Photo courtesy of the LA Galaxy.
Dejan Joveljic has emerged as one of the LA Galaxy’s top scoring threats.
It was a tale of two halves for the LA Galaxy.
The first half of its midweek match against the San Jose Earthquakes was dominated by one side. Unfortunately for the Galaxy, it was the Quakes who was doing the dominating inside the first 45 minutes. The Quakes scored two goals inside a two-minute span, then added a third just before halftime and looked to be in control from that point on.
The Galaxy however turned the tables in the second half. Buoyed by three key substitutions, the Galaxy were re-energized, and got two goals, both from Dejan Joveljic, and fought back for a chance to salvage points. In the end however, the Galaxy’s bad first half caught up to them, and the Quakes earned its first road victory of the season with the 3-2 win at Dignity Health Sports Park.
“Of course you’re going to be more disappointed with the way we started,” Galaxy midfielder Victor Vazquez said. “Of course the reaction in the second half was great, but it’s not enough. You can see we lost the game that it’s not enough.”
The Quakes were gifted an opportunity to take the lead starting in the 11th minute. Marcos Lopez passed a ball to Benji Kikanovic, who turned forward towards goal and was marked by Sega Coulibaly. Galaxy right back Julian Araujo came in to apply additional pressure, Araujo made contact with Kikanovic and fell, but also pushed Kikanovic down from behind, leaving referee Allen Chapman with little choice but to signal for the penalty spot. Cristian Espinoza stepped up to the spot in the 12th minute and buried the penalty to the right post while keeper Jonathan Bond guessed wrong.
Two minutes later, the Quakes pounced on a Galaxy error to double its lead. Galaxy defender Sega Coulibaly passed a ball left towards Raheem Edwards, but was easily intercepted by Espinoza, who quickly led a San Jose counterattack. Espinoza sent a pass that deflected off Daniel Aguirre and went to Jamiro Montero, who took a quick touch before passing to Ebobisse, who one-timed a low shot that beat Bond far post and just like that, the Quakes were up 2-0. The Quakes capped off its dominant first half in the 40th minute, as Marcos Lopez dribbled forward, played a ball to Kikanovic, but kept his run, which allowed Kikanovic to play a perfect ball back to Lopez, who evaded Bond and slotted the shot into the far post net.
“The first half was embarrassing in terms of… I actually thought we got off to a decent start for the first 10 minutes or so. And then, we just, we commit a silly penalty kick, it’s just clumsy,” Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney said. “Then, I think off the kickoff, in less than 60 seconds, we give a second one back, which is the second game in a row we’ve given up two goals back to back in less than two minutes. Which is… it’s unacceptable. It’s embarrassing.”
Distraught with the first half performance, Vanney did not waste anytime with the substitutions. Vanney used three subs to start the second half, replacing Vasquez, Raheem Edwards and Samuel Grandsir with Chase Gasper, Kevin Cabral and Douglas Costa. The came out with renewed energy in the second half, pushing across a goal in the 48th minute, as Alvarez sent a long ball down the left side of the field, Cabral got behind the Quakes defense and chased down the ball into goal, Cabral hesitated, then played a ball to a trailing Joveljic, who fired the shot past keeper JT Marchinkowski into the upper right net to get the Galaxy on the board.
The substitutions clearly gave the Galaxy new life early in the second half, as they attacked down the field quickly, relentlessly, and with purpose. The Galaxy came close to a second goal in the 59th minute, as Cabral had the ball just inside the six-yard box, but instead of trying a power shot to get the ball through traffic inside the six, Cabral opted to finesse a shot on goal, and the ball was cleared out by the San Jose defense. The Galaxy did finally get that second goal in the 89th minute, as Costa sent a great ball forward to Joveljic, who brought it down, then made several juke moves to evade the Quakes defense before firing the left-footed volley that beat Marchinkowski near post to cut the Quakes lead to one. Joveljic’s second goal combined with four minutes of stoppage time gave the Galaxy hope that they could salvage the draw, but San Jose ultimately hung on.
