Zlatan Ibrahimovic was at it again for the LA Galaxy on Friday night.
By Ivan Yeo
The theme of the night for the LA Galaxy’s match against the Houston Dynamo on Friday night; penalty kick goals.
Both teams cashed in goals from the penalty spot on Friday night. As far as the circumstances leading to the penalty goals, one call was spot on, while the other was certainly questionable. In the end though, it was the Galaxy who got the non-penalty kick goal, as Diego Polenta’s header late in the second half enabled the Galaxy to eke out a 2-1 win at Dignity Health Sports Park.
“We deserved to win,” Galaxy head coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto said”. We made everything to get the ball. To be direct, or play, but everything we did on the field was to win, not for a tie or keeping the ball, or try to do something.”
Let’s start with the non-controversial penalty, which was scored by the Galaxy. Uriel Antuna had the ball on the right side of the field, marked by Adam Lundkvist. Antuna took Lundkvist to the end line, then juked out Lundkvist to the ground, leaving him open and Antuna immediately sent a left-footed cross into the penalty area towards Ibrahimović. Dynamo defender and former Galaxy player AJ DelaGarza wrapped up Ibrahimović with his arms as the ball came towards him, and referee Jair Marrufo immediately whistled for the penalty spot. Ibrahimović converted the penalty in the 31st minute to stake the Galaxy to the lead.
And now the controversial penalty, and it all started five minutes into the second half. Alberth Elis took a restart free kick from Tomas Martinez, got away from Diego Polenta as he sprinted for the penalty area. Galaxy left back Jorgen Skjelvik quickly rushed to cover Elis, who then tried to run past him, Skjelvik made contact with Elis and the two went to the ground.
While the foul itself was not in question, it was where the foul was committed that was up for debate. The replay appeared to show Skjelvik fouling Elis outside the penalty area, but Marrufo instead awarded Houston the penalty, much to the chagrin of the Galaxy and their fans. Despite the pleas to go to VAR, the call for the penalty stood and in the 53rd minute, Elis tied the match, as he sent his penalty left, just out of David Bingham’s reach.
“The referee can make a mistake, but the guy upstairs or wherever he is watching the replay and they showed the replay while we were looking and you can see it was outside,” Ibrahimovic said. “I don’t want to complain too much about it, I don’t want to be too critical because maybe MLS will punish me, but I am MLS,”
The Galaxy immediately went on the attack, spending a whole lot of time in Houston’s half of the field and peppering With three minutes plus stoppage time remaining in the match, the Galaxy earned a corner kick. Jonathan Dos Santos sent the corner into the penalty area just outside the six-yard box and Polenta’s header beat Joe Willis near post to give LA the lead for good.
“It was a corner kick in which Jonathan [dos Santos]put in a great cross,” Polenta said. “In reality it was all to Jonathan’s credit because he put the ball on my head, I only had to push it in.”
Friday’s match was a start of a busy week for the Galaxy, as they will head to Minnesota to face Minnesota United in their brand new Allianz Field, then back home next Sunday to face Real Salt Lake.
