Galaxy want to set tone against Rapids
Los Angeles trying to avoid pitfall of sluggish play
All he has to do is think back to last year's season opener with the Rapids to get a good grasp on the strides this year's team apparently has made.
Los Angeles, which had just welcomed back David Beckham and Landon Donovan from international friendlies in Europe only three days earlier, ventured into Colorado last March 29 and was on the wrong end of a 4-0 beating. The Rapids' Terry Cooke scored the game's first goal just 10 minutes in, and it got so bad for the Galaxy that former defender Abel Xavier was sent off in the 89th minute by referee Abbey Okulaja after Xavier fouled the Rapids' Ciaran O'Brien.
Both teams finished the chippy contest with 10 men after O'Brien was ejected for fouling former Galaxy striker Carlos Ruiz a minute later.
Klein said the team never watched film of that debacle.
"Even if we would have won 4-0 we wouldn't have watched it anyway," Klein said. "It's just too long ago."
Klein, however, did admit the game may have been an omen for things to come in Los Angeles, which replaced its coach, Ruud Gullit, with Bruce Arena five months later and missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season.
"You could say it set the tone for last year," Klein said. "We definitely don't want to have a repeat of what happened last year, but we're home with a new group of guys with a different situation.
"This is a new team with a new mentality."
The Galaxy's Jovan Kirovski was on the Rapids' bench for last year's game and has mixed feelings about what he saw.
"It was good for me at the time," he said with a grin. "But it was disappointing to come into the season opener and get pounded pretty good. The scoreline says it all. It's always tough playing Colorado with the altitude and all."
The Galaxy have a three-game home winning streak against the Rapids and are 19-4-2 all-time against Colorado in southern California. The Rapids, starting their longest road swing of the season -- they also play at Columbus on April 11 and at Houston on April 19 -- haven't beaten the Galaxy in Los Angeles since a 1-0 victory on May 20, 2006. Colorado, however, is 8-5-1 in all games against the Galaxy since the start of the 2005 season.
The teams will be seeing a lot of each other in the next few weeks. They also will play a U.S. Open Cup play-in game on Tuesday at The Home Depot Center and meet again at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo., on April 25.
"I don't know who made the schedule," Kirovski said, shaking his head. "But whoever did should think twice."
The Rapids are 1-1 after beating the Kansas City Wizards 2-1 in their home opener last Saturday. Omar Cummings is in a six-way tie for second among MLS goal-scoing leaders with two. The Galaxy haven't played since rallying to tie D.C. United 2-2 in their opener on March 22 behind Donovan's two late goals.
Klein said the Galaxy are eager to get going again.
"I think we're prepared very well ... we're ready to go," he said. "We weren't entirely satisfied with the first game, but it wasn't the worst thing in the world."
Larry Morgan is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
