Sport - Football

Colorado thrashes LA Galaxy

COMMERCE CITY (USA): Ruud Gullit, David Beckham and their Los Angeles Galaxy crashed to a 4-0 defeat to Colorado in Saturday’s Major League Soccer season opener. The glamour team’s new season under Dutch soccer legend Gullit started poorly despite Beckham racing back from midweek England duty to take on the Rapids.

“It’s always going to be tough when you have international games,” Beckham said. “I felt OK for most of the match, maybe not at my sharpest, but it was overall a tough game for us. We created chances, but didn’t put them away.”

It was not Beckham, but a lesser known former Manchester United winger Terry Cooke who opened the scoring in the 10th minute for Colorado. Christian Gomez doubled the lead with a 60th minute penalty, Jamaican forward Omar Cummings made it 3-0 in the 67th minute and Colin Clark completed the scoring in the 80th.

Things got testy toward the end of the game. In the 90th minute, Galaxy’s Portugese international defender Abel Xavier — who was yellow carded for the foul that led to Colorado’s penalty — was sent off for a rough tackle on Ciaran O’Brien, who in turn was sent off soon afterward for his own hard tackle on Carlos Ruiz.

“I’m finding it hard not to criticise some of the decisions tonight but I’ve just been told I’ll be fined if I do,” Beckham said. “I don’t want that to happen. Referees have a tough job, but some decisions change games, and that’s happened tonight.”

The Galaxy said the altitude played a part in its sluggish play, and that Gomez’s goal deflated them. “The turning point was the penalty kick,” Gullit said. “That caused a little bit of chaos in our organisation, and we lost our head a little bit.” Former D.C. United midfielder Gomez was a constant thorn in the side of Los Angeles. — AP

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