The Galaxy’s celebratory mood did not last long against San Jose on Friday night.
A tale of two halves developed at Dignity Health Sports Park on Friday night.
The first half favored the Los Angeles Galaxy in the second leg of the California Clasico matchup against the San Jose Earthquakes, as they seized the advantage early in the first half, almost got a second goal and led at the half.
The second half however was a far different story and perhaps mirrored how San Jose’s season has gone. The Quakes went on to score three unanswered goals, and after 90 minutes were up, saw its upward trend in the Western Conference continue following its 3-1 win over the Galaxy.
“We started the season really bad, knowing that they had suffered a year of losses and tough moments, and little by little we have been putting together a group,” Quakes head coach Matias Almeyda said. “Within that group they have interpreted a soccer identity, and we’re getting there. We’re in the fight, but we are happy because the players, our leaders, and our community are a lot happier than last year.”
The result saw the Quakes jump to fourth in the West, a somewhat surprising trend given the Quakes’ poor start to the season. The Quakes are also now just three points back of the Galaxy for second place in the West, as the Galaxy failed to keep pace with first-place LAFC, who defeated the Dynamo 2-1 in Houston earlier in the evening.
“We started the game knowing what we had to do and we started the game winning because we scored in the early minutes,” Galaxy head coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto. “I feel like we got everything in the hands today, after two minutes, we missed it. I get frustration from that, I think the team did not play well, we deserved to lose.”
The Galaxy took the lead just two minutes in, as Jonathan Dos Santos sent a corner kick into the penalty area and Rolf Feltscher ran in, stuck his left foot out and touched the ball into the back net at the near post area to stake the Galaxy to the lead. The scenario almost repeated itself in the 23rd minute, as Feltscher headed a Dos Santos corner high, but off the post.
The Galaxy took the lead into halftime, but the Quakes broke out in the final 45 minutes. Vako Qazaishvili took a ball from Jackson Yueill, sidestepped Dos Santos before firing a 20-yard rocket that beat keeper David Bingham near post to level the match.
The Quakes then took the lead in the 64th minute. Vako chased down a ball out of the penalty area, dribbled back into the penalty area, made a cutting move towards the end line before passing a ball back to Danny Hoesen, who needed just a touch to get the ball past Bingham near post to put San Jose in front.
