Tim Howard had a hand (or two) in the Rapids 1-1 draw with the Galaxy on Saturday night
By Ivan Yeo
The LA Galaxy certainly put forth a very good performance on Saturday night.
Saturday night was the type of effort that on most nights would result in three points. However, facing the second-place Colorado Rapids that featured Tim Howard in goal, not even the friendly confines of StubHub Center was enough to get the win, though LA did keep its unbeaten streak alive thanks to Daniel Steres’ second half equalizer in its 1-1 draw with the Rapids on Saturday night.
“Obviously we want to play better but there is a lot to be said for a team when you play poorly and still get a road tie,” Rapids midfielder Sam Cronin said. “think it shows our character and a lot of stuff we need to improve on for next week but we can leave here with our heads high and feel good about ourselves even though we didn’t play our best.”
Steres’ equalizer occured in the 62nd minute, as he headed in a Steven Gerrard corner to level the match. Steres’ tally came 11 minutes after Colorado had seized the advantage’ when Shkelzen Gashi fired a left-footed volley that beat Brian Rowe at the back post, right at the left corner.
“He (Gerrard) puts in a great ball and I thought over the course of the night that we had a pretty good advantage on set pieces,” Steres said of his goal.
The Galaxy had many chances to find the back net, but the combination of Howard between the pipes and some bad luck hampered LA’s ability to finish the whole night. Howard first came up with a huge save in the 11th minute, which started when Emmanuel Boateng dribbled upfield, played a short across to Gerrard, who then sprung Gyasi Zardes into the penalty area. Zardes was all alone in the box with only Howard to beat, but as Belguim in the 2014 World Cup, the Preimer League and most of CONCACAF among others have found out over the past years, that was not an easy task to accomplish, Zardes tried to go back post, but Howard first got his left hand on the shot, then his right hand to swat the ball far enough for Eric Miller to clear out of the penalty area.
“I was very simple. Control it and play it. And sure enough, his trailing hand got a hand on it,” Zardes said.
Howard continued to make himself big as the game went on. Howard tipped Dos Santos’ volley over the endline just before halftime, then parried Emmanuel Boateng’s 61st minute shot over the endline after Boateng had dribbled his way through the Rapids defense. That was the play though that led to the corner which led to Steres’ equalizer.
“More than anything we had to weather their storm,” Howard said of the Galaxy’s attack. “They drop off in the pockets and that makes them very hard to defend.”
That was the Howard part, now for the bad luck part. The first close call for the Galaxy occured in the 24th minute, when Gerrard sent a free kick into the penalty area, Jelle Van Damme sent a header towards the goal but the ball went off the far post and Sebastian Lletget’s rebound chance went over the framework. Then moments after Steres’ equalizer, AJ DeLaGarza made a run into the penalty area, made a cutting move to move into the center of the box and thus left him with enough room to shoot for the far post, but his shot instead ended up in the stands.
