CARSON, Calif. – Everything was playing out perfectly for the LA Galaxy, who'd built a two-goal lead with strikes at the end of the first half and start of the second and were doing what was required to kill off a vital game that would give them command of the Supporters' Shield race heading into the season's final weekend.
Then it all fell apart, with the Seattle Sounders scoring goals in the 69th and 72nd minutes for a 2-2 draw Sunday evening at StubHub Center. That moved the visitors within 90 minutes, next weekend at home against LA, of their first MLS regular-season championship.
It was an opportunity lost for the Galaxy (17-6-10), who must beat the Sounders (19-10-4) in the second of successive showdowns to capture their fifth Shield.
“We're disappointed for sure ...,” Landon Donovan said afterward. “For whatever reason, our energy dropped and we couldn't really get out and get up the field and get possession of the ball. … We couldn't get forward. Every time the ball went forward, we couldn't keep it, and they kept us pinned in, so we kept defending. Against a lot of teams, that's OK, [but] when you do it against Seattle, you're playing with fire. We gave them much too much time and respect, and it cost us.”
It led to defensive lapses that cost them on goals by Clint Dempsey and Lamar Neagle, and Marcelo Sarvas, whose 50th-minute goal gave LA the 2-0 advantage, sounded an alarm of sorts.
“Something's wrong, because a team like ours with experienced guys cannot permit this ...,” the Brazilian midfielder said. “We feel like a loss because it's 2-0, the importance of the game. I feel very much hurt, and, of course, you feel frustrated not only for this game, but what happened in Dallas [when LA last weekend let a lead disappear in a 2-1 loss when a draw would have put them into the driver's seat].
“We could be here laughing and celebrating if we had [paid] more attention [to what we needed to achieve].”
Head coach Bruce Arena noted that “for 65 minutes or so, we had real good control of the game” and that the Galaxy “should have done a better job protecting a two-goal lead, no question about it.”
The team's energy seemed to dissipate around the hour mark.
“That was a bit odd,” said midfielder Baggio Husidic, who gave LA a lead in first-half stoppage and set Sarvas' finish after the break. “I thought we looked a bit sluggish after the 60th minute or so, and after [we scored] that second goal, we kind of turned it off a little bit, which is a little bit difficult to understand. But sometimes that happens without explanation, and, unfortunately, they ended up scoring two goals.”
Said left back Robbie Rogers: “I know that we're better than this.”
Donovan said he “wore out as the game went on” and said he needed to step back, after two emotional weeks ahead of his final US national team appearance and last regular-season home game, “and focus.”
“It's not the end of the world,” he said. “We'll move on and get ready for next week.”
The Galaxy are happy with where they stand, even with Seattle on 61 points and in control of their fate.
“To say that you have to go into the last game and win a game to get the Supporters' Shield, that's fair enough,” Arena said. “Who can argue that?”
