Photos courtesy of LAFC.
LAFC was certainly in a celebratory mood against the Portland Timbers on Sunday night.
Not much has gone LAFC’s way since the resumption of the regular season.
Having lost four of five matches since the restart of the regular season, which came off the heels of a heartbreaking quarterfinal loss in the MLS is Back Tournament, and playing without reigning MVP Carlos Vela, LAFC has more than encountered their fair share of speedbumps throughout the season.
However, on Sunday night against its archrival Portland Timbers, LAFC rediscovered some of the form that made them Supporters Shield Winners a year before. Goals from Mark-Anthony Kaye, Diego Rossi, Bradley Wright-Phillips and Danny Musovski helped LAFC erase a one-goal deficit and pick up a crucial win courtesy of a 4-2 win at Banc of California Stadium.
“First and foremost, I’m happy for the players,” LAFC Head Coach Bob Bradley said. “When you go through a little bit of a tough stretch or adversity you’ve got to find ways to play out of it. Nice push in the first half and then totally F’d it up with a lapse at the end, but I liked the fact that at the end of halftime we regrouped quickly, then in the second half we didn’t give up a goal. That’s important for us as we continue to try to just regain confidence, and then we finished it off with a good goal at the end.”
The Timbers threw a scare into LAFC in the 25th minute. Marvin Loria sprung Diego Valeri with a ball to the left side just outside the penalty area, Valeri played a ball back to Sebastian Blanco outside the top of the box, Blanco played Eryk Williamson into the box, Williamson juked Kaye before firing a shot past Keeper Pablo Sisniega into the back net to stake Portland to the lead.
Portland head the lead for the next 11 minutes, but LAFC finally turned the tide in its direction. LAFC got the equalizer in the 37th minute, as Brian Rodriguez sent a corner into the penalty area, the ball was flicked by Bradley Wright-Phillips and Kaye came in at the back post and buried the point-blank shot to level the match. LAFC then took the lead in the 41st minute, and it happened as Rodriguez played Rossi into the penalty area and fired a shot past Keeper Steve Clark to put LAFC in front, and when Wright-Phillips buried a point-blank cross from Francisco Ginella inside the six-yard box in stoppage time to double the LAFC lead, it capped off an eight-minute plus stretch in which LAFC scored three unanswered goals.
“Somewhere 20 minutes, 25 minutes into the first half you could just see the tempo of the passing pick up, balls moving quickly, the right number of touches,” Bradley said.
Portland however got the last word as the half expired, as Jeremy Ebobisse headed in a Jorge Villafana cross to pull a goal back for the Timbers. Energized by the late goal, Portland pressed on in the second half, as Valeri sent a free kick into the penalty area and Dario Zuparic headed a ball towards the goal line, but the ball was cleared out by Eddie Segura. No missed chance however was more agonizing to the Timbers than Diego Valeri’s free kick in the 62nd minute that went over the wall, but bounced off the far post. LAFC put the match away in stoppage time, as Kaye found Musovski, who managed to keep himself onside, Musovski dribbled into the box and fired a shot past Clark to seal the three points for LAFC.
“Mark had the ball, He got free in the midfield and I think he was looking to play Diego at first and Portland’s defense did a good job of cutting that pass out,” Musovski said. “I just did a good job of holding my run and Mark played a good ball through and then I just wanted to slide it in the far right corner.”
LAFC will try to build off this win starting on Friday, as they head to Seattle to face the Sounders in a rematch of its MLS is Back knockout round matchup.
