With a playoff berth cemented, the Los Angeles Galaxy came into its final home match of the 2019 season with one more goal in mind; second place in the Western Conference, which would give them two home playoff matches and perhaps the easiest route to a potential all-LA Western Conference final.
However, the Vancouver Whitecaps had other ideas, as they played the role of spoiler to near-perfection on Sunday evening. The Whitecaps went toe-to-toe with the Galaxy for 90 minutes, and Michaell Chirinos’ stoppage time goal enabled Vancouver to steal the full three points from the LA Galaxy following its 4-3 win at Dignity Health Sports Park.
“I think we played so, so,” Galaxy head coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto said. “I don’t think we played how I want to play, but in the second half we had more attitude and we could tie the game and then it looked like we were winning the game.”
The result not only kept the Galaxy from seizing second place in the West, but this loss combined with two other results, a Seattle Sounders win over the San Jose Earthquakes and a 1-1 draw between Minnesota United and LAFC knocked the Galaxy down to fourth place in the conference. The Galaxy can still earn the second spot in the West on Decision Day, but it will now need to defeat the Houston Dynamo at BBVA Compass Stadium and hope Seattle and Minnesota, who face each other next Sunday in Seattle, play to a draw.
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Playing the role of the Galaxy’s spoiler all through the evening, Vancouver solidified that role in stoppage time with the match tied at three. Jasser Khmiri cleared a ball out of the Whitecaps penalty area, Fredy Montero brought the ball down, then sent a ball forward and Hwang In-Beom kept his run and was thus given a breakaway, with teammate Michaell Chirinos not far behind. In-Beom dribbled into the penalty area, which drew out keeper Matt Lampson, and I-Beom wisely played a ball to Chirinos, who took the open net shot which snuck in at the upper net to give Vancouver the win and the eventual three points.
Chirinos’ equalizer was the last goal of a wild back and forth match. Vancouver jumped out to the lead in the 20th minute, as In-Beom sent a corner kick into the penalty area, the Galaxy’s Efrain Alvarez tried to clear the ball, but Doneil Henry was right behind him, and Alvarez’s clearance deflected off Henry and into the back net near post for the game’s opening goal.
The Galaxy once again turned to their main man, Zlatan Ibrahimovic to get them back in the game, and he answered the call once again three minutes after Vancouver took the lead. Cristian Pavon chased down a long ball, dribbled into the penalty area, then played a back pass that found a trailing Ibrahimovic, who one-timed a shot that took a one-hop and got past keeper Maxime Crepeau into the back net for the equalizer. The Whitecaps however regained the lead in the 41st minute, Andy Rose crossed into the penalty area, Daniel Steres headed the cross, but it still found a Whitecaps player, Chirinos, who held the ball, created a sightline, his shot was deflected, but Theo Blair beat Steres to the ball and got the shot past Lampson for the goal and a 2-1 lead, which Vancouver took into halftime.
“This is not what we wanted,” Ibrahimovic said. “It was not a good game from us, totally opposite, a bad game right from the start. We had so many mistakes, we didn’t even deserve to get points from this game.”
The madness only continued in the second half. The Galaxy tied the match again in the 57th minute, as Jonathan Dos Santos sprung Uriel Antuna with a long ball, Crepeau left his line and Antuna chipped a ball over him into the back net. The Whitecaps responded in the 64th minute, as Tosaint Ricketts headed a Erik Godoy cross past Lampson near post to put Vancouver back in front. The Galaxy however had one more equalizer in them in the 86th minute, as Diego Polenta sent a long ball to Ibrahimovic, who then headed a ball to Chris Pontius, who had subbed in back in the 83rd minute. Pontius fought off Andy Rose, then Henry for the ball in the box and sent a shot past Crepeau for the Galaxy’s third equalizer of the evening.
