Galaxy Recap: Mr. Peabody, please help!
Almost exactly three years ago, an excited Galaxy team ran onto the field in Texas to celebrate a victory over FC Dallas. The manner in which the team celebrated could have easily lead one to believe they had just won a hard fought championship after many years of shortcomings, or the like. However, it was merely a mid-season regular season victory.
Why all the commotion over a regular season victory? Prior to that game, over a year had elapsed since the Galaxy had last won on the road. The victory over Dallas meant the jinx was finally broken, or so was the belief at the time.
Meanwhile, while playing at home that season, the team was a bit more consistent, but not stellar. Overall, the regular season results for that year were disappointing to the Galaxy faithful, who only a few seasons prior had seen some of the more consistent performances at home and on the road. Somehow the team managed to win 2 cups that year, but it seemed as though the dominant home performances from not too distant past seasons were slowly disappearing.
Fast forward to Friday night's game in front of a standing room only crowd of over 30,000 at The Home Depot Center versus Eastern Conference leader, New England Revolution.
Despite the large show of support, the blue-and-gold struggled to produce any offense for nearly the entire length of the first half. Time after time, the Galaxy midfield was unable to retain possesion or enter the Revolution's defensive third. The visitors took advantage of the Galaxy miscues, pressuring the Galaxy defense throughout the first half and capitalizing at the 33 and 37th minutes, putting a damper on Galaxy defender Chris Klein's record 100th consecutive start.
The 2 - 0 scoreline in favor of the visitors was a bit misleading as the Galaxy were lucky to escape the first half only 2 goals down. Were it not for the upright and great work from the Galaxy's Alvaro Pires and Sean Franklin, the Revolution could have easily doubled their tally before halftime.
The first half performance would give one the impression that the road games jinx of years past had now spread to home games too.
Galaxy midfielder Joe Franchino -- one of the other few bright spots -- accurately summed up the team's performance during a halftime interview by stating that they were being outplayed and that some team members needed to step up and put in more effort.
Perhaps some of his comments were echoed in the locker room by the coaching staff, himself, or others. The Galaxy started the second half with a different attitude, and despite having to fight off the effects of the flu, Galaxy forward Landon Donovan took the field and immediately made a difference.
Beckham, who was mostly muted by the Revolution defense for most of the first half, took the reins and the Galaxy offense came to life. Beckham and Donovan combined several times to produce quality scoring opportunities throughout the second half. Defender Mike Randolph and forward Edson Buddle were both presented with excellent chances to score, but neither were able to capitalize. Eventually, Beckham would cut New England's lead in half at the 66th minute when he converted one of those opportunities into his 5th goal of the season.
The energy required to produce the scoring opportunities took its toll on the blue-and-gold and they began to show the midfield problems from the first half shortly thereafter. The team needed some fresh legs, but despite what appeared to be an obvious need, a curious subplot played out on the sidelines.
Head coach Ruud Gullit did not make any further substitutions at that point, ignoring (perhaps purposely) the fact that Galaxy forward Carlos Ruiz had been warming up on the sideline since around the 60th minute. This action seems to further confirm that indeed Ruiz is being shopped around on the trade market. Ruiz would not check in for a substitution until the 80th minute and due to the circumstances of the game, did not actually enter until the 84th minute, at which point his presence was unnoticed.
It is also possible Gullit simply felt a change was not necessary or Ruiz wasn't quite ready as he didn't seemed overly excited in his warmup routine. Time will tell.
That aside, much of the final 10 minutes were played in the Galaxy defensive half and the visitors took the victory with a final score of 2 - 1, leaving the Galaxy faithful to ponder what is next.
Perhaps we can ask Mr. Peabody to use the WABAC machine and go back in time to fix whatever broke since the glory days of dominant home victories.
Short of a time machine, may the next few weeks bring some positive changes and a victory over Chivas USA next Thursday.
Photo by Sundogg via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr