record 18-game winless streak. That’s now history.
The Utah club, which was 5-22-5 in its inaugural season, was winless at 0-5-1 this season. That’s now history.
A first-half goal by Atiba Harris and two second-half goals by Jeff Cunningham ended months of frustration for Real Salt Lake. It was August when the team last came off the field victorious.
“It’s definitely a relief,” Ellinger said. “I don’t know what it feels like to get on an airplane coming back from one of these things [a road win], so I’ll let you know tomorrow afternoon, I guess.
“It was a relief for everyone. I told the players before the game that if I had to do it all over again, I’d still pick them all again, given the opportunity. We’ve got to believe in each other and it worked out.”
Now, it is the Galaxy that is riding a futility streak. The team has suffered shutout losses in four of its last five games, the only break in that run of misery being a 3-2 victory at Real Salt Lake. The Galaxy has not scored a goal in 300 consecutive minutes, or exactly five hours.
On Saturday night, it introduced two new players: midfielder Kyle Martino and forward John Wolyniec, both acquired Friday from the Columbus Crew in exchange for midfielder Ned Grabavoy and forward Joseph Ngwenya.
Galaxy Coach Steve Sampson said after the loss that more changes are being contemplated.
“I’m sure everyone is going to be looked at and evaluated, including myself,” Sampson said. “That’s the reality of it.”
Alexi Lalas, the Galaxy’s recently installed president and general manager, will likely be doing that evaluating. The Galaxy is 1-4-0 since Lalas took charge.
The Galaxy started out brightly Saturday night, but by the final whistle the crowd of 19,127 booed the team off the field. It outshot Real, 13-12, including 8-6 in shots on target, but only twice forced Salt Lake goalkeeper Scott Garlick into difficult saves.
Real took the lead 16:08 into the match when Cary Talley sent a free kick to Harris, who turned and beat Galaxy defender Tyrone Marshall before sending a low, hard shot between goalkeeper Kevin Hartman and the near post.
Real Salt Lake might have doubled or tripled it had Mehdi Ballouchy and Chris Klein taken advantage of clear scoring chances. Instead, Real did not put the game away until Cunningham came on to replace Harris in the 69th minute.
Less than three minutes later, Cunningham had put the ball in the back of the Galaxy net after taking a square pass from Talley. There was a suspicion of offside about the goal, but no call came.
Cunningham made it 3-0 at 86:12, running onto a pass over the Galaxy defense, rounding Hartman and putting the ball into the empty net before defender Ugo Ihemelu could catch him.
Said Sampson: “Alan Gordon is hurt. Herculez Gomez is hurt. Landon Donovan and Cornell Glen are both gone [with the U.S. national team]. For Wolyniec to come in and work miracles I think was way too much to expect. For 45 or 60 minutes he fought very hard and then just ran out of gas.”
Right now, the needle on the Galaxy tank is on empty.
“This is a team that is wounded and somehow we need to find the answers,” Sampson said.
