While it’s still early in the season, things weren’t looking as good for the Los Angeles Galaxy as in year’s past.
Off to a 1-3 start and having surrendered a halftime lead in Vancouver last weekend when the Whitecaps scored three unanswered goals late in the second half, the Galaxy knew anymore losses might result in a hole being dug deep enough that the Galaxy might not be able to help itself out of.
Instead, the Galaxy turned its best performance of the season to date, goals from Roman Alessandrini in the first half and Jermaine Jones in the second half combined with very good disciplined team play throughout the match enabled the Galaxy to collect three points courtesy of a 2-0 win at StubHub Center on Friday night.
“There are no two ways about it. Obviously it feels good, it’s a win,” Galaxy head coach Curt Onalfo said. “The guys deserved it and getting the shutout was important, especially given what happened last week.”
The win is LA’s second of the season, and despite the now 2-3-0 start, the Galaxy head into the weekend in a playoff spot, as they are in a three-way tie with San Jose and Sporting Kansas City for the fourth spot in the Western Conference.
The Galaxy got on the board in the 15th minute. Alessandrini sent a ball to Emmanuel Boateng on the left side outside the penalty area. Boateng brought the ball down, made a cutting move inside, played a ball to Alessandrini, who shot a left-footed one-timer which beat keeper Evan Bush, who slipped as he tried to make a play, allowing the ball to cross the goal line.
LA doubled its lead in the 74th minute. Nathan Smith played a ball from the back line to Gyasi Zardes, who made a run to the midline. Zardes touched a ball to Jones, who evaded Laurent Ciman’s sliding challenge, charged into the penalty area and slotted a shot past Bush near post to give the Galaxy the two-goal advantage on what turned out to be a very special night in the Jones family.
“I am happy, of course, to score the goal. Especially today, it’s my dad’s birthday and I told him I would try to score a goal,” Jones said.
The goal however was not Jones’ only contribution on the night. Just before halftime, Jones found himself near midfield with his eyes on a ball high in the air. Montreal’s Marco Donadel also had his eyes on the ball and got in front of Jones, looking for position. Donadel threw his left arm at Jones, who went down to the ground, referee Armando Villarreal immediately stopped play and issued a straight red card to Donadel, much to the Impact’s dismay.
“There’s no reason to talk about that because there’s really no reason,” Donadel said about the incident. “Everything is very clear. I also watched some video now and the referee was in perfect position to see. I don’t know what has happened, it’s just that we are unlucky.”
The Galaxy have had to shuffle its lineup at the start of the season, especially with Sebastian Lletget slated to miss the next four-to-six months with a foot injury. Gyassi Zardes, who saw action against Vancouver last week got the start alongside Giovani Dos Santos at forward while Boateng started in place of Lletget in the midfield.
“I thought we worked extremely hard, I thought we moved the ball well, Onalfo said. “I thought we were dangerous the entire game and that’s two games in a row where I feel like we were dangerous going forward.”
The Galaxy are back on the road next week, as they will face Orlando City in its first look at their new downtown stadium for a nationally televised game.
LA Galaxy
Montreal Impact
