Drogba Beats Galaxy In 94th Minute 3-2
- Updated: May 28, 2016
Coming off of a 1-1 Cali Clasico draw last Sunday the LA Galaxy made the lengthy road trip to Montreal Saturday evening to take on their fifth place Eastern conference foe, the Impact. Los Angeles would be without Captain Robbie Keane and forward Gyasi Zardes in this contest as both are currently away for international competition.
#LAGalaxy XI: Rowe; Rogers, Steres, Van Damme, Cole; Lletget, De Jong, Gerrard, Boateng; Magee, Dos Santos #MTLvLApic.twitter.com/F7jPSojSFJ
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) May 28, 2016
Montreal started this game off with the interesting defensive tactic of allowing the Galaxy to control possession on their own side of midfield. This wouldn’t last long though as Steven Gerrard in the midfield and Giovani Dos Santos up top for Los Angeles seemed to be plotting an attack as soon as they noticed the strategy from the Impact. It would only take seven minutes for the plotting (and a lucky bounce off of Bush) to put the Galaxy in front 1-0.
Sometimes you’re just in the right place at the right time. Right, @OficialGio? #MTLvLAhttps://t.co/7JjT8bdcPj
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 29, 2016
After the goal for Dos Santos, the Galaxy were playing confidently and moving quickly up the field with everyone pushing forward including much of the defense. That would turn out to be a bit of a problem come the 26th minute. Ignacio Piatti would be able to continue his incredible run of form as of late on what was a magnificent counter-attack from Montreal to put one by keeper Brian Rowe and knot things up at 1.
After some glorious nutmegs with wonderful footwork from Robbie Rogers the teams would head into the half still all tied at 1. With 13 total shots between the two teams at the half there was clearly an attacking mindset.
The final 45 minutes got underway with a bang but it wouldn’t be for Los Angeles. Lucas Ontivero would score his first MLS goal in the 56th minute on some horrid defending by the Galaxy back-line. The counter seemed to wreak a little havoc on the aging Galaxy defense allowing this one to be a little to easy for Montreal.
But you just had to know it wouldn’t take long for Mike Magee to throw his hat in the ring. It took another full 2 minutes. Talk about building up the suspense Mike. A wonderful goal on what was an attempted (and failed) trap by the Impact freed up Magee on a pass from Gerrard making the game all even again, 2-2.
OMaGee! https://t.co/lmrBLbgKGP#MTLvLA#MikeMageepic.twitter.com/gRWyUyg1WP
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) May 29, 2016
A guy who had been causing problems for the Galaxy all game on the counter-attack was Dom Oduro of the Impact whose speed really challenged the Los Angeles back-line. In the 77th minute Oduro would be subbed out and from then on things did not look the same for Montreal. Until stoppage time that is.
With the clock already past the 3 minutes of stoppage time allotted and the game still all knotted up at 2, things looked to all sealed up and the Galaxy appeared to have a critical point on the road. Oh wait, did I mention at this time the only thing stopping Los Angeles from adding that point to their total was a very, very long free kick from Didier Drogba? I think you can guess what happened from here.
Watch this #MTLvLA RT @RDSca: Didier Drogba lalalala! #IMFCRDS pic.twitter.com/1T8q3CaLYo
— Jonathan Tannenwald (@thegoalkeeper) May 29, 2016
A very rare drop from Rowe allowed the ball to float right into the back of the net and Los Angeles would end up taking the loss in a heartbreaker in Montreal.
A very tough loss for the club today but overall the team didn’t play all that bad. Given that Zardes and Keane, two of the teams better players not being there for this one things could have gone much worse. The Galaxy defense needs some work but definitely had to like the effort from Los Angeles in the attacking third Saturday evening.
A big congratulations to Zardes who scored two goals for the United States Mens National Team Saturday against Bolivia and best of luck in the Copa Centenario.
Hopefully things will go better for Los Angeles in their next competition against Sporting Kansas City back at StubHub Center on Thursday June 2nd. You’ll remember the two sides drew in their earlier competition this season in Kansas City.
Thanks for reading along Galaxy fans and keep on coming back to CaliSports for all you Galaxy news!
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