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Galaxy Throwback Night: No Goals Just Defense

Last week, the LA Galaxy lost 3-2 to the Montreal Impact. This week, LA plays Sporting KC at home. Tonight, they held #GalaxyThrowback Night “to celebrate the vibrant and trophy-filled history of the LA Galaxy organization.” Unfortunately, the on-field performances failed to match the celebrations and trophy-filled history.

Robbie Keane and Gyasi Zardes were absent last night because of international duty—Zardes for Copa America Centenario and Keane for Euro 2016.

Neither team scored a goal in the first half. They both largely lacked offensive movement except in spurts. LA failed to string together much successive passing. Bruce Arena decided to start three defensive-minded midfielders also—Nigel De Jong, Jeff Larentowicz, and Baggio Husidic. Steven Gerrard suffered a minor hamstring injury and as a result needed to rest. Luckily for him, the Galaxy next plays on June 25. MLS teams received a two-week break because of the Copa America Centenario tournament hosted by the United States this month.

As a result of the defensive players, they allowed too much space between them and the forwards—Giovani dos Santos and Mike Magee. The midfielders failed to connect much with Magee and dos Santos. We missed Gerrard’s creativity and service tonight. In the few spurts of offense during the first half, dos Santos and Rogers nearly connected for a goal, as did Magee in another attempt. Yet, these mainly occurred due to counter attacks from Sporting mistakes. Frankly, all but the last minutes of the second half the Galaxy (more so than Sporting) displayed boring soccer. For #GalaxyThrowback Night, we wanted glitz, glory, and goals.

By 45 minutes, Sporting KC shot three goals on target while LA had none at all.

The second half produced not much better soccer from LA. Yet, Sebastian Lletget did score in the second half, but the referee mistakenly called him offside even though he never touched the ball on the pass. Magee received the pass and then Lletget played it off a touch from him. Lletget curved his shot into the net only to have it unrecognized.

Sporting’s defense quite effectively shut down LA’s already lacking offense. In turn, LA’s defense suffered. Sporting attacked Brian Rowe’s space quite often. He made some excellent saves though and kept the Galaxy alive. We needed Jelle Van Damme’s contributions on offense and defense, but the traveling and only a few days between games forced Arena to bench him.

Even with the subs of Emmanuel Boateng, Alan Gordon, and Jose Villarreal, LA gave us mostly defense and not much offense. I’m tired of settling for a single point. I want more aggression and thirst for goals instead of sitting back. This #GalaxyThrowback Night showed inconsistencies and barely any offensive effort. LA disappointed me tonight with only one shot on goal. They need to make sure they play offensively without Gerrard, Zardes, and Keane. Be hungry for goals. Be hungry for shots. Be hungry for a win. Don’t settle for a draw or sit back and let the other team outplay you offensively.

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