Things are suddenly looking up for the Los Angeles Galaxy.
Just two weeks ago, the Galaxy were on the outside looking in as far as making the playoffs went. Now however, the Galaxy are in a more favorable position after this weekend, and while there is still a long way to go as far as clinching a playoff spot, the Galaxy made things easier for themselves by earning three points in Northern California. Chicharito Hernandez set the tone for the Galaxy with a brace and Gaston Brugman scored a goal in his second straight match, and the Galaxy defeated the San Jose Earthquakes 3-2 at Stanford Stadium.
“Mindset is good, guys are confident, I think that’s been building, to be honest,” Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney said. “I mean, even in the stretch where we were getting draws, in many of those games we were positioned to win at one point in those games. It’s just about finishing opportunities when we have opportunities.”
The win moves the Galaxy (13-12,7, 46 points) up in the Western Conference standings. The Galaxy are tied points wise with Portland for fifth place in the West, though LA currently holds the fifth seed based on having one more win than the Timbers. The Galaxy are also one point behind Nashville for the fourth spot in the conference, meaning they could potentially host a playoff match in the opening round should they get there.
The Quakes’ Supporters Section were certainly ready for the match, as they unveiled a Tifo prior to the match that featured two pictures of clowns with a caption at the top that read “The LA circus — same clowns, different costumes.” However, 12 minutes into the match, it was Chicharito that clowned the Quakes, as he received a cross from Julian Araujo, took a touch to evade Quakes defender Rodrigues and fired a shot past JT Marchinkowski far post, Chicharito then went towards the Quakes supporters and broke into a clown impersonation to mock the Quakes fans.
“An amazing response. the best way to respond, you know,” Chicharito said of the Tifo and his opening goal. “Sometimes people think that those kinds of stuff is going to put our confidence and ourselves down, but they do completely the opposite. They motivate us. They motivate me, at least. So, thank you. Thank you for them to put that, because that brought something else from me, because now I had more desire to win and to get the points.”
The Galaxy got an all-important second goal right before halftime, as Marky Delgado played a ball to Brugman, who then unleashed a right-footed volley from about 20 yards out that sailed past Marchinkowski, hit off the crossbar, but crossed the goal line that doubled the Galaxy lead right before halftime. Chicharito tripled the Galaxy advantage in the 69th minute, as Efrain Alvarez played Chicharito into the pentlay area and he slotted the shot past Marchinkowski, then broke out into another clown impersonation. San Jose didn’t go down without a fight, getting goals from Cristian Espinoza from the penalty spot in the 74th minute, then from Nathan Raphael Pelae Cardoso in stoppage time.
The Galaxy not brace for a massive match on October 1, as they host Real Salt Lake, who are currently three points back of the Galaxy, at Dignity Health Sports Park.
