SANDY, Utah -- The LA Galaxy lineup trotted out in their 2-0 victory over Real Salt Lake shocked many, including RSL themselves.
In his postgame press conference, RSL boss Jason Kreis admitted that he was nervous about how his team would respond to LA's squad that was without regulars Robbie Keane, Landon Donovan, Todd Dunivant, Carlo Cudcini, and Jose Villarreal.
“It wasn’t just Donovan and Keane, there were five players that started tonight with the Galaxy that aren’t typically in their strongest eleven. So much so that when I got their lineup I was nervous to even write it up on the board. I was wondering if there was any way I could just sneak it in that they were playing LA’s strongest lineup," Kreis said. "I feel that our guys have had a tendency over the past to let down when they are playing a team that they think is weaker than they are; and tonight they got shown that team isn’t weaker than we are. Their eleven was better than our eleven.”
Even RSL captain Kyle Beckerman admitted that his team did not handle the lineup as well as they should have.
“Anytime you see the lineup like that… maybe it’s something that consciously went into our minds, but I thought we said something about it to try and make sure it didn’t get to us. Maybe it did," Beckerman told reporters. "I think maybe we were a little shook up. We lost two forwards before the game where we didn’t expect that. They just came out better (in the first) 15 minutes and it ended up costing us the game.”
