Tim Howard and Chris Pontius had their moments on Tuesday night.
By Ivan Yeo
The number two became synonymous with the LA Galaxy on Tuesday night.
Playing a rare Tuesday night match, the Galaxy twice jumped out to the lead against Colorado, only to see the Rapids find the equalizer both times. It didn’t help that Ola Kamara had two goals called back for offsides, all of which left the Galaxy frustrated after its 2-2 draw with Colorado at StubHub Center.
“We came into the game looking to get the three points. And then we go 1-0 up and in 10 minutes we concede a sloppy goal again. So yeah it’s disappointing,” Galaxy left back Ashley Cole said. “I think we are allowed to come in disappointed because we know that we have to pick up points now. If we would have won our last three games, we would have been first or second. So yeah, we’re disappointed after today’s draw.”
The Galaxy pulled ahead in the 59th minute, as Chris Pontius played a ball forward that was weighted enough that it enabled Cole to round Kortne Ford as he got the ball, sprinted into the penalty area and slotted a shot past Tim Howard far post. The Rapids however had their answer in the 74th minute, and it came courtesy of their own left back, as Edgar Castillo chased down a ball cleared out of the penalty area, dribbled the ball back into the penalty area and fired a short left-footed volley that beat David Bingham at the upper far post.
Undeterred, the Galaxy answered back three minutes later, as Sebastian Lletget fired a left-footed volley at the top of the penalty area past Howard left post to restore the Galaxy advantage. Colorado however wasn’t fazed, and leveled the match one more time in the 83rd minute, as Niki Jackson took a pass from Castillo, ran into the penalty area and fired a left-footed volley that curled as it sailed past Bingham into the back net.
“It’s déjà vu,” Lletget said referring to last Saturday’s match at Colorado. “We come in here and we’re like, “we just lived that the other day.” The same thing happened. We just can’t finish the game. I know it’s a tie, but at home it’s unacceptable.”
The Galaxy surely felt they should’ve had more than two goals in the match. Ola Kamara had a chance to open the scoring in the 16th minute, as Jonathan Dos Santos sprung Cole into the penalty area, Cole crossed into the six-yard box and Kamara tapped the ball into the back net, but the flag went up, as Cole was offiside when Dos Santos played the ball to him.
Offside came back to bite the Galaxy again, this one at the worst possible time, which was stoppage time with the Galaxy chasing a winner. Zlatan Ibrahimovic played a ball to Kamara, who was well offside, but the assistant referee kept his flag down, and Kamara took a couple of touches before firing a shot past Howard into the back net for what looked like a winning goal, referee Kevin Stott however raised his hands up to signal that Kamara was offside, therefore disallowing the goal.
