The Galaxy talked a lot last week about the opportunities Saturday’s showdown with the Columbus Crew presented.
With five starters unavailable, the game offered a number of lightly-used players an opportunity to shine. With just one of the three teams ahead of the Galaxy winning Saturday, the game gave them an opportunity to move into third in the Western Conference standings.
And with Coach Bruce Arena sitting on 199 career wins, the game offered an opportunity for Arena to become just the second man in MLS history to reach 200 victories.
So after flirting with disaster for more than 70 minutes, the Galaxy reached out and grabbed all three of those opportunities, riding late goals from Baggio Husidic and Giovani dos Santos to a 2-1 win before 24,693 at the StubHub Center.