Galaxy-New England Revolution postgame

Galaxy 1 New England Revolution 1

i-11126395b24bad7579a6c76d685f6c02-juninhosgoal.jpgA shot too far: Grasping New England goalkeeper Matt Reis is unable to stop Juninho’s 39th minute blast that tied the game as Galaxy forward Chad Barrett looks on(AP Photos).

*Reporter Phil Collin has the game story.

*Bottom line for the Galaxy: Two valuable home points lost.

*Bottom line for New England: A valuable away point gained for a team with limited expectations given that three regulars were missing and the revamped team saw only three players begin this game who started last year’s corresponding fixture.

“We didn’t really give them a lot of places to go, particularly in the second half.” said Revs Coach Steve Nicol. “We obviously wanted to do a little more attacking than we did. But that will come. We got a bit of confidence from today.”

*Notable: Joseph’s goal was the second-fastest to open a season in New England history.

Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena wasn’t impressed with the quality of the defending on the play:

“We did a poor job. The ball came back to Perovic. I don’t think we put him under any kind of pressure. He plays the ball back in and we should have been pushing out of the goal. We are well aware of the player that is going to get at the end of crosses. It’s Joseph. There is no secret there. We just did a poor job on the entire play, a poor job giving the ball away maybe 30 seconds before that that resulted in a corner kick. We didn’t do well in the opening minutes of the game and it cost us three points.”

Highlights:

*Same old problems: Leonardo (critical mistakes), Mike Magee (ineffectual at forward), Chad Barrett (simply must learn how to finish).

*Showed promise: Paulo Cardozo, who came on as a 63rd minute sub. And Arena’s thought were pretty much along the same lines as mine:

“He still has a way to go. He is a good little player. I think that tactically he has to have a little bit better understanding of how to play with us, but certainly he is a player with a very good first touch. He is a good passer of the ball. We have to get him to expand his dimensions in terms of his passing and movement off the ball.”

*Notable: David Beckham had 27 crosses for the Galaxy tonight, 51% of the total crosses in the match.

Landon Donovan had this to say after the game:

Galaxy XI: Josh Saunders, Todd Dunivant, Leonardo, A.J. DeLaGarza, Sean Franklin, Landon Donovan, Juninho, Chris Birchall, David Beckham, Mike Magee (Paolo Cardozo 63), Chad Barrett (Juan Pablo Angel 63)

Revs XI: Matt Reis, Chris Tierney, A.J. Soares, Franco Coria, Darrius Barnes, Zak Boggs, Pat Phelan, Shalrie Joseph, Stephen McCarthy, Marko Perovic (Kenny Mansally 22), Zack Schilawski (Sainey Nyassi 74)

New England was missing Kevin Alston (L hamstring strain), Ousmane Dabo (R quad strain) and Didier Domi (R knee swelling).

i-9d1c8c11843a38b99c620af43b1de5e5-Angelmeasures.jpgNo Angel: I was this much onside Juan Pablo Angel was insisting after his goal in the second minute of stoppage time got called back. He was wrong.

Next for the Galaxy: at Real Salt Lake, 6 p.m. Saturday

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