Scoring dry spell continues for the Galaxy
Frustration is mounting in the Galaxy locker room, nowhere more so than among the forwards.
On Saturday night, the Galaxy shut out four-time Major League Soccer champion D.C. United in front of 21,069 at the Home Depot Center. That was the positive news.
But the final score was 0-0, and that extended the Galaxy’s streak to 220 minutes without a goal in MLS play and 310 minutes overall if a friendly loss to Rangers of Scotland is included.
The team is creating chance after chance to score, but the ball is not find its way into the net.
“I’m gutted,” Landon Donovan said, borrowing an expression more common in England than the U.S. “Every game we’ve played we’ve had a chance to win, but it is what it is right now.”
Why are the goals not coming?
“I can’t pinpoint it,” said Donovan, who has only two goals in league play. “I can’t remember ever being this frustrated. I can’t remember having this many chances in seven games. I should have 10 goals, realistically. So it’s tough for me. But I’ve got to stay positive. I’m doing the right things. I’m getting in the right spots. Now it’s how can you make it happen? How can you bury it?”
Nate Jaqua, Donovan’s fellow forward, doesn’t have the answer to that. He is still looking for his first league goal since joining the Galaxy in the off-season from the Chicago Fire.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” Jaqua said. “We’re getting good opportunities. Me personally, I’m not finishing them. Sometimes it’s like that, but you just battle through it and try to stay confident and hopefully it goes in.
“You can’t dwell on it too long otherwise it’s going to affect you in the next game.”
Kansas City Wizards striker Eddie Johnson, meanwhile, can’t seem to stop scoring. He leads the league with nine goals, having netted another hat trick on Saturday.
“Soccer’s weird, man,” Donovan said. “Sometimes it’s just funny how it happens. Last year, Eddie scores two goals, or whatever it was, and this year everything that hits his foot goes in. That’s the way it goes.”
The Galaxy (1-3-3) started out fast, seeking the early goal that would calm nerves and inject some confidence into a team that came in having won only once in six MLS games this season.
A mere 1:21 into the match, Donovan flashed a diagonal shot just wide of the left post off a pass from Nathan Sturgis. Less than three minutes later, Cobi Jones got behind the D.C. United defense on the right and sent in an on-the-money cross, but Jaqua skied it into the stands from six yards.
Jaqua’s misfortune continued when he first sent a header onto the roof of the net after a cross from Santino Quaranta and later sliced a left-footed shot so badly that it sailed into the seats.
The errant shooting was contagious and Donovan was not exempt, as he blasted a shot high over the crossbar in the final minute of the first half.
Seconds earlier, D.C. came within inches of opening the scoring when Galaxy goalkeeper Joe Cannon punched away a fierce shot by Fred. The ball rebounded to Fred’s fellow Brazilian, Luciano Emilio, but his shot slammed into the bottom of the left post and away.
It was left to the second half of play to provide the goals, but they never came.
