AP Photos

Current Galaxy striker Bryan Jordan and former Galaxy defender Ty Harden go head to head during Tuesday’s U.S. Open Cup game in Carson, which the Rapids won on penalty kicks after the two teams played to a 0-0 overtime draw.

The Galaxy failed to find a way past a team that played for most of the night with 10 men, but frankly Coach Bruce Arena didn’t look too disappointed with dispensing with the distraction of the U.S. Open Cup in a season where there are far more urgent priorities.

The positives?
A.J. DeLaGarza, Yohance (God’s gift) Marshall (I’m not being funny – that’s what his first name apparently means in Swahili) at central defense and not giving up any goals, said Coach Bruce Arena. Sounds about right to me.

This was one of those nights it was sufficient to show up and look like you’re working:

“The opportunity to play some guys tonight was beneficial … overall I thought our effort was good. We broke down technically with the last pass or the finish tonight and that was the difference in the game.”

On the unusual back four of Omar Gonzalez, Yohance Marshall, Gregg Berhalter and A.J. DeLaGarza:

“From Saturday we had a couple of players that needed more time to recover. We didn’t intend to play Omar (Gonzalez) at right back, but I actually thought he did a good job. He had some stomach cramps and we had to take him off after 90 (minutes). He’s obviously pretty fatigued. Players that played on Saturday we were somewhat reluctant at trying to give them a lot of minutes today and we tried to avoid that.”

Gregg Berhalter also had to come out with cramps, BTW. (It’s been a while since he played a game, Arena said, although Berhalter said he hadn’t missed a day of training this season with his second division German club this season).

At the other end of the spectrum, Colorado Coach Gary Smith declared himself “completely overwhelmed and delighted” (isn’t that pushing it for a U.S. Open Cup preliminary game?):

“I thought, categorically, we showed tremendous character, (playing) a man down for the best part of what I think was 90 minutes and that’s never easy away from home.”

An announced 6,219 were in attendance.

Current Galaxy midfielder Chris Klein and former Galaxy defender Ugo Ihemelu go toe to toe Tuesday in Carson.