Another Road Loss: LA Galaxy vs. San Jose Earthquakes
- Updated: September 6, 2015
What happened, LA Galaxy? After five consecutive wins, they lost to the San Jose Earthquakes in a highly disappointing match—and the second of the regular season against them. Why do the Earthquakes and Avaya Stadium seem to be the bane of the Galaxy’s existence? Even Giovani dos Santos failed to save them.
Starting Lineups and Substitutions
| LA Galaxy | San Jose Earthquakes | ||||
| 1 | GK | Donovan Ricketts | 1 | GK | David Bingham |
| 14 | D | Robbie Rogers | 20 | D | Shaun Francis |
| 22 | D | Leonardo | 21 | D | Clarence Goodson |
| 4 | D | Omar Gonzalez | 5 | D | Victor Bernardez |
| 20 | D | A.J. DeLaGarza | 4 | D | Marvell Wynne |
| 17 | M | Sebastian Lletget | 6 | M | Shea Salinas |
| 8 | M | Steven Gerrard | 33 | M | Marc Pelosi |
| 19 | M | Juninho | 30 | M | Anibal Godoy |
| 11 | M | Gyasi Zardes | 7 | M | Cordell Cato |
| 10 | F | Giovani dos Santos | 25 | F | Quincy Amarikwa |
| 7 | F | Robbie Keane | 8 | F | Chris Wondolowski |
| 12 | GK | Brian Rowe | 35 | GK | Bryan Meredith |
| 33 | D | Dan Gargan | 10 | M | Matias Perez Garcia |
| 27 | D | Dave Romney | 17 | M | Sanna Nyassi |
| 3 | M | Mika Vayrynen | 23 | M | Leandro Barrera |
| 9 | M | Alan Gordon | 15 | M | J.J. Koval |
| 34 | M | Kenney Walker | 22 | M | Tommy Thompson |
| 15 | M | Ignacio Maganto | 14 | F | Adam Jahn |
I’ve chosen three things to discuss from this match that I feel are the most important takeaways—starting out strong, defensive mistakes, and referees.
Strong Out of the Gates
The LA Galaxy started off stronger than usual, but the pace faltered quickly. Less than a minute into the match, Gyasi Zardes almost scored with a header, but it went too wide. Both teams played a bit of long-ball and missed passes. The Earthquakes increased their passing accuracy quickly.
With only six matches of the regular season remaining, the Galaxy needs to score early, dominate the rest of the match, and just keep the opposing goals at bay. They’ve shown their ability to use this strategy in several games this season already.
Defensive Mistakes
Unfortunately, defensive problems have plagued the Galaxy throughout the entire season. The lineup changes with Omar Gonzalez leaving for international duty and Robbie Rogers’s injuries don’t help; however, all teams face lineup alterations. Then you have the simple mistakes that the players make—overtime, these should lessen, but I guess not for the Galaxy.
In the 18th minute, Marvell Wynne crossed the ball into the Galaxy box and Quincy Amarikwa headed the ball right to Donovan Ricketts. He deflected the shot, but failed to keep control of it. Omar stood close to the penalty marker and watched the action. Unfortunately, he needed to be watching Shea Salinas, who then sprinted past the unaware Omar and headed Ricketts’s deflection into the back of the net. (Omar made a similar mistake on September 4 in the USA vs. Peru match that resulted in Peru’s first goal.)
Where the Galaxy failed in defense, the Earthquakes succeeded. San Jose’s defenders continually kept Robbie Keane at bay and prevented him from being a key player during the match. Except for the first couple of minutes, the Galaxy made few attempts on goal. In the second half, only Omar came truly close to scoring with a header.
Poor Referees
Two minutes into the second half, the referee made a controversial call. Victor Bernardez (I believe) cleared the ball from the San Jose box right to Quincy Amarikwa. Leonardo, who failed to catch up with Amarikwa, appeared to pull down the Earthquake forward from behind. The referee deemed it a “denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity” and ejected the Brazilian with a straight red card.
Robbie Keane petitioned with the referee for only a yellow card because Omar ran right beside Leonardo, so the Brazilian was not the last defender before the goal. I agree with Keane too. Yes, Leonardo fouled Amarikwa, but Omar’s presence should have lessened the degree of it. Oddly, though, the Earthquakes failed to score again with Leonardo off the field.
In the post-match interviews, Robbie Keane heavily criticized the referee’s performance, as did Bruce Arena. On September 4, Don Garber fined several MLS coaches—Bruce Arena, Caleb Porter, and Peter Vermes—and Merritt Paulson, owner of the Portland Timbers, because they openly criticized the referees of their respective matches. Not surprisingly, they coached the losing teams of the weekend.
Garber can fine them all he deems necessary, but there seem to be increasing problems with the referees in MLS. A game here and there with poor refereeing is not a big deal, but when one-third of the matches in a weekend lead to the fining of three coaches and an owner, the issue needs to be addressed by a third-party. Yes, critics might call sour grapes, but that’s why I said a third-party because they will be less biased (or completely unbiased) and will deliver just comments.
Well, LA Galaxy fans, the team had a bye week this weekend (along with half of the league), so I hope you sat back and watched the competition for the Western Conference. The rest of the season will go by fast, so enjoy soccer while you can!
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!
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