The “Giant Killers” are back!!! – Islanders 4:1 L.A. Galaxy

By: BoriQa | July 27th, 2010

The Puerto Rico Islanders convincingly dispatched the mighty L.A. Galaxy with a spectacular 4-1 routing on the road, in the 1st-leg of the 2010-11 CONCACAF Champions League (CCL) preliminary round.

The Islanders alltime CCL record improved to 8-7-6 (W-T-L), while their record against MLS teams in CCL play improved to 2-2-1.

The Puerto Rico Islanders own 5-4-1 and 3-3-5 (W-T-L) all-time records at home and on the road respectively in CCL play.

“Boricuas are in the house! The Islanders are here to put the smack down on the Galaxy” announced DT Colin ‘The General’ Clarke as he walked into the press box prior to the CCL matchup, to the bemusement of the LA-area reporters.

“We deserved it!” Clarke also said afterwards about the victory. “Our boys worked very hard and took their chances!”

It was the first “goleada” (a 3 or more goals win) for the Islanders in their history of the CONCACAF Champions League.

Some thought that the Galaxy, who have not registered a win at home since July 4, would take a 5-0 blowout win full steam ahead to Bayamon!

But that ship sank before it sailed, and a new banged up Galactic ship will need to make a dangerous trip, crossing the Bermuda Triangle, and risk never coming back (to the 2010-11 CCL, that is)…

Including the CCL loss the Galaxy have a 2-1-2 (W-T-L) record for the month of July, and will need to settle on trying to beat the Chicago Fire on Sunday (Aug. 1st) at home, to break their home winless streak, before flying to Puerto Rico for the Aug. 4th CCL return-leg to face execution by an orange firing squad…

The Islanders on the other hand are now undefeated in their last 5 road games with a 1-4-0 (W-T-L) record (yes the one win is the Galactic massacre!); and return home to the Juan Ramón Loubriel stadium in Bayamón, where the smell of fresh kill (a 3-1 win over the Rochester Rhinos on July 24th) is still in the air…

With the Galactic win, the Puerto Rico Islanders are now 3-4-1 (W-T-L) for the month of July, and they are undefeated (2-3-0) in their last 5 matches.

“It was more than we expected. We never thought that it (the lead) would be so wide. I don’t know if they underestimated us but they went forward (in attack position) and that didn’t work. Actually, they took out a defence player to use an extra attacker in the first half and I believe that affected them a lot”, said orange defender Alexis Rivera.

“It was a thrilling win. We are very happy! We had a good game plan. We played like a team, giving our best, and that was what got us the win”, said former TFC and Puerto Rican International defender Marco Vélez.

“It’s incredibly difficult to go anywhere and score four goals,” explained Galaxy’s (MLS All-Star & USA International) Landon Donovan. “But the flip side to that, if they were able to score four here, we should be able to score four there. We’re going to go for it and see what happens.” [BoriQa: yeah right... good luck with that... Not!!!]

“The Islanders surprised me!” admited Olimpia’s DT Carlos Restrepo, who was in Los Angeles spying on their prospective opponent to be in the upcoming CCL Group Stage, upon his arrival in Honduras.

“It is going to be complicated!” admited DT Restrepo. “Although they (Islanders) had already displayed a good level of play in previous tournaments, I was surpised with their level of play (against the Galaxy)” he said.

The 2nd-leg against the Galaxy will be played next week on August 4th at 8pm ET at Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.

YouTube video summary of the 5 Islander goals:

If you missed the game, you can watch a replay of the Galactic Masacre at the Justin TV link below. The game starts around minute 8 of the video stream.

Watch live video from PSN SPORTS 3 HD on Justin.tv