Rapids Edge Galaxy on PKs to Advance

Rapids Edge Galaxy on PKs to Advance by Chris Brown.

November 6th, 2016 – Colorado Rapids welcomed LA Galaxy to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park for the second leg of the Western Conference Semi-Finals.

Galaxy won the first leg 1-0 at StubHub Center after Giovanni Dos Santos scored the only goal of the match in the 55th minute.

This match will be the fifth time the two sides have faced each other this season with each side winning once and the sides drawing twice previously. The last time the two teams faced off in Colorado was during the second week of the season, all the way back in March and Colorado came away with three points following a last minute Marco Pappa volley that struck the roof of the Galaxy net.

The storylines coming into the game were numerous and the subplots add tension and weight to an already important match. If LA fail to advance it could mark the final competitive match for two legends in Steven Gerrard and Landon Donovan. If Colorado lost it might mean that Pablo Mastroeni’s tenure as head coach of the Rapids may be over as he’s yet to be offered an extension by Colorado.

Jermaine Jones got the start for Colorado playing on the left side of the defensive midfield, next to Sam Cronin. Jones missed over three months following a knee injury against Portland Timbers on July 4th and has only made two substitute appearances since becoming available again, in the final regular season game against Houston and in the 1-0 loss to LA last weekend. Kevin Doyle started in the number ten role while Dominique Badji started up front for Colorado with Shkelzen Gashi and Sebastien Le Toux on the wings.

Galaxy are without Emmanuel Boateng who doesn’t feature in the starting line up or on the bench. Giovanni Dos Santos started in the ten role again with Alan Gordon leading the line and Landon Donovan playing on the right wing.

Colorado started brightly with Jermaine Jones finding Dominique on the wing and Badji forced Brian Rowe to make a save 30 seconds into the match, winning a corner. After the corner was deflected out of the box Sebastien Le Toux fired a volley through traffic but right at Rowe, who read the shot perfectly and collected the ball with ease.

Early on Colorado looked to play more long balls then they normally do. Playing Badji up top allows Colorado to stretch the field and the decision to play Jones in defensive midfield allowed Pablo Mastroeni’s team to launch precision long balls from deeper.

Bruce Arena seemed to have a similar idea. Colorado looked to press LA deep in their own territory and to counter, Arena’s men, especially van Damme, looked to send balls to Alan Gordon over the top.

Colorado began to probe through the middle of the LA defense and looked to set up compact give and go passes on the top of the box to set someone free, but the Galaxy defense did well to sniff the attacks out and give Colorado very little space.

In the 36th minute Shekelzen Gashi justified every single penny Colorado spent to bring him to the club by scoring an absolute stunner! LA gave the midfielder too much space and from about 40 yards from goal and the Albanian International let a shot go. Gashi seemed to chop across the ball causing it to knuckle, hard, toward the left post. The shot was hit so hard and so sweetly that Rowe couldn’t get to the ball and it deflected off the inside of the left post and nestled in the back of the LA goal, giving the Rapids a 1-0 lead in the match and leveling the aggregate score.

LA appeared stunned after the goal and the Rapids seemed to have found some confidence.

In the 43rd minute the Rapids had a golden chance to go up even further. Sam Cronin and Jermaine Jones combined in a tackle to win the ball back in a dangerous area for the Rapids and Sebastien Le Toux found Dominique Badji at the top of the box. Badji turned well an was able to get a shot off, but missed the goal wide by a foot or two.

At halftime the score was Colorado 1 and LA 0, with the aggregate score level at a goal a piece. At the final whistle Shkelzen Gashi was injured when he clattered knees with an LA player.

At halftime each coach made a substitution. Gashi, apparently injured, came off for Marlon Hairston and Bruce Arena brought Landon Donovan off for Jeff Larentowicz. After the match Bruce Arena revealed that Donovan came off due to a hamstring issue.

The physicality in the second half picked up quite a bit, which you would expect from two teams who have already played four times this season and in a game with so much on the line.

In the 60th minute Alan Gordon came off for Robbie Keane. Gordon was ineffective on the day, holding the ball up okay but never really posing a threat.

