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Casey’s three goals sink short-handed L.A.
Conor Casey scored three goals, including the winning goal in the 84th minute, as the Colorado Rapids scored a rare road victory in Southern California, beating the Galaxy 3-2 on Saturday.
Casey’s third score was set up when Colin Clark stole the ball from defender Sean Franklin, who had pushed forward into the Rapids’ half of the field although his team was playing with only 10 men at the time.
Franklin had tried to change direction in front of Clark but let the ball get too far out in front of him. Clark stuck his right foot out to collect the ball, turned up field and pushed the ball into space in front of Casey, creating a two-on-one with Omar Cummings.
Casey kept the ball, maneuvered around Galaxy goalkeeper Josh Saunders and tapped the ball easily into the net at the left post.
Los Angeles played a man down for more than 30 minutes after referee Michael Kennedy ejected Dema Kovalenko for what was described as a serious foul against Colorado midfielder Mehdi Ballouchy.
Kovalenko came in high wth one foot forward on a challenge to Ballouchy, but he didn’t tuck his trailing leg in an obvious fashion. Kennedy was the closest man on the field, and he wasted little time in producing the red card.
Casey’s other goals came in the first and 49th minutes, both on assists from Cummings.
Shortly after halftime, Ballouchy squirted a ball forward to Cummings on the right wing. Cummings ran onto it and passed toward the middle of the field, where Casey was prowling unmarked. He popped it past Saunders with his left foot and tied the game at 2-2.
It was nearly identical to the opening goal, a right-wing cross from Cummings 17 seconds after the opening whistle.
“Omar put two on a plate for me, so that was really his work,” Casey told Los Angeles’ Prime Ticket. “I just tapped them in. After we went up a man we actually struggled a bit, but it was great to get a win on the road.”
The Rapids are now 5-19-2 against the Galaxy in Southern California. The victory was Colorado’s first on the road against L.A. since May 2006.
Both of Los Angeles’ goals were set up by Landon Donovan, who was returning to the Galaxy after playing for the U.S. national team in World Cup qualifiers on Wednesday and the previous Saturday.
In the 48th minute, Franklin surged forward and was cutting laterally across the top of the Rapids’ penalty area. He poked the ball forward to Donovan, who slotted the ball sideways to Alan Gordon. With the Rapids reacting to Donovan, all Gordon had to do was knock the ball into the virtually empty net, giving the hosts a 2-1 lead.
Trailing 1-0 in the 37th minute, rookie center back Omar Gonzalez headed in a Donovan corner kick.
”Basically I just had to get away from Conor Casey because he’d been on me the whole game,” Gonzales told Prime Ticket. “Getting past him was basically the hardest part. Landon put in a good ball, and I got my head on it.”
STRATEGY AFTER A RED CARD: When a team goes down a man following a red card, often the strategy is to emphasize the counterattack and hope to capitalize on restarts down the field. Los Angeles did that but was also able to push numbers forward and sustain some attacks in the Rapids’ end of the pitch, most notably from about the 80th minute to the 84th minute. Ironically, that was part of what set up Casey’s third goal. The Galaxy had moved all nine field players forward and left itself open for a quick counterstrike, which was deftly started by Clark.
THE GAME WASN’T ON TELEVISION IN COLORADO; DESCRIBE THAT FAST FIRST GOAL: Landon Donovan kicks off. The Galaxy does nothing with the possession, and left back Yohance Marshall clears the ball, which winds up with Colorado center back Ugo Ihemelu. Ugo, thinking quickly, sends the ball back where it came from, the left side of the Galaxy defense, where Cummings chases it down, easily outpacing Marshall. Cummings then lines a picture-perfect pass, which travels past defender Tony Sanneh and across the face of the L.A. goal mouth. Cummings’ pass threads the needle between Gonzales, who slides feet-first toward his goal, and goalkeeper Josh Saunders, who dives forward along the ground. The ball finds Conor Casey at the back post, and Casey taps it home with the instep of his right foot. It took 17 seconds, and it was the second-fastest goal in the history of Major League Soccer. ”We just got caught on our heels,” Gonzales told Prime Ticket. “We were just chasing, and me and Josh went for the same ball. And it just happened to roll right past us.”
WHAT IS THE FASTEST MLS GOAL EVER? Eleven seconds, by Dwayne De Rosario for San Jose on Sept. 27, 2003, against Dallas. (Man-crush alert:) It’s amazing how many big goals D-Ro has scored in this league.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Casey.
GALAXY’S MAN OF THE MATCH: Donovan. Playing his third game in eight days, the Galaxy’s captain had two assists and was the team’s biggest threat after Kovalenko was ejected.
COOKIE IS THE MONSTER IN THE ROOM: Last week, Rapids coach Gary Smith credited Terry Cooke, a second-half substitute, with winning the game for the Rapids. Cooke scored on his first touch against Kansas City and initiated a second goal with a spectacular cross-field breakout pass. This week, Cooke entered the game in the 68th minute. He has not started an MLS match this season.
WHO IS THIS GONZALEZ GUY? He’s a 6-foot-5, 210-pound central defender. The Galaxy selected him third overall in the 2009 draft from Maryland, where he helped lead the Terrapins to the 2008 NCAA championship. Gonzalez, born in Dallas, was a semifinalist for the Hermann Trophy last season.
ACCORDING TO THE GAME STATISTICIANS: Ballouchy completed six passes among his 18 touches before leaving the game in the 79th minute.
SANNEH’S TRAVELS: Sanneh was out of the league last year after playing nine games for the Rapids in 2007. Los Angeles is his fifth stop in Major League Soccer. He also has played for Chicago, Columbus and D.C. United.
George Tanner is a former writer and editor for the Rocky Mountain News; the Greeley Tribune; The Daily Independent of Ridgecrest, Calif.; the Durango Herald; and the Boulder Daily Camera. He is a graduate of the University of Colorado and an associate professor at Metropolitan State College of Denver. E-mail him at ColoradoSoccerNow@gmail.com.
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Casey man of the match? Homer.
just wait until you see my player-of-the-week votes!
I’m glad to hear Pickens was actually injured and that Smith hasn’t started another goal keeper controversy like last season. Burpo is a solid back up but not a starter.
Another thing to note about Gonzalez; he use to be a forward. Somewhere along the line he was moved to the back line. Looks like it is working out for him.
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Our goal at ColoradoSoccerNow.com is to cover the sport in this state like no one else, from colleges to the Colorado Rapids, from the W-League to the U.S. men's and women's national teams.
About George: George Tanner fell in love with the Tampa Bay Rowdies and the North American Soccer League while living in the Tampa, Fla., area in the mid-1970s. He got his first taste of newspapering while following the Rowdies every day in the Tampa Tribune, and from there grew the seeds of a journalism career in which he has worked at the Colorado Springs Sun; the Daily Camera in Boulder; the Durango Herald; The Daily Independent in Ridgecrest, Calif.; the Greeley Tribune; and the Rocky Mountain News.
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About Jonathan: Jonathan Ingraham is a Colorado native, sports hound, outdoors enthusiast and Metropolitan State College student, working on a journalism degree. Outside of school, he works as a freelance photographer and is available for photographing places, people, events, games or artistic shoots for businesses or personal collections.
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About Tom: Tom Auclair remembers watching the New England Tea Men when he was younger and thinking what a terrible name that was for a sports team. He has worked for the Rocky Mountain News, Longmont Daily Times-Call and several newspapers in New Hampshire. He's currently working as an editor and photographer for a collection of Web sites. He can't believe how quick Omar Cummings is.
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