Galaxy squanders it away

Twelve years to the day from the Galaxy's Major League Soccer debut -- a day when Cobi Jones sent a Rose Bowl crowd of 69,255 into a frenzy with the team's first goal on April 13, 1996 -- the Galaxy turned in a strange performance.

Yes, Landon Donovan scored twice. Yes, David Beckham was his usual influential self. Yes, the team could have come away with at least a point.

But, no, the Galaxy did not win, or even tie. It was beaten, 3-2, by Toronto FC, a second-year team still being pieced together and finding its feet in the league.

Galaxy Coach Ruud Gullit was staggered by the way his players failed to take advantage of numerous clear scoring chances -- Donovan missed a sitter when he drove the ball into the side netting. Ely Allen made an even more glaring error, allowing the ball to be stripped from his toe with the goal at his mercy.

There were several other lapses, and in the end the squandered opportunities decided the outcome. As Gullit said, the Galaxy suffered "the consequences of not being able to bury this game early."

With each Galaxy miscue, Toronto (1-2-0) grew in strength and confidence, despite the heat. The result was almost inevitable, and it came when substitute Jeff Cunningham latched onto a pass in the 88th minute and beat Galaxy goalkeeper Steve Cronin to earn the Canadian team its first points of the season.

"It was near the end of the game, it was our last opportunity, I wanted to make the most of it," said Cunningham, the league's fourth-leading goal scorer of all time.

Cunningham could have played an even more dramatic role a little earlier in the match when he broke through and appeared set to score, only to be taken down by Beckham on the edge of the penalty area.

To everyone's astonishment, including Beckham's and Gullit's, referee Alex Prus waved play on.

"I don't know, maybe it was a foul, maybe it wasn't," Beckham said. "Sometimes they give 'em, sometimes they don't. Thankfully, we got away with that one."

Had Prus interpreted the law to the letter, Beckham could have been red-carded for the first time in his Major League Soccer career.

"It was definitely a foul, but I think it would have been quite harsh to give him a red card, to be quite honest," Cunningham said generously.

"I think we were lucky there," Gullit admitted. "It was the only luck we had the whole game."