Recap of July 25, 2015 Match: LA Galaxy vs. Houston Dynamo

(Photo via Twitter User @LAGalaxy)

In yet another away match, the LA Galaxy suffered a disappointing 3-0 loss to the Houston Dynamo—after an amazing 5-2 win against the San Jose Earthquakes last week. Why are they having such a difficult time on the road? So far, LA has only won one match away—a US Open Cup match against the San Jose Earthquakes.

Starting Lineups and Substitutions

With Gyasi Zardes, Jaime Penedo, Omar Gonzalez, and Alan Gordon all away at the Gold Cup, Bruce Arena made some changes in the lineup. Jose Villarreal and Baggio Husidic also could not play due to injuries, and the league suspended Robbie Rogers for one match because of yellow card accumulation. Arena chose to add David Romney and Ariel Lassiter, both from the LA Galaxy II (Los Dos).

Houston scored two of their goals fairly early—Will Bruin (9’) and Brad Davis (27’). For the next hour, the Galaxy barely held off the orange forwards and midfielders. Then, in the 88^th minute, they struck again with Leonel Miranda’s goal.

What happened? What do they need to improve? Well, I think four things led to the loss: defensive problems, midfielder problems, heat, and missing players.

First off, I’ve tried to be patient with Leonardo, but he continues to let me down. While I could not watch the game, I followed on Twitter (then watched the replays) and read several tweets about how poorly he played. You can’t really blame him, but David Romney’s lack of experience playing for the senior team also hurt the team. I think Bruce made an odd choice by starting Romney because he left out Todd Dunivant—granted, injuries have reduced his playing time.

While the Galaxy controlled the ball and passed it more, they failed to finish and put their shots in the behind Tyler Deric. It seems to be a prevalent problem for them. On the other hand, the Dynamo capitalized on three of their seven shots on target. LA only had 7 shots compared to Houston’s 14. You’d think with so many chances, the Dynamo might have put more into the net. Thank you, Brian Rowe, for saving the others.

Unfortunately in the midfield, Steven Gerrard and Bruce failed to find a good spot for him to play. He moved all over, but could not find his groove. The heat played a big factor in his gameplay as well. Since he rarely played in the type of climate he faced in Houston, you could tell he struggled. It probably affected Bradford Jamieson too since Bruce subbed him out at the beginning of the second half.

Looking forward, hopefully, Gyasi Zardes, Omar Gonzalez, Jaime Penedo, Baggio Husidic, Alan Gordon, and Jose Villarreal will be back in the lineup soon. Also, let’s hope the shoulder injury Robbie Keane picked up will not force him to miss any matches. Overall, Bruce needs to look at his defense—the AJ and Omar center combination with Robbie Rogers and Dan Gargan on the outside works, in my opinion. AJ and Omar have excellent chemistry and both play better than Leonardo. In the midfield, Bruce needs to find the best position for Gerrard—and soon.

Heading into the last three months of regular season, the Galaxy need to pick up a road win, and their next chance is on August 1 against the Colorado Rapids. They are second in the conference and third in the Supporter’s Shield (as of July 26 at 12:03 p.m. Central time), but how long can they stay there without gaining points away?

Unfortunately, Robbie Keane, Steven Gerrard, and Omar Gonzalez have all been chosen for the MLS All-Star Game on July 29, so they will probably miss the Rapids match. Let’s hope this doesn’t affect the regular season too much.

Stay with us at Calisportsnews.com as we will keep you up-to-date on all things LA Galaxy and the rest of the LA sports teams! All Cali, all the time!

Related Posts

• 
  Sweetwater Valley Earns Berth In SoCal’s Final 10
• 
  Little League All-Star Girl To Play For Oregon Ducks
• 
  Star Of 2013 Little League World Series Dead After Freeway Wreck