In the 63rd minute LA tried to square the ball across field from one wing to the other and Marlon Hairston intercepted in space. Hairston ran at the back line but was unable pick out the run of Dominique Badji and ended up firing feebly and wide of Brian Rowe’s goal.

In the 72nd minute Colorado should have added to their lead. Jermaine Jones went on a powerful run that saw him shed off Ashley Cole like Emmitt Smith in his prime and after dribbling half the field, Jones picked out a lovely ball to find Dominique Badji in the box. Badji had time and space to pick out his shot but the occasion prove to be too much for the striker who sliced his shot badly wide, failing to test the keeper at all and letting LA off the hook.

Just minutes later Doyle scuffed a shot wide right of the Galaxy goal as Colorado was in the ascendency.

In the 76th minute Bruce Arena used his final sub bringing Mike McGee off for Steven Gerrard.

Gerrard slotted in to his usual deep midfield role and looked to pick out Robbie Keane with some long balls over the top.

In the 83 minute Jermaine Jones came off for Dillon Powers. Jones played exceptionally well and was the catalyst for a lot of the Rapid attack, but Jones probably should have come off ten minutes earlier as he was completely out of gas. After the match Pablo Mastroeni revealed that he only expected to get about 55 minutes out of Jones and the fact that the midfielder was able to play as long as he did was “a testament to his willpower.”

There was concern for LA in the 87th minute when Jelle van Damme had to leave the field and appeared to be limping. Arena had already used all three of his subs and van Damme was far and away the Galaxy’s most impressive player up to that point. The concern turned out to be in vein as the Dutch defender hurried back out after receiving treatment.

Four minutes of stoppage time were added to the second half but even that wasn’t enough time to decide a winner. Tied at one goal each on aggregate, the match headed into extra time.

In the 14th minute of extra time Eric Miller skirted past his defender on the right wing and sent in a lovely cross to the head of Badji. Badji nodded the cross on goal but directly at Rowe who saved easily.

With 9 minutes of extra time left and penalty kicks looming, Marco Pappa came on in place of Dominique Badji. Kevin Doyle took up position as the striker while Pappa joined the midfield.

The whistle blew at the end of extra time. It would take penalties to decide the match. LA has the more experienced and more quality players to take kicks, but Tim Howard is certainly the better keeper of the two.

Steven Gerrard stepped up to take the first penalty for LA. It was like a scene from an old Mercyside Derby, Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard vs. Everton’s Tim Howard. Gerrard stepped up and fired to the bottom right, beating Tim Howard.

Kevin Doyle took the Rapids first PK and saw his shot sneak in underneath a diving Brian Rowe.

Giovanni Dos Santos stepped up next for Galaxy and crushed his shot just over the bar.

Sebastien Le Toux came up next for Colorado and calmly hammered his penalty to the left side of the Galaxy goal while Rowe dove the wrong way. Colorado was up 2-1.

Ashley Cole came up next the ex-Chelsea man shot to the bottom left of Tim Howard’s goal. Howard guessed correctly which way Cole would shoot and saved the shot with a meaty right palm.

Marco Pappa took the long walk to the spot and after a looping run up put Colorado up 3-1 on penalties, scoring to the bottom right corner.
Jeff Larentowicz was the next LA player to stare down Tim Howard and Larentowicz fired to the same corner that Ashley Cole shot at. Again, Howard guessed correctly and as he tipped the ball wide of goal, Dick’s Sporting Goods Park erupted.

The Rapids beat LA 3-1 on penalties not even needing their final two kickers to step up.

After the match Bruce Arena talked about how goalkeeping may have been the deciding factor saying “Obviously they have a very experienced goalkeeper and we don’t.”

Arena was also critical of Brian Rowe’s positioning on the Shkelzen Gashi goal saying that “if our goalkeeper’s technique is better, he has a chance of saving it.

Pablo Mastroeni was pleased with his teams performance saying that the win illustrated “the power of team” and praising his players for giving “themselves up for the greater good.”

Mastoreni also praised Jermaine Jones for his man of the match performance saying “what he did early in the game, along with Sam [Cronin], was boss the midfield” and “controlled the rhythm of the game.”

Colorado will face the winner of FC Dallas vs. Seattle Sounders. Seattle goes into the second leg with a 3-0 lead over the Supporter’s Shield Champions.