Despite generating few high quality scoring opportunities during David Beckham's debut match in Major League Soccer, Los Angeles Galaxy coach Frank Yallop and star Landon Donovan were happy with the team's overall performance in Thursday's 1-0 loss at D.C. United.
"We had chances to be in the game. We didn't really do that on Sunday against Toronto, but tonight we had chances to be in the game," Donovan said. "We didn't finish a few chances in front of the goal that would've made the difference."
After an unimaginative, dreary scoreless draw at Toronto on Sunday, Yallop was happy with his team's progress despite what he felt were two refereeing mistakes by referee Jair Marrufo that cost his team two potential penalty kicks.
The loss also disguised a scintillating performance by goalkeeper Joe Cannon, who busy from the opening whistle.
"We made good strides from our Toronto game and we played much better than we did that match," said Yallop. "When people miss things in games that cost you points that is hard to take. I felt the officiating missed a penalty kick on Landon and in a game like this it means everything. We had chances, they had chances, but that can't be missed."
Yallop was referring to Landon Donovan being taken down in the 57th minute by the right arm of Devon McTavish well inside the penalty area. He also was not happy late in the match after Beckham sprung Donovan into the area and was taken down right on the edge of the box by a sliding United goalkeeper Troy Perkins.
"It did cost us the match. That was disappointing. I was proud of my team -- the way we fought, the way we scrapped, kept going and could have gotten something out of the game at the end," added Yallop. "It's frustration when you put all the hard work in and Landon makes a great run, gets pulled down and he misses it so that was the frustrating part for me."
Beckham made his MLS debut, coming onto the field in the 72nd minute for Quavas Kirk to an appreciative ovation from the sell-out crowd of 46,686 at steamy RFK Stadium.
"The form tonight was a lot better than it was against Toronto and that's what we are trying to achieve," said Beckham. "We're trying to win games of course but we are also trying to put good performances in. We've lost the game tonight but we can take some good from it because we performed a lot better than we did against Toronto -- but we still lost the game, so we're still disappointed. We had enough chances to win the game but that's football."
The Galaxy have played the fewest games in the league (14) but still only have 14 points to show for them. Despite the games in hand, they are well aware that playing better but producing no points will not get them back into the playoff race.
"It's funny because we played terrible Sunday, and somehow get a point. Tonight I thought we played actually pretty well and somehow we don't get anything out of the game, so it's pretty frustrating. But we can build on that, I guess," said Donovan.
"It's hard because after Sunday we said we need to perform better, and then worry about the result. If you're performing consistently -- like if we put that out every week -- we're going to have a chance. We'll probably win more than we lose. But it's still frustrating because moral victories don't do a lot for us right now. We're in a tough spot, so it hurts."
It is not lost on all of the LA players that they are halfway through the season, the games are dwindling and they are still struggling to find a consistent form and garner consistent points.
"We're halfway through our season now and that was one of the teams we need to catch in the playoffs. I don't know, we're 15, 16 points out of it and we've got to start finding our rhythm," said Cannon. "Every game it seems like we come up with different excuses for why we're not possessing the ball, why we're not playing well, and the bottom line is, we're just not getting it done. In the big picture I think it was a big game, we played a lot better than we did against Toronto, but saying that, a loss is a loss."
After being run over almost immediately from the opening whistle by teammate Chris Klein, who was gently shoved into him by United's Guy-Roland Kpene as both were chasing down the ball, Cannon saw constant pressure from a United attack that was missing its primary playmaker in Christian Gomez and got limited duty from Jaime Moreno.
Cannon denied an unopposed Moreno with a brilliant diving, reflex save from 16 yards out in the 80th minute. Earlier, he actually got both of his hands on the game's only goal in the 28th minute by Luciano Emilio but could not knock it away.
"Yeah, I got my hands on it and I felt I got enough on it," Cannon said. "Obviously in hindsight I just made a good shot look better. It's one of those you'd like to have back, but at the same time it was a good strike and those things can happen. There's nothing I can do about it now, but it's definitely a letdown just because I feel like our defense is finally coming together and clean sheets are what we all strive for."
Chris Snear is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
