Galaxy Goes Out With a Bang, 5-2
If Herculez Gomez needed to make a case to be retained by the Galaxy in 2007 -- and the consensus was that he did -- he made that argument emphatically Saturday night.
So did Cobi Jones.
Gomez, one of the unexpected stars of the Galaxy’s 2005 championship team but relegated to a less-prominent role in 2006, scored one goal and assisted on two others as the Galaxy defeated FC Dallas, 5-2, in its season finale.
The near-sellout Home Depot Center crowd was treated to a lively game by the Galaxy.
Dallas, the Western Conference winner, has never beaten the Galaxy in Carson, but seemed on its way when Abe Thompson scored off a pass by Ronnie O’Brien in the 14th minute.
The setback seemed to spark the Galaxy, which will avoid a last-place finish if Real Salt Lake loses to Chivas USA today.
Landon Donovan tied the score with his 11th goal of the season after a give-and-go series of passes with Gomez in the 25th minute.
Ten minutes later, Gomez put the Galaxy ahead, sprinting past Dallas defender Chris Gbandi and firing an angled shot wide of goalkeeper Shaka Hislop and in off the left post.
Jones had provided the telling assist on Gomez’s goal and he and Gomez then linked up again to create Donovan’s second goal in the 38th minute, Jones passing the ball out wide to Gomez, Gomez feeding it back across the goalmouth for Donovan to stab home.
Ahead by two goals at the half, the Galaxy continued its onslaught in the second 45 minutes.
Jones scored only his fourth goal of the season off a Paulo Nagamura cross in the 52nd minute, Chris Albright having set Nagamura free down the right wing. Santino Quaranta added the fifth after a bit of dribbling magic by Jones.
But the up-one-week-down-the-next Galaxy finished the year 11-15-6, starting out 2-8-1 under Steve Sampson and then climbing partially out of that hole by going 9-7-5 under Coach Frank Yallop.
The 11 victories were the team’s second-lowest total ever, edged only by the nine in 2003.
That statistic and the fact that the Galaxy failed to make the playoffs for the first time in the team’s 11-year history guarantees an off-season shake-up.
The first indication of change is expected to come shortly after the Nov. 12 MLS championship game, when the league holds its expansion draft to start stocking the Toronto team that begins play in 2007.
Which players Yallop decides to protect -- or, more important, to expose to the draft -- will provide a clue as to how extensively his rebuilding will be.
Saturday’s sparkling performance, by Gomez and others, made the coach’s task that much more difficult.
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