Photos courtesy of LAFC.
Diego Rossi was once again the Catalyst for LAFC on Wednesday night against the San Jose Earthquakes.
By Ivan Yeo
Not exactly sounding the alarm but pretty close.
Having lost back to back matches since the resumption of the regular season, it wasn’t exactly panic time for LAFC, but you could certainly feel a sense of urgency among the Black and Gold heading into Wednesday’s match against the San Jose Earthquakes.
LAFC responded big time. Led by Diego Rossi’s brace, LAFC quickly put aside any thought of another letdown, as they jumped on San Jose early in the first half and never looked back, and LAFC rolled through to a convincing 5-1 win over the Quakes in the first match of the Californico.
“I think overall, it’s a great bounce back performance,” LAFC forward Bradley Wright Phillips said. “I think it’s a game we needed. I think we needed to just bounce back from the last two results. It hasn’t been great. I think last week got a little better with the start but this week it was more of a complete performance.”
LAFC opened the scoring int he 21st minute. LAFC pressured high, forcing San Jose to give up possession, Mark Anthony-Kaye played Rossi into the penalty area, Rossi waited before firing a chip shot that sailed past Daniel Vega far post to stake LAFC to the early lead.
LAFC then blew the game open in the second half. LAFC doubled its lead in the 49th minute, as Quakes defender Tanner Beason made a sloppy pass, Diego Rossi collected the ball and quickly sprung Wright-Phillips with a through ball, Wright-Phillips beat Beason to the ball, got inside the box, evaded Vega before finally shooting the ball into the empty net. LAFC tripled its advantage in the 64th minute, as Jose Cifuentes got things going with a forward ball for Brian Rodriguez, who got inside the penalty, tried to shoot, and while he slipped, he still managed to maintain possession and make a pass back to Cifuentes, who turned left before firing a shot inside the penalty area that best Vega.
“I gave everybody credit in the locker room because I really felt the response in the last few days after the Seattle game, coaching staff with some video, andthen making sure guys understand things that we’re still doing well, things we have to improve on,” LAFC head coach Bob Bradley said.
LAFC was on cruise control from that point on. Rossi got his brace five minutes later, as Eddie Segura sent a long ball for Diego Palacios, who sent a cross in the box, the cross was deflected by San Jose’s Florian Jungwirth but continued into the six-yard box, an alert Rossi charged in and touched a ball past Vega into the back net. LAFC finished off the night in the 84th minute, as Andy Najar forced a turnover, dribbled from the right side, played a ball to Danny Musovski, who then dribbled towards the penalty area before firing a shot just outside the box that beat Vega. The only blemish on an otherwise perfect night was a stoppage time goal by Danny Hoesen that prevented the shutout, but that was merely an afterthought.
“It was a good game, this one. It’s always a fair game and they have a special way of defending,” Rossi said. “Today we do it well. We have the control of the game, and that’s our way of playing and I think that we do it well.
LAFC goes from the Californico back to El Trafico, as they face the Galaxy at Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday night.
