COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – The LA Galaxy’s Western Conference Semifinal series with the Colorado Rapids came down to the lottery of penalty kicks, and in the end, luck just wasn’t on the Galaxy’s side.
Los Angeles saw their 2016 campaign come to a crashing end on Sunday when they fell 3-1 in a penalty kick shootout after their series finished tied 1-1 on aggregate. Shkëlzen Gashi’s 44-yard wonder goal sent the match into extra time and ultimately penalties where Colorado goalkeeper Tim Howard made a pair of saves to send the Rapids through.
For a Galaxy team that spent the last 11 months on the quest for another title, to fall in penalties was a bitter pill to swallow.
“PKs are always a tough way to lose,” goalkeeper Brian Rowe said. “You look back at the whole season and look how well we’ve come together as a team and how well we’ve been playing for the last couple weeks to have it come down to five penalty kicks is a tough way to have the season end. We fought the whole time, and we were in it until the end. It was a tough way to lose.”
“It’s hard. I need a few days to recover from that one. We were close. We went to penalties, and it’s 50/50 in penalties,” added defender Jelle Van Damme. “We defended well. A penalty kick shootout is a lottery, but they did better than us. We just have to accept that it is over.”
Aside from the goal, it was an excellent road performance from the Galaxy who were able to deal with the pressure of a Rapids side eager to finish the match in regulation. However, while the Galaxy’s defense was stout, their attack was bottled up by an organized Rapids team that limited one of the league’s best offensive sides to just a single shot on goal over 120 minutes.
In the shootout, the experience of Howard won the day as the goalkeeper made two clutch saves after Giovani dos Santos sent his effort high when both teams were level at a goal apiece.
“When you lose in a penalty kick shootout, you can’t blame anyone, but yourself,” Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena said.
With training camp still months away and the team’s pursuit of a sixth MLS Cup put on hold, Van Damme admits that he and the rest of the team will need time to reflect on such a discouraging loss.
“I wanted to go all the way, but it ends here. It’s hard to accept for the moment. I’ll need a few more days to accept it and move on.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog atwww.LAGalaxy.com/Insiderand contact him atLAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com
