CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy’s Western Conference showdown against the Colorado Rapids on Saturday officially will go down as a 1-1 tie in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 25,667 at StubHub Center. But there was much more to it than that.
The Galaxy put on one of their most impressive efforts of the season and, if not for the heroics of Rapids goalkeeper Tim Howard, might have won it going away.
The U.S. international finished with five saves, including at least two of the point-blank variety, to deny the Galaxy a satisfying end to what had been a grueling stretch of three games in a week.
“I think our entire team had a good night tonight,” Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena said. “The story of the game was we didn’t finish our chances. We could have scored certainly two goals, maybe three or four.
“I think we played well.”
Saturday’s game was 11 minutes old when a nice combination featuring Emmanuel Boateng, Steven Gerrard and finally Gyasi Zardes left Zardes all alone right in front of Howard, who came off his goal line to just get his trailing hand on Zardes’ attempt and knock the ball away.
Howard was at it again just under 30 minutes later when he stopped Giovani Dos Santos on another strong scoring opportunity, and Howard denied Boateng in the 61st minute after Boateng headed in on goal after a brilliant run of more than half of the field.
The Galaxy arguably were a bit unlucky against MLS’ top-ranked defense, and players rued their missed opportunities later.
Perhaps unlucky was too strong a word.
“Not unlucky,” Arena said. “We’re maybe an inch away on Jelle’s (Van Damme’s) chance” – his header on a set piece caromed off the goal post in the 26th minute – “in the first half. Tim made a real good save on Gyasi, I thought. Don’t tell me that we had more shots, more possession and all of that garbage.
“It’s 1-1. Just another lesson for you children out there, that the score is the only statistic in this game that means anything.”
For statistics sake, the Galaxy did have the edge in shots (17-12, including 6-2 on target) and possession (56.8 per cent to 43.2 per cent).
But there was no disputing Saturday’s effort was one of the Galaxy’s better performances in quite some time, and one that easily could have resulted in a victory over one of the league’s better sides.
“We played great today,” Dos Santos said. “Our energy has been good and everyone is working hard and we have to continue in that line.”
“I think we deserved (the win),” said center back Daniel Steres, whose header in the 62nd minute forged a 1-1 tie. “I thought we had the better chances. Their keeper came up with a couple of good saves, a couple we missed just over the bar, a couple inches wide. I think we probably deserved to get a win out of that, but I’m more disappointed we couldn’t get a shutout.
“I thought we played well.”
