And then there was Wednesday night.
Wednesday, Aug. 30, in Salt Lake City was, well, it was frustrating from any view. Everything the Galaxy did well in DC on Aug. 26 vanished in Salt Lake City. No smart-aleck banners. The fans were cordial. How can you compete when everyone is so nice?
It was a frustrating night for all. The Galaxy just could not adjust to the plastic field. It's a bad excuse but it is the truth. Real Salt Lake did a nice job of using it to their advantage. While the Galaxy pushed balls into space, Salt Lake weighted their passes much better and punished the Galaxy for most of the second half. Galaxy passes seemed to speed up to the point where speedsters the likes of Quavas Kirk and Herculez Gomez could not catch up to a ball played on the surface. On the other side of the ball, Salt Lake poached balls into the attack. Rainbow passes that stayed in the air and allowed Jeff Cunningham and company to run under them and challenge for possession dominated RSL's attack.
Kevin Hartman had a brilliant game in goal for the Galaxy, with the exception of one blunder - and it was a bad one. Hartman turned aside precision attempts off the foot of Andy Williams no less than three times in the match. One was even a penalty kick that kept the Galaxy within striking distance, but his blunder in the 60th minute was shocking.
Jeff Cunningham took what seemed to be a harmless shot on goal from a bad angle. He might have miss- hit it, topping the ball as it rolled toward Hartman. Instead of normally dropping and smothering such an attempt, Hartman might have been thinking about what he was going to do next as far as distribution. The ball slid through his gloves and through his legs and slowly crossed the goal line for what turned out to be the game winner. It was one of those moments when you say to yourself, "I just didn't do that, did I?" It's what makes goalkeepers into broadcasters. Trust me, I know. Being vertically challenged is also an issue, but that is a discussion for another time.
"I was pretty excited to come up with the saves I came up with tonight. Unfortunately, the goal we gave up was probably not one of my better ones that I've ever given up," Hartman said. "I think as a team we didn't react as well to it as perhaps we should have."
In the end, bad passing and a patchwork lineup did the Galaxy in on this night. So many long passes out of the back and into the midfield went to the opponent or just out of play. Few were the times when Los Angeles connected three and four passes together to create in the offensive end.
As Galaxy head coach Frank Yallop put it prior to the match, both clubs are fighting for their playoff lives. Just when you got the feeling the Galaxy were going to propel themselves up the Western Conference table, they stub their toe.
"Salt Lake edged the game, to be honest," Yallop said following the match. "I thought we had a spell in the first half and a little spell in the second half where we could have got a goal, but we never got to grips with the field. I'm not trying to make excuses, but we just never got our game going."
So heading into an important game this Saturday, Sept. 2, the Galaxy is still within playoff range. The West is all knotted up. August is over. The green and gold are finally home. It's time for some home cookin' and a run of matches that garner maximum points. There is no other way to look at it.
And so must win month continues.
UGO GETS TIMEOUT
I am not sure how the league goes about handing out suspensions after the fact, but it makes you wonder how Ugo Ihemelu was suspended for two games and fined for a play where the official in the Aug. 26 match at D.C. didn't even call a foul. That's right, Ugo is forced to sit for two games because Domenic Mediate broke his leg after what was deemed in the run of play a clean tackle by referee Mark Geiger.
It makes you wonder a bit on how these decisions come about, or is it really about the squeaky wheel getting the grease?
SPEAKING OF SQUEAKY WHEELS
It's nice to see the acquisitions of real talent coming to the league in recent weeks. D.C. brought in Matias Donnet, who played three years with Boca Juniors in Argentina and a year with Venezia in the Italian Serie A. Chivas USA seems to have more and more cap room as well as they signed two players, Jesus Morales and Johnny Garcia. Maybe the Galaxy can get Ronaldo and David Beckham to play for free too, right?
THE BOYS ARE BACK IN TOWN
And you better be there too. Saturday the Galaxy is back home. They are still alive for the playoffs. In fact, they can do some serious damage in the final seven games of the regular season.
They need your support. It's Budweiser Hispanic Heritage Night at The Home Depot Center. Get to this match. In fact get to the rest of the home matches because the playoffs are already underway for the Galaxy. With your support the boys just might get over the hump. 877-3-GALAXY. See you Saturday.
Joe Tutino is in his eighth season as the English radio voice of the Los Angeles Galaxy. He can be reached at jtutino@aol.com. The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author's, and not necessarily those of the Los Angeles Galaxy or Major League Soccer.
