| Toronto FC gets first win on late goal at Galaxy |
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| Tuesday, 15 April 2008 | |
 CARSON (AP) - Substitute Jeff Cunningham got to rest for much of the hot afternoon, so he had some spark left late in the game. Cunningham won a duel with a defender, then beat goalie Steve Cronin in the 88th minute to give Toronto FC a 3-2 victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy on Sunday. Cunningham and the Galaxy's Greg Vanney were fighting for the ball just outside the box, and Vanney went down. Left all alone, Cunningham made Cronin commit, then coolly kicked the ball past him. "It was probably a 50-50 ball," Cunningham said of his skirmish to control the ball. "At that stage of the game, I thought that might be our last opportunity. Thankfully I was able to win the battle." Cunningham came on to replace Danny Dichio in the 65th minute. Dichio scored Toronto's first goal, and Jarrod Smith the second as they never trailed. "I thought he (Cunningham) would bring a breath of fresh air," Toronto coach John Carver said. "On both sides, the legs were getting tired." Landon Donovan scored twice to bring Los Angeles from behind before Cunningham gave Toronto the final edge. The victory was the first for this season for Toronto (1-2), which came into MLS as an expansion team in 2007, and first ever over the Galaxy (1-2). "We're trying to build something and things don't happen overnight," Carver said. David Beckham made a number of fine passes to set up opportunities, but none led to a score. He was ineffective on several free kicks. His shot from 29 yards in the 83rd minute brought a gasp from the crowd, but just missed to the left. "We lost our (discipline) in the second half, some of it to the heat, but the majority of it by giving the ball away," Beckham said. "That's when the problems started. "Then they started passing the ball around us and they created chances." He had a goal and an assist in the previous game, a 2-0 victory over San Jose. Both teams had six shots on goal, but the Galaxy misfired several times on good chances, including once when Donovan missed left with the goal wide open. "I'm disappointed in myself because I had three chances that would have changed the game," he said. Donovan evened it with a penalty kick in the 58th minute after Toronto defenseman Marco Velez was called for a hand ball in the box. With goalie Greg Sutton holding his position in the center of the goal, Donovan kicked the ball inside the right post. Smith, playing in his first MLS game, had given Toronto its second lead of the afternoon with his header on a rebound of a free kick by Laurent Robert in the 53rd minute. Cronin had dived and punched the ball into the air and Smith struck it perfectly. After Dichio opened the scoring in the 42nd minute, Donovan immediately answered with a goal for the Galaxy. Donovan took a pass from Chris Klein, dribbled to the right of the box, then got off a low shot toward the far post in the 43rd minute. Forced to cut off Donovan's angle, Sutton had no chance to get to the ball. Dichio beat Cronin with a hard drive from 9 yards. |
