The Los Angeles Galaxy’s last two games encapsulated the 2006 season for the last year’s championship team and several of its players, notably outside back Chris Albright.
In a 3-0 thumping of Chivas USA Sept. 30 that kept the Galaxy’s playoff hopes alive, Albright set up two of the goals. His storming run up the right flank and cut-back ball to Alan Gordon led to Pete Vagenas‘s opening goal, and another foray produced a cross that Gordon drilled into the net for goal number three.
Last week, Albright let Carlos Ruiz sneak behind him to head home a Richard Mulrooney free kick for the first FC Dallas goal, and then Kenny Cooper escaped his marking to tally the second early in the second half.
A precise diagonal cross from Albright set up Landon Donovan for a goal that reduced the deficit to 2-1, but in the remaining 20 minutes the Galaxy couldn’t net the equalizer that would have kept it in the hunt. In the game, like the season, L.A. just fell too far behind to catch up.
For the first time in the franchise’s 11-year history, Los Angeles misses the playoffs.
“I really felt that this year, we just left ourselves too deep a hole to climb out of,” Albright said of a disastrous 2-8-1 start under former coach Steve Sampson that replacement Frank Yallop wasn’t able to overcome. “This league is too tough, too competitive to start off really badly. At one point we were 2-10-2, and a lot of those games were at home. We left a lot of points out there.
“The attitude needed to be changed and Frank did a good job of that when he came in, but in the long run, you can’t survive in this league without players. I think there have to be some personnel changes during the offseason.”
Emotions have torn at Albright all year. …
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