Carson, Calif. -- Coming into Wednesday night’s home game against the Portland Timbers at the StubHub Center, the Los Angeles Galaxy held the fourth spot in the Western Conference standings behind the third-place Timbers.
The Galaxy, however, have been playing some of their best soccer of the season -- as seen by their recent 5-1 blowout win over Philadelphia -- and looked to continue that surging momentum in front of their 21,207 fans in attendance. Incredibly, the team would duplicate their five-goal explosion for the second consecutive game, as they soundly defeated the Timbers, 5-0, in a game that was essentially over after the first half.
Los Angeles wasted no time getting on the scoreboard, as Dan Gargan took the ball down the wing in the 14th minute and crossed it into Sebastian Lletget, who was in the right position as he sat 10 yards away from goal in the center. Gargan’s crossed found him, and Lletget one-timed the shot to the corner for a quick 1-0 lead.
"Very good performance, in the early minutes of the game he was our best player," said Galaxy coach Bruce Arena of Lletget. "He made a bunch of good plays and then ultimately got the first goal."
Lletget showed the Timbers no mercy and was at it again in the 17th minute when he attacked the Portland defense and was tripped from behind as he entered the 18-yard box, earning LA a penalty kick. Robbie Keane slotted home the shot past Adam Kwarasey, giving the Galaxy a commanding 2-0 early advantage.
Unfortunately for the Timbers, the onslaught continued as the Galaxy increased the score to 3-0 in the 33rd minute. LA worked the ball downfield and Keane got it up top, patiently waiting for Robbie Rogers to make his diagonal run. Keane gave Rogers a quality lead pass that Rogers scored to the far post to give the Galaxy even more breathing room. It was his first-ever goal as a member of the Galaxy.
“It was a great pass from Robbie [Keane] and I just ran," said Rogers. "I don’t really know what the goalkeeper was doing, he came out way too early. Robbie [Keane] and the goalkeeper made it easy for me. I just saw him come out and he probably thought I would take a touch and that’s why he started sprinting at me, so I decided to first-time hit it.”
LA could have very easily made it 4-0 before the end of half, but they had a shot ricochet off the post.
In the second half, the Galaxy showed no signs of letting up, as Los Angeles made it a 4-0 lead in the 72nd minute when they broke away with the ball into Portland’s defensive end. Keane maintained possession and then found Juninho coming in from the side. Juninho struck the ball in stride with his outer foot and scored.
The Galaxy scored a fifth goal in 88th minute when substitute Jose Villarreal's free-kick stayed low to the ground and curved around the wall into the goal at the near post. That final goal was significant because for the first time in team history, the Galaxy had five separate players score a goal for the second-consecutive match.
The Galaxy are now 7-5-7 on the season (28 points), and will be back in action on Saturday, June 27, for a match against the San Jose Earthquakes at Stanford Stadium with kickoff set for 7:30 p.m.
By Brian Kowalski
Reporter for TheDailySportsHerald.com
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