Galaxy Streak Ends, Chivas USA End Road Trip

The Galaxy undefeated streak came to an end last night as the visiting Real Salt Lake took a 2 - 0 victory at the Home Depot Center while Chivas USA prepares to close out its 2 game road trip this afternoon in Columbus.

Galaxy General Manager and Head Coach Bruce Arena summarized last night's match with a simple "I think we were outplayed. There are no excuses on our part." It is hard to argue Arena's point. One almost had to know things weren't going to end well when Galaxy forward Jovan Kirovski simultaneously earned a yellow card then took the captain's armband from midfielder Eddie Lewis after Lewis got a red card, all at the 65th minute.

While not overwhelmed by Salt Lake, the blue-and-gold struggled to generate any type of offense, repeatedly stalling in the midfield. A few quality chances were generated, but the Galaxy were unable to finish any of them, including a scramble at the mouth of the goal with Salt Lake 'keeper Nick Rimando on the ground.

Defensively, the L.A. side put in a good performance -- perhaps even better after going a man down -- but miscues on the defensive half allowed the visitors to get on the board. Real's first goal came at the 13th minute when forward Yura Movsisyan found himself streaking towards the Galaxy goal with only veteran defender Gregg Berhalter defending. Movsisyan nearly deked Berhalter out of his cleats and easily beat Galaxy 'keeper Donovan Ricketts on the ensuing one-on-one. The second goal came at the 51st minute by way of Real defender Nat Borchers following a corner kick by the visitors.

Galaxy forward Alan Gordon had a clear line on the ball off the corner kick but completely misplayed the ball as though he had lost sight of it in the stadium lights. Instead of gaining possession or clearing the ball from danger, the ball remained in the Galaxy defensive third and went to the visitors. Borchers would eventually find it and put it in the back of the net giving the visitors a 2 - 0 lead which held through the final whistle despite a late surge by the Galaxy.