LA wants to exorcise demons in Colorado
Galaxy seek first-ever win at Dick's Sporting Goods Park
They have played three previous games at the Rapids' home without scoring a goal and have allowed eight. The Galaxy, in fact, haven't scored a regular-season goal in Colorado since a 1-1 tie on April 17, 2004, and have not won a regular-season game in Colorado since Danny Califf, Ezra Hendrickson and Carlos Ruiz scored in a 3-1 victory on July 13, 2002. The Galaxy are 0-8-3 in 11 regular-season games in Colorado, but they did win the Western Conference championship there in 2005.
They haven't been interested in retelling any history this week, however.
"This is a completely different team now," Galaxy forward Alan Gordon said. "It doesn't mean anything to us, absolutely zero. I think we're going to have a good weekend."
It certainly can't get any worse than the team's first meeting of the season on April 4 at The Home Depot Center. The Rapids won 3-2 on a hat trick by Conor Casey. The game also featured the second-fastest goal in MLS history by Casey, just 16 seconds after the opening whistle.
"We watched a lot of tape of that game that week," Galaxy striker Landon Donovan said. "What did we learn? We learned you can't spot a team a goal in 30 seconds, and we've been spotting teams a goal early all year. It's unfortunate because in most of our games we've been playing as well or better than the other teams.
"But if you're giving away an early goal it kills you."
Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena called the first meeting between the teams a "learning experience" and has not made his team watch any replays of the debacle this week.
"There's no point in that. It is what it is," he said. "We obviously made some mistakes, but I think we learned from them. We still have a tendency to make a few mistakes in the back, but we're getting better."
Los Angeles appeared to have solved its defensive problems in their second meeting with Colorado, in a U.S. Open Cup play-in game on April 7, but the Rapids won on penalty kicks after a 0-0 tie in regulation. The Galaxy, however, reverted to their sloppy habits on the back line last Saturday when the San Jose Earthquakes took a 1-0 lead on a goal by Pablo Campos just five minutes into the match, but Los Angeles salvaged a 1-1 tie on a 76th-minute goal by second-half substitute Bryan Jordan.
Defender Todd Dunivant, who made his season debut last weekend, said the Galaxy remains a work in progress.
"I think everybody in the league is at this point, even Chivas which is at the top of the table," he said. "We're not panicking, but we're definitely aware we need to start getting some points and need to turn this thing in the right direction."
Gordon said there is no better time than Saturday, and to have it happen against the Rapids would make it particularly satisfying.
"We're hungry for our first win," he said, "and I don't see why we can't do it on the road. I know this team has had our number, but we're not afraid of them. We feel like we gave one away the last time we played them.
"We're not very happy about the two results we've had with them. We're looking to get them back."
Larry Morgan is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
