It appears it will be another long haul for the LA Galaxy.
Another strong start is apparently giving way to another dogfight over the course of a long season for the Galaxy. Aside from contending with LAFC, FC Dallas, and second-year Austin FC, the Galaxy will also be watching the botton half of the Western Conference playoff table, and one of those teams, the Houston Dynamo, served warning to the Galaxy that they better watch out for them. Sebastian Ferreira led the way for Houston on Sunday evening at Dignity Health Sports Park, as his opening goal and two assists were more than enough to earn the three points for the visiting Dynamo courtesy of the 3-0 result.
“We are not starting the games in the proper way,” Galaxy midfielder Victor Vasquez said. “We are conceding goals the first 10 to 15 minutes always. It happened today again, first half and second half. And it cost us the game.:
The win puts the Dynamo in the seventh and final playoff spot in the West. In fact, Houston is just two points behind the Galaxy, who dropped to fifth place in the conference.
“We need to improve, all of us,” Chicharito Hernandez said. “We need to be more decisive because we think that one simple pass from five yards doesn’t matter, but everything counts, everything matters. Every turn, every pass, every tackle. Every intuition, like a play, Everything.”
Houston seized the advantage in the 10th minute. Teenage Hadebe slid to intercept a pass from Efrain Alvarez, the ball ended up on the feet of Memo Rodriguez, who took a touch before springing Corey Baird into the penalty area. Baird fired the one timer, Bond made the save, but allowed for a rebound chance and Ferreira capitalized, as he chipped a ball past Bond inside the six yard box, then calmly slotted the shot into the open net despite Sega Coulibaly’s last minute defending.
Houston then broke the game open in the second half. The Dynamo doubled its lead in the 48th minute, as Ferreira played a ball to Tyler Pasher on the right side, Pasher made a juke move to evade Raheem Edwards, dribbled inside, then fired a ball from about 25 yards out that didn’t look like much, Bond clearly thought so, as he initially made no save attempt on the ball, but the ball instead snuck in at the far post, and Houston surprisingly had a two-goal lead. The Dynamo basically put the match out of reach in the 62nd minute, as Ferreira held the ball near midfielder, then played a ball foward that Thorleifur Úlfarsson chased down the left side. Ularfsson dribbled into the penalty area, did a few stepover moves to evade Galaxy defender Derrick Williams, then fired the shot that beat Bond far post at the upper net.
The Galaxy did have some chances, particularly in the first half. Its first chance at goal came in the 19th minute. As Victor Vasquez played a ball into the Houston penalty area, Rayan Raveloson chased the ball down to the end line. Raveloson then found Joveljic inside the box, deked José Carlos Cracco Neto, then fired a shot just inside the six that was stopped by Hadebe. The ball fell to Kelvin Leerdam, who immediately one-timed a shot on goal, but Steven Clark stopped the shot near the goal line. Another chance for the Galaxy to score came int he 22nd minute as Efrain Alvarez sent a corner kick to an unmarked Samuel Grandsir inside the penalty area. Gransdir looked to capitalize on the open chance, as he took a quick touch and fire the righ-footed one-timer, but Clark parried the ball over goal. The last great chance the Galaxy had came in the 31st minute as Vasquez sent a long ball into the penalty area. Alvarez brought the ball down, Joveljic maintained possession and backheeled a ball back to Alvarez leaving him one-on-one with Clark. Alvarez fired the shot, but Clark got his left foot on the shot and Zeca cleared the ball over the endline.
“We were so good at the beginning of the season, like doing many, like not conceding a lot. Today we concede three goals at home again, this cannot happen again,” Vasquez said. “But of course, we need to be more like effective in front, to be more killers. We need everyone, we need the strikers, we need the midfielders, we even need the defenders when we get the free kicks, the corner kicks. We need more from all of us and it’s not happening.”
Vanney went with a far different lineup than the one that featured in the match against Minnesota United back on Wednesday. Regulars such as Chicharito Hernandez, Douglas Costa, Kevin Cabral, and Julian Araujo started the match on the bench and Chicharito, Costa and Cabral subbed in the match in the second half. All three players had started Wednesday’s match and all three were likely to be featured in some way in this coming Wednesday’s massive US Open Cup match against LAFC, so Vanney decided to conserve as much energy out of those three players as he could.
“A lot of guys have had opportunities throughout the course of this season, and now everybody needs to step up and opportunities are going to start to swindle as guys start to show what their value is for the group to be successful, not just to play, but to win games,” Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney said.
Wednesday’s US Open Cup match is the continuation of another busy stretch for the Galaxy. Following that match, the Galaxy will next host Austin FC next Sunday.
