Galaxy settles for a 2-2 tie
The two most woeful teams in Major League Soccer managed to give away a victory Wednesday night.
Real Salt Lake, playing at home, had the game won. With less than 13 minutes left, it was leading the Galaxy, 1-0, on a 56th-minute goal by Carey Talley, but gave it away.
Los Angeles too had it all wrapped up. With only six minutes to play, it had taken a 2-1 edge on goals by Landon Donovan and Gavin Glinton, but gave it away.
In the end, as the near sellout-crowd of 24,633 began filing out of Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, the scoreboard showed the two sides reluctantly settling for a 2-2 tie.
That did neither any good.
With only seven games left in a forgettable season, the Galaxy remains in last place with a 4-13-6 record and 18 points. Real Salt Lake isn’t in any better shape at 4-13-8 and 20 points.
The playoffs are realistically out of reach for both teams.
Wednesday night’s match gave a good indication of why. Until the final quarter of an hour, the game was lackluster and uninspiring. The only reason for the large crowd was that the fans had long ago bought tickets to see David Beckham.
But Beckham, along with Galaxy regulars Cobi Jones, Chris Albright, Abel Xavier, Peter Vagenas, Ante Jazic and Kevin Harmse, were back in Los Angeles nursing injuries.
After a desultory first half, Real took the lead when Galaxy goalkeeper Joe Cannon spilled Andy Williams’ cross and then tripped Yura Movsisyan as the former Pasadena City College standout, making his first appearance for Real, moved in for the kill. Talley put away the resulting penalty kick and Real appeared headed for the win.
But Salt Lake’s Jean-Martial Kipre returned the favor at 77:35, fouling Galaxy defender Mike Randolph, and Donovan scored from the penalty spot to tie it up. Less than seven minutes later, a perfect through pass by Donovan allowed Glinton to glide the ball past Real goalkeeper Nick Rimando to give the Galaxy a rare lead.
It didn’t last two minutes.
A Galaxy foul led to a free kick, and Real’s Javier Morales placed his shot perfectly in the upper right corner of Cannon’s net to knot the score.
Jones reported from Los Angeles.
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