LA Galaxy draw feels like a loss in Vancouver

Despite being the road side, the LA Galaxy kept pressure on the Vancouver Whitecaps the entire ninety minutes. As such, it's understandable that the general mood in the locker room is disappointment more than anything else. This wasn't a case where LA were happy to walk out with a draw, everyone felt like they left points on the pitch in Vancouver.

"I'm disappointed," said Bruce Arena. "I would have liked to get three points today. We obviously didn't do a good job protecting the lead."

LA led for 38 minutes in the match against Vancouver. Despite being on the road, they were just as willing to press forward and go for goal in the final third as the Whitecaps were. Unlike the previous weekend's match in Carson, the Galaxy back line had difficulty dealing with the speed of the Vancouver forwards and made costly errors that let the Caps back into the match.

"We didn't lose the game," said Robbie Keane, "but we could have at the end. They had a chance, I know we had a chance as well. Overall, just disappointed there's nothing else you can say. Just disappointed. You can't go two goals up away from home and concede goals where you have to force goals. The fourth goal was very sloppy."

Kakuta Manneh was used as a super sub on Saturday, but his equalizer has a strong case for Goal of the Week. How he got so open to shoot that rocket was a case of defensive breakdown. Three Galaxy players converged on a ball switched to the far side of the penalty area, such that Manneh was left with no one around him. Because Sarvas went out to suppor Donovan and Gargan, Juninho had to switch over but it was too late. All he could do was duck out of human instinct as a ball beelined for the back of the net.

Both clubs got off shots on goal in stoppage time, as things got wild going down to the final whistle. It felt like everyone relaxed after Robbie Keane got the go ahead goal, and that let the guard down just enough for Vancouver to save a point at the last moment.

"At the end of the day we can't be overly disappointed," said Landon Donovan, "but I guess because of the way the game went we should have won. I mean really every goal is preventable, but in particular, we felt that these two goals were preventable. It's disappointing but we're still relatively happy with the performance."

The first Vancouver goal with Jaime Penedo and Leonardo failing to effectively communicate and run into each other on a ball that should have be cleared out of bounds was another highly preventable goal.

The Galaxy have had two home and home series to begin the season, only getting a point out of the RSL series and now four points from Vancouver. All things considered, it's really only the opener against RSL where things didn't go as they should. With the club on the road for most of May, and a bye week this upcoming weekend, it still feels like the Galaxy season hasn't really begun yet. There's still plenty of time to get the engine going.