The LA Galaxy knew they'd need a nearly perfect outing Saturday night at Houston to prevail in difficult conditions and without 11 players, most of them major contributors, but their hopes of ending a long road winless streak were destroyed when they conceded two soft goals in the first half-hour.
It made for an easy 3-0 romp by the Dynamo, who conceded possession but allowed little penetration as LA wilted in 90-degree-plus heat and the South Texas humidity.
There was little the Galaxy (9-7-7) could do after Brad Davis set up Will Bruin in the ninth minute and then doubled the advantage in the 27th.
“Conceding a goal in the early minutes of the game really put us in a difficult situation,” head coach Bruce Arena said on the Time Warner Cable SportsNet's postgame show. “We struggled to deal with the heat and the humidity. Give Houston credit. They played a good game, we did not.”
Multiple errors on both goals greatly handicapped LA, which couldn't produce much at the other end in a 4-2-3-1 alignment that left captain Robbie Keane stranded up top.
“When you're away from home and you concede an early goal like that, especially in this heat and this humidity, it was difficult to chase the game, and that was a prime example tonight,” Keane said. “They caught us in the counterattack, sloppy goal we shouldn't have conceded, and the second goal as well, we should probably have done a little bit better with that. So we've only go ourselves to blame, really.”
It was a tough night for Keane, whose nose was bloodied in an early confrontation with Dynamo defender David Horst and who wore a sling on his right shoulder after the game.
“I'm not too sure what happened [to my shoulder],” he said. “I think something happened in the first half, that I got a knock or fell awkwardly. Halftime it started to stiffen up. Obviously, with the adrenaline, you keep going, and after the game it was pretty hard to life over my head, which is not good. Hopefully, it's not too serious.”
LA, which hasn't won a league game away from home since last August, 17 games in all (including playoffs), held nearly 70 percent possession in the first half and 62 percent for the game, and they moved the ball well between the attacking thirds, not that it mattered.
“Our possession got us nothing on the night,” Arena said. “The only statistic that counts in this sport is the scoreboard. And we lost that statistic by a lot tonight, so possession doesn't mean a damn thing.
“We just didn't start the game well. A lot of mistakes led to that first goal, and the second goal, we probably should stop that shot and maybe go into halftime down a goal and give yourself a chance. But down two goals, it allows Houston to sit back and be good and organized and counter us, which they did in the second half.”
LA's backline was stretched on the opening goal, in which Davis took a feed up the left flank from Alex Lima on the break and delivered a ball that got past a sliding Leonardo for Bruin to finish for his ninth goal of the season. Nobody shut down Nathan Sturgis' run on the second goal, and Davis had an open look from 25 yards.
“I think I could do better on [the second goal], go with one hand [when diving for the ball] maybe instead of two,” said goalkeeper Brian Rowe, whose approach was designed to help if the shot bounced. “It's a save I expect of myself.”
The Galaxy were without five players at the CONCACAF Gold Cup, another five who are injured, and yellow-card-accumulation suspended left back Robbie Rogers, so Arena gave MLS debuts to Galaxy II defender Dave Romney, who played on the left, and winger Ariel Lassiter, who came on in the 71st minute and challenged Houston goalkeeper Tyler Deric with a long shot from the left just before Leonel Miranda netted the third goal.
Arena said Romney “might have been our most solid player on the night ... the one guy that won his matchup.” The head coach also said Steven Gerrard, getting his first taste of the Texas heat, had a “real difficult night” and “in all fairness to him, we probably shouldn't give him these kind of minutes in this environment.”
