CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy missed a major opportunity on Sunday and everyone in the team’s locker room knew it.
Due to their 4-2 defeat to Seattle Sounders FC, the Galaxy failed to lock down a postseason berth and also missed an opportunity make up ground on Supporters’ Shield-leading FC Dallas. With Dallas still five points clear of the Galaxy in the Shield chase and the Colorado Rapids still in contention, the Galaxy were understandably disappointed after the defeat.
“Absolutely, it’s a big missed opportunity,” midfielder Ema Boateng told reporters. “They’re a good team and when you’re getting closer to playoffs you want to be winning games like this and getting good results so we definitely didn’t do well enough, played well in some spots, but it definitely hurt us conceding those goals. We have to be better the next game.”
The nature of the defeat brought back memories of the club’s last loss at home, when the Galaxy fell 5-2 to the Portland Timbers, catapulting the visitors toward an MLS Cup title and sending the Galaxy on a slide that ultimately doomed their season.
Like the loss a year ago, the Galaxy took the lead on a Robbie Keane goal and had numerous opportunities to add to the result, before capitulating in the second half.
However, neither Arena nor his players believe that anything like last year’s collapse will occur yet again.
“I think athletes’ and coaches’ jobs are to have short memories,” Arena said. “Who even cares about last year, it has nothing to do with the result today.”
Landon Donovan took it a step further, admitting that the Galaxy’s players must take a look in the mirror after such a maddening loss.
“This is a bad game, but in three games we’ve given up eight goals. Actually, our defense has played relatively well and we’ve given up eight goals. So there’s a lot to look at, and when you give up goals it’s not just defending or the goalkeeper, it’s the team that needs to take responsibility. I think a lot of us need to look in the mirror and wake up,” Donovan said. “Obviously, we wanted to win and get closer to the Supporters’ Shield and winning the West, but sometimes if you can take this the right way it can be a good thing in the long run and you can get a big wake up call.
“So I think we have to really look at this game and analyze it and everyone needs to look at themselves honestly.”
Fortunately for the Galaxy, they’ll have a chance to not only clinch a postseason berth but also move closer in the Supporters’ Shield chase next week when they travel to Frisco, Texas to take on FC Dallas.
However, after Sunday’s loss, they’ll need to capitalize on their chances or risk slipping into another late season slide.
“Today was one that we knew if we won, especially with the way the results went yesterday, we would put ourselves in a great spot, it didn't happen for us,” midfielder Jeff Larentowicz said. “We've had two games against Dallas at the end of the season kind of in our minds and next week is the first one, so we take it game by game. No team sits around thinking about a slide. We play the first place team in the West next weekend and deal with them."
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog atLAGalaxy.com/Insiderand contact him atLAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com