Galaxy lets advantage go to waste
The Galaxy played with a man advantage for two-thirds of Saturday night’s game against the Columbus Crew.
It didn’t matter.
The Crew converted its scoring chances while the Galaxy didn’t take advantage of its opportunities, and Columbus beat the Galaxy, 3-2, in a Major League Soccer game in front of 20,109 at the Home Depot Center.
Throughout the game, the Galaxy (2-5-3) seemed out of sync and unable to communicate effectively. Coach Frank Yallop said the team looked like a “hodgepodge” squad, failing to play as a unit and seeming to lack aggression.
“Sometimes a lack of confidence looks like a lack of effort for some reason,” Yallop said. “A lot of our guys lack confidence. I don’t know why. I’m trying to get to the bottom of it.”
Referee Michael Kennedy issued Columbus defender Ezra Hendrickson a red-card ejection in the 29th minute, forcing Columbus to play most of the game a man down. With the Crew leading, 1-0, Hendrickson slide tackled Chris Klein from behind.
But after Hendrickson’s ejection, the Crew scored two goals and the Galaxy couldn’t muster a sustained attack. “You try to take positives out of the match, but they had 10 men for an hour and we struggled,” Yallop said.
Alejandro Moreno scored the winning goal off Eddie Gaven’s corner kick in the 84th minute. The goal gave Columbus (3-4-6) a 3-1 lead, and the Galaxy’s desperation in extra time fell short.
Edson Buddle scored an unassisted goal in the 91st minute to cut the deficit to 3-2.
“Any time we got any sort of momentum, they made a big play defensively,” said midfielder Peter Vagenas, who replaced defender Quavas Kirk after the first half to help energize the Galaxy’s attack.
The Crew had a 1-0 lead at halftime thanks to Chad Marshall’s header off Guillermo Barros Schelotto’s free kick in the 15th minute.
Columbus extended the lead to 2-0 in the 58th minute with Ned Grabavoy’s goal off Gaven’s cross, but the Galaxy showed some signs of life thereafter. Kyle Martino’s shot was just wide in the 63rd minute, and a minute later Cobi Jones delivered a perfect cross to Gavin Glinton, who made a diving header to cut the Galaxy’s deficit to 2-1.
But the story of the night was the failure of the Galaxy to convert on its other chances.
Will Hesmer stopped Martino’s penalty kick in the 26th minute, though Joe Cannon did likewise on Grabavoy’s kick in the 39th minute.
Frankie Hejduk, Tim Ward, Robbie Rogers and Danny Szetela missed the game for Columbus because of national team call-ups. The Galaxy played without Landon Donovan and Ante Jazic. Donovan is with the U.S. team for today’s Gold Cup final, and Jazic had the night off after returning from playing with the Canadian team.
--
