The LA Galaxy had last won an MLS game away from StubHub Center nearly 11 months ago, when they rallied with three second-half goals to edge the Colorado Rapids, a performance that head coach Bruce Arena called the most important of their campaign.
They offered something of a mirror image Saturday night, again rallying with three second-half goals – by Sebastian Lletget, Alan Gordon and Robbie Keane – to pull out a 3-1 win over the Rapids at Dick's Sporting Goods Park, their first league away victory in 18 tries.
It's been a long grind, amplified by an inability to hold onto five leads in their last eight road games, and there understandably was joy in LA's locker room once they'd halted the hated streak.
“We obviously feel relief, really,” Keane told reporters in Commerce City, Colo. “I knew it was going to come. I wasn't too worried about it. I said [during] the week I think it was important that away from home, the mentality has to change, and it certainly did tonight, in the way we played.
“When we went a goal down, you're thinking the same old story again, but full credit to the players. We got ourselves in at halftime, we didn't do too badly the first half ... and then in the second half, we came out, and, to be fair, we were the much better team from the get-go. Once we got the first goal back, I think we were always going to go on and win it.”
It took some time.
With three players back from the CONCACAF Gold Cup, Steven Gerrard playing his natural position in the middle of a four-man midfield for the first time and the return of just-acquired Donovan Ricketts in the nets, LA was playing something akin to what will be their first-choice lineup the rest of the year – missing only Giovani Dos Santos, who arrives next week.
It took some time to find chemistry, but after Marcelo Sarvas gave Colorado a 12th-minute lead – the fourth time in the past six road games LA conceded in the first 15 minutes – the Galaxy turned aggressive, and they were in charge once the second half kicked off.
“The guys get an A+ for their effort,” head coach Bruce Arena said on the postgame telecast. “I felt that if we gave an effort as a group tonight, as a team tonight, over time the quality would show and make a difference in the game, and it certainly did. ...
“I think the last 15 minutes of the first half, we had control of the game. So I wasn't surprised how we were able to take control of the second half, not that it was easy. Certainly, Colorado put us under pressure. Overall, I thought the effort in the second half was outstanding.”
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LA scored three fine goals – Lletget's sixth in his last eight MLS games in the 56th minute, Gordon with a rebound of a Gerrard shot in the 69th and Keane after stripping James Riley at midfield in stoppage – after netting just one (while conceding 12) in the second half of their previous 10 road games.
Arena said he “would have survived” had the Galaxy not ended their winless streak and that he “suspects we're going to win other games on the road,” but Gordon said the victory was a vital step forward.
“When they scored, we had to go for it and get aggressive, and I think that should be our mindset going forward,” he said. “If we do that, I think we're going to be more successful. ... [The winless streak] was there [in our heads]. But this is where we turned our season around last year. Hopefully, this can be something of a little run that we go on now, now that we're getting guys back.”
