After scoring six goals in a SuperLiga game against FC Dallas on Tuesday, the offensive cupboard was bare for the Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday night in Toronto.
The Galaxy were outshot 14-2 overall and 5-1 in shots on goal, and won only two corner kicks to Toronto FC's 11. Even with that ugly stat sheet, however, L.A. managed to leave BMO Field with a 0-0 draw.
"At the end of the game it was good to get a point," said Galaxy coach Frank Yallop. "I thought Toronto was very good tonight. We struggled to get to grips with the game, to be honest. While we might have been outplayed in the game, we weren't outfought. That was important to us as a club to come through that. They had some great chances to score and they didn't."
Los Angeles could barely get the ball out of their own end in the first 20 minutes of the game, and sustained few concerted attacks that weren't interrupted by a turnover or a pass out of bounds. It was hard to believe the same club put six goals on the board just five days ago.
The hero of the night for L.A. was goalkeeper Joe Cannon. The three-time MLS All-Star made five saves en route to his fourth clean sheet of the season, but none bigger than a last-minute stop that preserved the draw.
In stoppage time, Toronto's Andy Welsh made a charge into the Galaxy penalty area. Cannon was out of position at first, but left the net to throw himself in front of Welsh's angled shot.
Cannon was happy with the draw, but felt his team missed a chance to start their four-game road trip off right against a weakened opponent.
"It's good," Cannon said. "A shutout in a hostile environment on the road. Obviously they're missing some top players. We thought it was a good opportunity to sneak three points on the road ... against a team that, looking at their lineup, besides Tyrone [Marshall] and Todd Dunivant, [has] very limited MLS experience. I've probably played more MLS games than the rest of them combined."
Though Toronto was missing six starters, the Galaxy were also handicapped by injuries to Cobi Jones, Edson Buddle and Chris Albright. And, of course, a certain English midfielder with a bad ankle.
David Beckham's long-awaited MLS debut is still on hold, as he was not in the 18-man gameday roster on Sunday and is questionable for Thursday's game against D.C. United. Yallop noted that a player with Beckham's playmaking caliber will help the Galaxy break out of offensive slumps like they went through against TFC.
"I think if you look at Toronto's team, [midfielder] Carl Robinson is the heartbeat of the team," Yallop said. "And we're missing that. That's one of the reasons David will play in the middle of the field. He can get on the ball, he can dictate the pace of the game, can [make] passes in the area."
Beckham's status is still game-to-game, though Yallop said the English star did some running on Sunday and "felt a bit looser than yesterday."
The hope is that once Beckham actually gets on the field, the Galaxy will be able to finally achieve some consistency. With 13 games in their next 52 days, L.A. has to string together a few wins in order to avoid missing the MLS Cup Playoffs for a second consecutive year.
Still, Yallop thinks that a month of playing against high-level competition in SuperLiga and the exhibition World Series of Football has toughened up his team for the challenge of the MLS schedule.
"We fought, and I say again, we would've lost that game a few weeks ago," Yallop said. "We're still not playing like we want to play and we look poor in certain areas ... but we've gotten better and we'll keep going."
Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
