Real Salt Lake and Tony Beltran, were flying Wednesday against Sean Franklin and the Galaxy as they inflicted the first defeat on MLS’ only undefeated team (AP Photo).
*The Galaxy’s undefeated season had to end sometime, but did it have to come Wednesday on a single disputed goal in the 80th minute to the defending MLS champions – the last team to beat the Galaxy?
The rule book says: A player is offside if “they are gaining an advantage by being in that position,” which is defined as if they play a ball “that rebounds to him or her off a goal post, crossbar or an opponent.”
Said Real Salt Lake Coach Jason Kreis:
“What I saw, our player struck the ball off their defender and it goes straight to Javier (Morales). The ball has come from their player to our player, who is an offside position, but he can’t be ruled offside if it comes from their defender.”
Yes, he can, Jason. See above.
Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena is correct when he said:
“It wasn’t a pass. There wasn’t a pass on the whole play. Who passed the ball on that play? It was originally a deflection off of a Salt Lake player and a Galaxy player, then it deflected off of Gonzalez and Morales was standing there.”
No wonder Galaxy goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts spent much of the rest of the game looking extremely pissed off and letting the ref know it.
Game story here.
Salt Lake perspective here.
The loss meant second-place RSL gained three points on the Western Conference leaders in the standings.
Attendance: 19,513.
Notable: The game was delayed for 38 minutes in the 13th minute because of lightning.
Galaxy lineup: Donovan Ricketts; Todd Dunivant, Gregg Berhalter, Omar Gonzalez, Sean Franklin; Chris Birchall, Alex Cazumba (Eddie Lewis 78′), Juninho, Michael Stephens; Tristan Bowen (Alan Gordon 72′), Jovan Kirovski (Clint Mathis 63′).
Next for the Galaxy: at Toronto June 26.
*Meanwhile, the Galaxy host the Puerto Rico Islanders at 7 p.m. July 27 at 7 p.m. in the first leg of the preliminary round of the 2010-2011 CONCACAF Champions League at Home Depot Center, the club announced Wednesday. A week later, the Galaxy travel to Puerto Rico for the second leg at 5 p.m. Aug. 4.
Tickets go on sale Friday starting at $20.
From the Galaxy press release: The winner of the Galaxy-Islanders series will be placed in Group D, which will include the Mexican Clausura champ Toluca, Olimpia of Honduras and the winner of the preliminary round match-up between FAS of El Salvador and Xelaj of Guatemala.
*Reporter Phil Collin checked in with Galaxy defender Gregg Berhalter earlier this week to talk about his memories of playing in the World Cup.
*Lastly, it seems the World Cup is making a contribution to Southern California’s burgeoning food truck culture. Now there’s a different way to watch a game.
Here’s the truck’s schedule.
