RSL 2 Galaxy 2

What to make of this 1-1-5 Galaxy team? They’ve led for what – all of 52 minutes this season?

Are results like this masking how bad the Galaxy are considering they’ve won just once this season? Or was it a demonstration of guts and team-building especially now the Galaxy are unbeaten in their last five games and are one of only two MLS teams unbeaten on the road?

Real Salt Lake are just the latest team to collectively scratch their heads.

And so is Mike Magee by the sound of it:

“To only lose one game seven games into the season says a lot about a team, especially with a bunch of new guys. … Last year we gave away too many games and this year to have only lost one game is huge.

If we go down a goal we kind of come together. In the past we’ve kind of fallen apart. But we’ve dug ourselves out of a lot of holes and that can’t speak enough about our team’s chemistry.

All I care about is results. It was 2-2 in Salt Lake – that team hadn’t given a point away yet at home. So we walk away with a point, people can criticize all they want about how our team plays, but if we can come away with a draw the joke is on everybody else.

I likened this game to high-stakes poker considering the stoppage time drama; Landon Donovan called it “Russian Roulette.”

Whatever. They’d better be careful where they point the gun because it’s clear it could go off at any time without any warning.

Contradictions everywhere.

Minimal creativity for much of the game, yet the Galaxy didn’t let up to the bitter end either.

Here’s Landon Donovan’s analysis:

“We kind of put ourselves in a hole and we didn’t have a lot of the ball, but we played pretty solidly and we felt pretty good about how we were doing … I can’t imagine many teams would have come back and got something out of that roller coaster ride from tying the game to going down the goal to just having the fortitude to come back and getting something out of the game. We keep saying this comment, but last year we would have lost that game and I’m proud of how we just came back.

“We haven’t lost a game on the road and that’s important not only for our psyche, but we’ve also played three (Western Conference) teams and kept them from getting two more points on the road from us. That’s huge. And now we’ve got to a better job – and we started last week – of winning our games at home, but if we keep playing this way we’re going to be in every game we play and we’re going to have a chance to win them.”

Coach Bruce Arena was more than a little defensive when I observed that generally speaking it was another less than auspicious performance by his team:

“You go on the road, you don’t open yourself up. You keep yourself in the game. I don’t know if you realize their last game they won 6-0 at home and you find the negatives in a 2-2 game.”

Actually, Bruce, I’m trying to be realistic. The margin for error the Galaxy have carved so far is very small. So far, it’s working. Barely.

Up next for the Galaxy: the Seattle Sounders and former Coach Sigi Schmid at noon on Sunday. I’ll blog from the game as we continue our dash northward.