On Saturday night, the Los Angeles Galaxy and San Jose Earthquakes demonstrated just how fierce their rivalry is. After two rapid-fire goals late in the first half sent the Earthquakes to a 3-1 victory at The Home Depot Center, they'll have two more chances to resume their dispute.
San Jose came into the game with its destiny already long decided. Having wrapped up first place in the Western Conference weeks ago, the Quakes were simply looking to make a statement against their in-state rivals. The Galaxy, on the other hand, were looking to improve their playoff positioning, and desperately needed a positive result to do so, but after the loss fell to fourth in the West, allowing the Colorado Rapids to claim third after their midweek win against Real Salt Lake.
The opening 45 minutes was devoid of very many clear-cut scoring chances early on, but was still full of incident as both teams were left a man down before the game was 20 minutes old. Despite the fact that the Galaxy had everything to play for and everything to lose based on the result, it was San Jose that came out the more aggressive side.
Dwayne De Rosario showed the first glimpse of danger on the night when a second-minute shot was deflected wide, but after yellow cards were issued in the ninth and 13th minutes to San Jose's Kevin Goldthwaite and L.A.'s Cobi Jones respectively, the complexion of the game changed completely.
First, Tyrone Marshall was shown a straight red card in the 17th minute after stomping on the back of Alejandro Moreno, whom he had just taken down moments earlier.
Three minutes later the playing field was leveled, when Goldthwaite picked up his second yellow card of the first half. Both sides finished the game with 10 men, but the Quakes adjusted quicker dominating the run of play for the rest of the half.
The first goal came in the 42nd minute. After a semi frantic exchange inside the Galaxy penalty area, Brian Mullan collected the ball on the right side of the box. He played a looping cross to the back post where Mark Chung was completely unmarked, and he made no mistake putting a diving header cleanly past Kevin Hartman and in off the 'keeper's left-hand post.
Just three minutes later, in the dying moments of the first half, De Rosario doubled the lead for San Jose. The Canadian international stepped up to take a free kick from about 30 yards out and hit a wicked blast that sailed past the wall and left Hartman little chance as it sailed inside the upper right-hand corner.
After the break, yellow cards continued to fly around The Home Depot Center. Brian Ching picked up an early caution in the second half on a tackle from behind on Marcelo Saragosa.
In the 54th minute, Steve Sampson made a curious change for Los Angeles, bringing on defender Troy Roberts for forward Joseph Ngwenya, despite being down two goals and with third place still available with a draw. The move caused a shift in the entire Galaxy lineup, pushing defender Ugo Ihemelu out of the middle and wide right, pushing Chris Albright forward into the midfield, and Landon Donovan out of midfield into a forward position.
The move paid little dividends early on though, as the Galaxy still struggled to make any serious threats to the San Jose goal. A loose final pass or a well-positioned defender thwarted every foray into the attacking third that the Galaxy made.
Finally in the 68th minute, the shift made a difference Albright now in a more attacking role drew a yellow card on Kelly Gray and a penalty kick for the Galaxy after being tripped up in the box. Donovan stepped up to the spot and buried his 12th goal of the campaign, pulling the home team to within one goal of third place.
The strike ignited the sellout home crowd, and propelled the home team into the attack. The Galaxy were seemingly robbed of a second penalty kick after a Donovan corner kick was brought down in the area by the arm of De Rosario. The referee deemed the contact inadvertent, and while the Galaxy protested, San Jose countered.
First De Rosario hit the crossbar on a shot from 19 yards out. Moments later the Quakes reclaimed the two-goal lead.
Mark Chung sent a cross from the left flank to Brian Ching, who headed it down into the path of Mullan. From eight yards out, Mullan blasted a shot into the roof of the net to restore the Earthquakes' two-goal lead and set up another pair of rematches, beginning Sun., Oct. 23 when the Earthquakes again return to The Home Depot Center.
MLSnet.com Man of the Match: Dwayne De Rosario (San Jose Earthquakes)
Greg Daurio is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
