Galaxy win a confidence game

The Galaxy talked a lot last week about the opportunities Saturday’s showdown with the Columbus Crew presented.

With five Galaxy starters unavailable, the game offered a number of lightly used players an opportunity to shine. With just one of the three teams ahead of the Galaxy winning Saturday, the game gave them an opportunity to move into third in the Western Conference standings.

And with Coach Bruce Arena sitting on 199 career wins, the game offered an opportunity for Arena to become only the second man in MLS history to reach 200.

So after flirting with disaster for more than 70 minutes, the Galaxy reached out and grabbed all three of those opportunities, riding late goals from Baggio Husidic and Giovani dos Santos to a 2-1 win before 24,693 at the StubHub Center.

“In the second half I thought it was going to take a special play to win the game,” Arena said. “In my book Baggio’s goal was the winning goal. It was a fantastic goal.”

The victory was the Galaxy’s first in seven games and six weeks, and the two goals matched their most in a game since May. But the fact it came under trying circumstances had some players believing Saturday’s result wasn’t just a victory but a turning point.

“It will be huge for us,” midfielder Sebastian Lletget said. “Our confidence is going to rise through the roof.”

The Galaxy haven’t had the luxury of a stable lineup all season and Saturday they were missing midfielders Steven Gerrard and Gyasi Zardes and defender Jelle Van Damme to injury, captain Robbie Keane to international duty and midfielder Nigel de Jong for good after he jumped to Turkish club Galatasaray.

Only Keane is expected back before next weekend.

“In this game every player is important,” Dos Santos said of those who came off the bench and stepped up Saturday.

One of those was Raul Mediola, who probably needed to be introduced to some of his teammates because he was making the first start of his MLS career and his first appearance of any kind in more than two years.

But at least he had an excuse. Many of the Galaxy’s other starters also looked like they had just met as well, and they’ve been playing together for six months. However after a listless 70 minutes Husidic, a secondhalf substitute, woke the Galaxy up when his rightfooted rocket from distance on the left wing found the upper-right corner just inside the far post.

It was the Galaxy’s first goal in 189 minutes and Dos Santos waited just four minutes before adding to the lead, latching on to a deflected ball near midfield, outrunning Columbus defender Nicolai Naess into the penalty area, then lifting a left-footed chip over goalkeeper Steve Clark. It was his third score in five games and gave him a team-high10 for the season.

The Crew finally scored in stoppage time. After Galaxy keeper Brian Rowe made a sprawling save of Ola Kamara’s penalty shot, Adam Jahn rushed to the rebound and knocked it past a prone Rowe.

Kamara lost an earlier goal when his bending, rightfooted shot from just outside the area kissed the right post.