Indeed it was a cruel result on Sunday evening for the Los Angeles Galaxy.
The Galaxy took an early lead in its second Leagues Cup match against the Vancouver Whitecaps on a spectacular goal from Riqui Puig, then dominated for most parts of the match, creating chances that just barely missed the net. However, Vancouver however caught a break for an equalizer on an own goal, then capitalized on the one chance it had, as Brian White’s stoppage time goal allowed Vancouver to sneak out out of Dignity Health Sports Park with the 2-1 win.
“I thought for 70 minutes, plus, we by and large were in great control of the game,” Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney said. “I think that the end of the first half, they might have had a decent chance off of one of our errors. But, I thought we were in very good control.”
The results ends the Galaxy’s Leagues Cup run in the group stages, while the Whitecaps advance to face Tigres UNAL on Friday.
The Galaxy got out in front in the 16th minute. Puig held the ball in the middle lane, played a ball out wide left to Lucas Calegari, who then crossed into the penalty area and Puig one-timed a ball past keeper Isaac Boehmer far post to give the Galaxy the early advantage. The Galaxy continued to apply the pressure for most of the first half and most of the second half, but numerous shot attempts went well wide of the framework.
Those missed chances eventually came back to haunt the Galaxy. Vancouver got the lucky bounce in the 80th minute, as Ryan Raposo sent a ball into the penalty area, the ball deflected off Calegari, but the ball continued forward and snuck past keeper Novak Mikovic for an unexpected equalizer. After withstanding several more Galaxy chances, Vancouver made the most of one chance it got in stoppage time, as Deiber Caicedo sent a ball for the penalty area, Efrain Alvarez momentarily deflected the ball, though it still went into the box, Ryan Gauld attempted a scissors kick, and while he didn’t get much of the ball, he got enough to keep the ball going forward and White slipped in between two Galaxy defenders to win the ball and sent a shot past Mikovic into the back net for a shocking go-ahead goal.
“I felt like this was a microcosm of some of the games at the start of the season,” Vanney said. “Again, it’s not necessarily that we had a lot of shots on target, per say. We missed target. We’re around the area. We get things blocked. We’re just not clinical in the final action. And, you know, when you don’t do that with teams that you are, I believe, dominating through large stretches of the game, they hover, they hang around.”
The Galaxy’s exit from Leagues Cup means a prolonged break for the Galaxy, as they won’t play another match until it resumes league play against Real Salt Lake on August 20.
