Galaxy Has All the Answers in Victory

The question being asked at the Home Depot Center on Saturday night was not who won the game but rather who scored the goals.

The Galaxy was the clear winner, defeating the Colorado Rapids, 2-0, in front of 24,895, but there was debate during and after the match as to which two players had put the ball in the net.

Defender Tyrone Marshall thought the first goal should have been awarded to him.

“I touched it, man,” the Jamaican international said afterward, only half in jest.

Marshall said he honestly believed he had redirected rookie Ned Grabavoy’s well-struck, 25-yard free kick past Joe Cannon, Major League Soccer’s stingiest goalkeeper this season with a 0.86 goals-against average coming into the game.

But television replays from a couple of angles showed that Grabavoy’s curling free kick had bounced past Marshall, and that Marshall’s real contribution had been in distracting Cannon with his diagonal run and lunge at the ball just in front of the net.

The goal, in the 39th minute, gave the Galaxy (9-5-3) a deserved lead, but the game hung in the balance until Carlos Ruiz doubled the advantage 10 minutes from the end, again off a free kick.

Ruiz slammed his shot at the seven-player defensive wall set up by Colorado and the ball caromed off a defender and into the net. For a moment it appeared that the ball had bounced off Galaxy forward Alejandro Moreno, who had positioned himself in the wall, but Moreno later denied that it had struck him.

By scoring, Ruiz increased his MLS-leading total to nine goals in 11 games as he seeks to become the league’s top scorer for the third season in a row.

Galaxy goalkeeper Kevin Hartman preserved the shutout, his and the team’s third of the season, when he saved a penalty kick by Colorado striker John Spencer that had been awarded in the 87th minute when defender Chris Aloisi used his forearm to knock the ball away at the edge of the penalty area.

The victory extended the Galaxy’s winning streak to three games and ended the Rapids’ unbeaten streak at five. Los Angeles has a league-high 30 points.

The Rapids (5-4-6) had twice come close to scoring early on, first in the sixth minute when a foul by Marshall on Colorado winger Chris Henderson led to a free kick from which Daryl Powell struck a shot that deflected inches wide of Hartman’s left post.

In the 19th minute, Spencer fired a 20-yard shot that rattled the foot of the right post before rebounding away.

After those early scares, the Galaxy, playing without suspended playmaker Andreas Herzog, as well as without defenders Danny Califf, who is injured, and Chris Albright, who is with the U.S. national team for today’s match against Poland in Chicago, settled down and took control of the game.

Sasha Victorine, playing in defensive midfield in place of Marcelo Saragosa and Peter Vagenas, both sidelined because of injuries, filled the role very well.

But it was Grabavoy who stood out, not only with his first MLS goal, but with his overall performance. He ran for the full 90 minutes, won tackles, and his passing was both shrewd and creative.

Marshall might have wanted the goal, but Grabavoy deserved it, and it was his name the fans were chanting at the end.