Photos courtesy of LAFC.
Diego Rossi scored his 13th goal of the season against Houston on Wednesday night.
Two words will certainly come to mind when discussing Wednesday’s match between LAFC and the Houston Dynamo; Video Review.
Both LAFC and the Dynamo felt the weight of Video Review on Wednesday night. LAFC saw a potential second half goal called back due to Video Review, while Houston saw Video Review waive off a massive penalty chance late in the second half of a match they were chasing.
When the night was all said and done, it was LAFC that came out the winner, though not just by Video Review. LAFC got two early first half goals from Diego Rossi and Eddie Segura and did just enough to make the goals stand up, and LAFC maintained its position in the Western Conference with a 2-1 win over Houston at Banc of California Stadium.
“Yeah, it’s always good to take three points, but I didn’t believe we played well,” LAFC head coach Bob Bradley said. “I think the second half, not just the second half, I don’t think we played well.”
The win maintains LAFC’s hold on the fourth spot in the conference over Minnesota, who collected a 2-1 win over the Colorado Rapids to keep pace with LAFC in the standings. LAFC however gained little ground on the top three teams in the West, as Sporting Kansas City and the Portland Timbers both won their respective Wednesday matches.
LAFC struck first in the ninth minute. The play started when Francisco Ginella played a ball to Jose Cifuents, and despite the heavy touch on the ball, still managed to get a clean pass to Mohamed El-Munir, who crossed into the six-yard box and Diego Rossi swooped in and buried the point-blank shot near post. LAFC doubled the lead in the 22nd minute, as Brian Rodriguez sent a corner kick into the penalty area, Eduard Atuesta brought the ball down and Segura one-timed a shot past Marko Maric far post.
Then the Video Review fun began. The first use of Video Review came in the 31st minute, Houston’s Memo Rodriguez fired a shot just inside the penalty area and the ball went over the end line. However referee Ramy Touchan went to the replay area and it confirmed that Rodriguez’s shot deflected off the left hand of Segura in the box before going out of play, which led Touchan to award Houston the penalty. Maura Maontas stepped up to the penalty and shot to his right, but keeper Kenneth Vermeer, filling in for Pablo Sisniega, who missed the match due to an injury picked up during training, made the stop on Manotas’ penalty before securing the ball.
LAFC however later found themselves on the wrong side of a Video Review call. It started in the 54th minute, as Rossi appeared to have scored on a cross from Brian Rodriguez. Touchan however got the call for Video Review, which revealed that Rossi was in an offside position prior to Rodriguez sending the cross, the goal was overturned and Houston remained within striking distance.
No Video Review call however was more important than what transpired late in the second half. In started in the 85th minute, as Jose Bizama was tracking down a Zarek Valentin cross, LAFC defender got his cleats on Bizama’s upper body as he charged into the box and Touchan made the call to award Houston a second penalty chance. However, Touchan again went to Video Review, and this time, it was to determine whether Darwin Ceren had been offside prior to the foul. Sure enough, Ceren was judged to be offside, and Houston was denied a golden opportunity to level the match and perhaps steal a point and thus play a spoiler role.
“We get the three points, but you can see like nobody of the team is happy with the performance to be honest,” El-Munir said. “We know what we can do and I think we are a little bit far from what we can do with the way how we can play.”
