Coach Bruce Arena seeks positives in Galaxy’s 4-2 exhibition loss to MLS champion Colorado Rapids

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After back-to-back 1-1 ties with the Portland Timbers and the San Jose Earthquakes in preseason play, the Galaxy was beaten, 4-2, Wednesday by the defending Major League Soccer champion Colorado Rapids in an exhibition played at Arizona State.

Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena sought to find some positives from the game, which saw Landon Donovan score on a penalty kick and forward Adam Cristman score off a pass from fellow newcomer Frankie Hejduk.

‘I think a number of players actually did well today,’ Arena said. ‘We made a few mistakes, I think, on marking in front of the goal, but I think in the preseason it’s still a little bit difficult not only for the players but for the referees, [who] struggled on a couple of plays today. But that’s all part of it. Overall, it wasn’t a bad effort by our group.’

Colorado got two goals in a six-minute spell in the first half by U.S. international Conor Casey and, after the Galaxy had tied the game, two more in a six-minute stretch in the second half as Caleb Folan and Stephen Emory found the back of the net.

The Galaxy closes out its training camp in Arizona with exhibition games against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Sunday and Tuesday before returning to Los Angeles and continuing preparation in Carson for its MLS season-opener at Seattle on March 15.

‘Overall, it was a good evaluation of players and we continue to move forward,’ Arena said. ‘Hopefully it continues to get sharper over the next couple of weeks as we try to get a little bit more serious in preparing our team for the first game.’

--Grahame L. Jones