'Mature' Galaxy find a way to win

Despite conceding penalty, Los Angeles contains late New England surge

By Kyle McCarthy / MLSnet.com Staff

Landon Donovan and his LA Galaxy showed good game management en route to the road win. (K. Nordstrom/Getty)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Saturday night's 2-1 win over New England had all the hallmarks of a game that the old Los Angeles Galaxy would have thrown away.

A solid performance deserving of all three points? Check. A late goal by the opposition to set up a last few nervy minutes? Check. A way to magically turn a two-goal lead into one point? Not this time.

"I thought our team managed the game well," Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said after his team extended its unbeaten run to six matches (5-0-1). "We showed a lot of maturity tonight as a team. They did a great job to get three points."

Arena's team made a bright start by trying to push forward when possible and allowing Landon Donovan to exploit the spaces in midfield. Donovan signaled his intent with a first-minute volley and then handed his team the lead on 21 minutes with a sumptuous volley to the far post.

"It bounced up in the air and my initial thought was shot," Donovan said. "My second thought was maybe bring it down and I thought maybe take a swing at it. At that point, I'm just trying to make real good contact and I hit it perfect ... it was something out of nothing on that play, but we certainly deserved a goal. We were playing well up to that point and if it didn't come then, it was going to come at some point."

After weathering a few Revolution flurries toward the end of the first half, the Galaxy doubled its advantage six minutes into the second half when Jovan Kirovski deftly swept home the scraps after Matt Reis and Alan Gordon vied for Eddie Lewis' cross.

"It was important just to settle it for the shot," Kirovski said. "I knew there wasn't a lot of time, so I just concentrated on my touch and tried to put it on target. Fortunately, it went in."

Once Kirovski added the second goal, the task turned to managing the game. New England had tried to exploit its pace in the wide areas by sending its fullbacks into the attack and playing through its wingers. By switching to a 3-5-2 midway through the second half, the Revs sent more players into the attacking third in search of goals. Arena said his side did well to cope with the additional bodies.

"We obviously understood the things the Revolution do in trying to create chances," Arena said. "Our guys were pretty solid in dealing with those opportunities."

New England didn't really look like it would break through until Omar Gonzalez felled Kenny Mansally inside the Galaxy penalty area with less than 10 minutes to play.

"The ball was coming," Gonzalez said. "I actually blocked it, but it hit off him and bounced around me. I sort of grabbed him a little bit. It happens. I need to be more focused during that time. It was my fault and I said sorry to the guys. They forgave me, but I have to make sure it doesn't happen again."

Steve Ralston converted the penalty kick to hand the Revolution an unexpected lifeline and set the Galaxy's pulse racing even though they had been on top for long stretches. Instead of folding like they might have last season, the Galaxy added Chris Birchall to tighten up the midfield and saw the match out for the final seven minutes without too much trouble.

Arena said the game might have been one that would have slipped away last year, but he credited his side for seeing things out properly to notch its first win in eight tries (1-5-2) at Gillette Stadium.

"I thought last year, we came here and played pretty well and only got a point out of it," Arena said. "This year, we came to this game with more quality. We did a good job of controlling this game, perhaps with the exceptions of the last 15 minutes of the first half and at the end of the game, things got a little bit hectic."

Kyle McCarthy is a contributor to MLSnet.com.