Photo by Isaiah J. Downing/USA TODAY Sports
By AARON CRANFORD
For the first time since Aug. 20, 2014, the LA Galaxy claimed a win away from the StubHub Center, and in both cases, the Colorado Rapids were on the unfortunate side of history.
The Galaxy’s common contributors in 2015 were the ones who found the back of the net Saturday, as Sebastian Lletget, Robbie Keane and Alan Gordan handed the Rapids their first loss since June 27. With the 3-1 victory the Galaxy have won five out of their last seven matches.
In order to finally break the road curse, the Galaxy needed to show a bit of anger and emotion, and star Steven Gerrard was the figure to become fiery, as he and former Galaxy midfielder Marcelo Sarvas were involved in a heated exchange minutes before Keane’s stoppage-time dagger.
The Rapids tallied the first of the evening at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park with a 12th-minute goal from Sarvas, who found the back of the net after Dillon Powers picked him out.
However, the second half belonged to the Galaxy, as Lletget scored 10 minutes in after Juninho fed him a pass, Gordan tapped in a simple chance in the 69th minute and Keane buried his chance on a counter attack in stoppage time.
While the Galaxy play Thursday in the CONCACAF Champions League vs. Central FC, the Rapids will stay at home to host the Columbus Crew SC next Saturday.
LOL… Stevie G met a handful of his teammates for the first time yesterday. It took a half.. and then LaGals controlled the game in that wind torrent! Gio ads this week and this team will eventually blowout the rest of MLS barring significant injury by season’s end.
re: Lletjet… betting he earns significant minutes even after Gio arrival. We should see Gals playing 3 up top quite a bit. Now all they really need to work on is finding a replacement for #22 Leonardo at Center defense.
would guess it will be Gonzo/AJ in central defense, but the guy who is not playing well is Rogers, another poor game from him imo
Beachbum, yeah, I noticed that especially in the 1st half. It’s like Rogers was simply cruizin out there. He must have got read out in the locker room at the break though because he really started getting aggressive in the 2H. I think he’s more oft injured than not also.. nagging type injuries I believe. Hard to figure Rogers tho, because there are times that he shows as good as it gets and then he’ll revert to lazy/lacadasical type play.. Go figure
Lletget was legit.. haha nobody has ever said that right? Seriously excellent game on the left side of the midfield. Looking forward to seeing more of him, if he can get any mins on that roster.
Gerrard looked like any of the less than average midfielders on the Rapids.. hopefully thats just preseason Gerrard..
During the game last night the crawler beneath the game was telling LAG fans when and where Gio was arriving at LAX so that he could be given a heroes welcome. Nice that they are trying to hype this up. They should have just offered $50 for the first 100 to show up with a Gio sign. Considering what they paid him it would be a drop in the bucket.
I think they outdrew Montreal and Drogba!!
http://www.lagalaxy.com/post/2015/08/02/giovani-dos-santos-mobbed-la-galaxy-fans-lax
Shane O’Neill headed to Belgium
The Galaxy had to work pretty hard to beat the worst team in the league on the road. Can’t believe I’m saying this, but gee, I hope the Galaxy can keep this impressive streak alive against Central FC on Thursday.
And good for Sarvas scoring on the team that dumped him.
Yup, could be better but then again… things aren’t too bad when the criticism is that a 3-1 victory v a team on a 3 game win streak didn’t come easy enough.
Really? Colorado is worse than Chicago or Philly? Do you watch this league?
I was speaking in generalizations. Nuance was clearly lost – at least on you. “one of the worst teams in the league” is what I should have said. Feel better?
The Galaxy had to “dump” several players over the years, not because of bad play,. but because of salary cap limitations. Like Donovan Rickets and Alan Gordon who were brought back, I think if Sarvas, or even Sean Franklin are around long enough, and as Arena favorites, they too, will be back.
if you are referring to the Penedo issue – both sides were pretty clear that that was Penedo’s call, not the Galaxy’s. In fact, Bruce has been downright defensive on the matter, saying “we (the Galaxy) did the right thing all along.” Not sure I agree – the Galaxy spent all five years of their targeted allocation money to pay Omar off for just this season alone, while no one else got a penny of it, including Penedo, who’d been asking for a pay raise for a while – but it sure isn’t up to me. The Galaxy can tell themselves whatever they want, it’s not gonna make a bit of difference, Penedo’s gone, and I for one wish him well. And frankly I hope that Ricketts is costing them more than Penedo – that would be ironic.
But if you’re referring to Sarvas – yeah, you’re right. They dumped him due to salary cap. Pity.