Galaxy-Rapids Post-Game

Borrowed time, baby, borrowed time.

The Galaxy's season remains on life support, but their 3-2 win over the Colorado Rapids Sunday ensures the season ain't over (just) yet, although there was a sense of fatalism in the relatively buoyant locker room after the game.

"We're still breathing for a week," said Chris Klein on the relevance of the win. "That's what we wanted to do. Our playoffs have already started. So for us it was win or think (about) next year. And we won tonight. We get to prepare this week with the objective of going down and trying to beat Houston."

BTW, on the Galaxy chalkboard in the locker room after the game were detailed, updated MLS standings. And Arena had just said in the press conference: "We have to win games. I've said all along I've not concerned myself with standings. For us, we have to win games. For us, even if we win out we may fall short. But at least we know what we have to do. We're not going into any game looking for a point. We have to try to win."

Highlights are here (and do not miss McDonald's strike):

Game story from the DailyNews/Daily Breeze is here.

Game story from The Denver Post is here.

Bonus quotes:
Rapids goalkeeper Preston Burpo on the loss:

"We came down here, we had a game plan, it didn't work."

On Ugo's own goal:

"Ball came in. Made a decision to get it. Didn't get it. ... Yeah, that was a big turning point."

A man of few words after a tough loss is Burpo.

Galaxy midfielder Brandon McDonald on his stunning goal from 35 yards (or so):

"I'll shoot from further. In college my grandmother used to say shoot from half field."

Glad he listens to gramma.

Rapids Coach Gary Smith (who unfortunately has a tendency to speak in sentence fragments) on an opportunity squandered:

"I was certainly disappointed. A very good opportunity I thought for us to come up against a Galaxy team not in the greatest run of form with two very influential players missing."

On the "very damaging" loss (especially as he believed four or five points were needed from the last three games) and the pressure that brings:

"Some players can deal with it, others can't and it affects their performances. Tonight, I thought, there were two or three of our lads, at least, that underperformed. Left us in a difficult spot. And we're not a side that are going to score lots of goals. The New York game (where the Rapids ran out 5-4 winners) was a one-off. We need to keep clean sheets.

There were too many players in our team that suffered with the pressure they're under to get points. ... Maybe some of our more inexperienced players have felt life difficult."

Bruce Arena on Donovan's generally sparkling performance where he came on as a sub for the critical last few minutes:

"To expect more out of him is insane. To get as much out of him as we did today, we're very fortunate."

On McDonald's blistering goal:

"We kind of laughed when he hit that ball. We've seen that before. It's not a once in a lifetime (thing). We've seen him hit a couple of those shots in training."

On the team's work rate:

"Right now we're not the most experienced and gifted team and we need guys working in the middle of the field. And tonight we came closer to getting that accomplished than we have recently."

Klein again on the team under Arena:

"We're building as a team. say what you (will) about where we are. But we're improving as a team. Bruce is starting to instill his philosophies and the guys are responding well to that."

On the Galaxy's 4-0 loss to the Rapids on opening day:

"That feels like two years ago. To think of all the changes we've had since then, it seems forever ago. I didn't even think about that until you said it. Nobody else is on our minds except for us right now. Colorado, Houston next week, it doesn't really matter who we play, we just have to win games."