What began as a festive evening turned into a Saturday night horror show for D.C. United at RFK Stadium, as Landon Donovan and the Los Angeles Galaxy stunned a season-high crowd of 24,159 with a 5-2 victory that not only hands United their first home loss to the season, but also extends their winless streak to five matches.
The U.S. international scored two goals and played a role in the other three as L.A. continued its recent hot streak at the expense of a star-crossed D.C. side that scarcely resembles the polished crew that took MLS by storm from April to July.
"Our fans were fantastic today, a full house," said D.C. coach Peter Nowak. "But this is a good cold shower for all of us, and we're going back to work, to reality. If you don't run, if you don't scratch, if you don't fight, and defensively you don't get your 'A' game, then you're going to have trouble, especially now going into a period when every game is important."
Bizarrely, L.A. put only six shots on target but still handed United's league-leading defense its worst torching of the season, and the nightmare was capped by what is surely a season-ending injury to winger Dominic Mediate, whose fibula was broken by Ugo Ihemelu's two-footed lunge in the game's latter stages.
Mediate had entered the match as D.C.'s last substitute, thus the home side was forced to finish the match shorthanded, making it even easier for the Galaxy to wreak havoc on the counterattack.
"At that point in the last 20 minutes, we were so tired," said United defender Facundo Erpen. "We have to know we are the best team in the league. We have to play like that. But tonight, it was horrible."
Thousands of United fans arrived early to take in a pregame Latin American festival with live music, food and games. But once the whistle blew, their vociferous presence seemed to inspire the visitors more than their hosts as L.A. pushed D.C. onto the back foot from the outset.
Former United forward Santino Quaranta smacked a volley off the post less then two minutes into the match, then Alan Gordon put the final touch to a move that began with Donovan's diagonal pass to Cobi Jones. The Red-and-Black quickly equalized off a Chris Albright own goal but were beaten to the punch yet again as the second half commenced, falling behind thanks to Albright's 47th-minute effort -- and it was all downhill from there.
"You get any team behind and they're not going to play their best," said winger Josh Gros. "We were trying to press the game and then we're down a man, if I'm not mistaken, for the rest of the game. So that's hard to come back from, but that's still no excuse. We didn't do our job tonight."
L.A. has now gone undefeated in its last four trips to the nation's capital, but what's even more mystifying for United are the reasons for their own shocking loss of form.
"It's a wake-up call for all of us," said forward Jamil Walker. "We [haven't] lost at home at home in a long time and losing the way we did, it's back to the drawing board, basically. Getting back to what worked in the first half of the season, and get back to that mentality -- winning is a habit and we're getting out of the habit right now. We've got to get back into it."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
