Photo courtesy of the LA Galaxy.
Dejan Joveljic, center, has emerged as the LA Galaxy’s super sub this season.
It was not the ideal scenario for either the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Portland Timbers.
Coming off a three-week international break, the Galaxy and Timbers returned to the pitch for a nationally televised tilt on a hot Saturday afternoon tilt at Dignity Health Sports Park. Despite the combination of rust coming off a long break and the Southern California summer afternoon weather being a factor in the match, both teams still delivered a hard fought performance. Yimmi Chara gave Portland the lead early in the first half, but a goal from its super sub Dejan Joveljic enabled the Galaxy to rescue a positive result, as the match ended in a 1-1 draw.
“I think disjointed is a good word for me, and a little bit slow,” Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney said. “I think not being together totally for three weeks isn’t great, either, for the disjointedness. You know, we kind of had enough numbers to get into something like 11, here this last couple of days. So, I just felt like maybe we were a little disjointed in terms of how we move defensively, connectedness, some of our speed of play and connecting with each other. I felt like sometimes we just overcomplicated situations, and it could have been a lot smoother and easier.”
Portland took the lead in the 39th minute. The Timbers broke out on a counterattack, which started when Cristhian Paredes played Sebastian Blanco, who then played a ball to Chara, who took a perfect touch that enabled him to sprint into the penalty area and Chara slotted the shot past keeper Jonathan Bond into the back net.
The Galaxy were aggressive on offense throughout the match, but it took until finally the 88th minute for the Galaxy to finally find the equalizer. Julian Araujo received a ball from Kelvin Leerdam, Araujo crossed into the penalty area and Joveljic got past Larrys Mabiala flicked a header that got past Alijaz Ivavic far post to level matters.
“I mean it was a good finish, but the cross was better,” Joveljic said. ““I just wanted to make space for me, and I think that I had enough space to make an advantage against the defender, and I scored a good goal.”
Joveljic’s goal wasn’t the only time the Galaxy felt they should’ve found the back net. The Galaxy’s best chance to scored in the first half came in the 31st minute. Kevin Cabral played a ball into the penalty area and Victor Vasquez took a shot inside the penalty area, Ivacic made the save, though he left a ball in the box, Vasquez tried to get to the ball for a potential rebound chance, Mabiala came in to defend and the two ended up colliding and going to the ground, but no call was made. The Galaxy actually did find the back net late in stoppage time, but a potential game-winning header by Nick DePuy off an Efrain Alavrez was waived off, as DePuy was determined to have fouled Mabiala prior to the goal.
“We had some moments where we could have been more dangerous, where we could have maybe another goal or two,” Vanney said. “We could have got ourselves back into it a little bit. And we didn’t. And, again, we talked about it after the game, just being a little bit more clinical in front of the goal and things like that. But, again, I’d put it in the category of it just wasn’t a sharp performance from everywhere, pretty much, on the field.”
The Galaxy jump back into US Open Cup play on Tuesday when they host Sacramento Republic in the Quarterfinals.
