D.C. 2-1 LA

Sunday night the Galaxy were in the nation’s capital to play an out of form D.C. United. It was Cristian Pavón’s debut for LA, D.C. were without Wayne Rooney and Luciano Acosta in their starting 11, and many other Western Conference teams had lost. In other words the stage was set for LA to win and get a out of their poor form and move up the table. We did not do that.

I travelled to D.C. for this game and in the first half the Galaxy were attacking right by where I was sitting, so I had a great view of our good start. Within about the first 25 minutes the game was all LA, we had a lot of good chances, not one in particular that was great but a lot that could’ve ended in a goal. Zlatan Ibrahimović had a lot in particular that considering it was him with the chance I expected to be put in.

Just like our last two games we would be punished for missing early chances, this time by Paul Arriola in the 27th minute off of a beautiful ball from Ulises Segura. Right then I just felt like, “Of course,” because for the last three games that has been what we’ve done, dominate the first part of the first half then give up a goal and lose all momentum we had. When you don’t score your chances this is what happens.

We weren’t done yet however, as our chances would continue and Zlatan’s would too. But, our missing chances and Zlatan missing chances would also continue. Our best chance from this sequence came to Zlatan in the 32nd minute when he trapped a Diego Polenta cross but ultimately put the shot over from fairly close range.

In the 43rd minute things almost got worse for LA as Zlatan gave the ball up in the midfield and D.C. quickly countered before David Bingham spilled a Paul Arriola shot with Lucas Rodríguez putting in the rebound for 2-0. Right then I remember wishing that something would be wrong with the goal to force VAR, offside, a handball, anything. I got my wish Lucas Rodríguez was clearly offside and the goal was ruled out. Still 1-0.

The Galaxy would still have one more chance before the half ended though as two minutes into 1st half stoppage time Uriel Antuna would take a shot while doing a full 180 not far in front of the penalty spot that would be deflected and just barely saved and collected by D.C. goalkeeper, Bill Hamid.

Half-time score 1-0 D.C. United. I still had hope at this point. We were clearly the better team this half and with Zlatan having the chances he had I felt confident he would get one. My biggest fear was that our defense (who looked easily spread out in the 1st half) would leak another goal on a counter or just quick attack. If we could keep that from happening I really thought we could still tie or quite possibly win this game.

Just three minutes into the second half an Uriel Antuna cross was blocked and popped out to the top of the box where Favio Álvarez was there to place the ball into the bottom corner and past Bill Hamid. 1-1. It was a confusing thing, scoring surrounded by away fans. Everyone was so silent for a second I thought it didn’t count. However, when I realized that it did in fact count I felt like the onslaught was about to begin. D.C. were now going to have to push up and we could play quick and get more clear looks now. I still felt like we just would have to watch out for counter or quick attacks.

The chances did continue for LA, and in the 71st minute it really did seem like the ball was going for 2-1 in our favor but Bill Hamid got to an Ibrahimović shot quickly and knocked it out for a corner. Though the save was spectacular it still felt like on most days Zlatan would’ve hit that shot just a bit better and done what he needed to make it unstoppable. But, not today, today he seemed just a bit off.

Just about two minutes after that Ulises Segura and Paul Arriola would both force saves out of David Bingham before the ball popped out to a very poorly marked Lucas Rodríguez who would pass the ball into the bottom right corner. 2-1 D.C. United. All they had to do was play forward quickly and take a couple shots and that got Rodríguez open because both Jonathan Dos Santos and Perry Kitchen make no effort to mark him whatsoever because they seem confused by how quickly the ball was moving.

There was no way we deserved to lose this game, we had to get one more. At least get a point from this thing!

D.C. played extremely compact the rest of the game and though we had chances we couldn’t find a 2nd goal.

Full-time score 2-1 D.C. United. The result sucks, the fact that we have lost three straight sucks, the fact that the playoff line is getting closer and closer to us sucks, but nonetheless there were positives to be taken from this game. Cristian Pavón looks like he’s going to be a phenomenal signing, his touch looks as good as anybody in the league and his connections with Polenta, Dos Santos, and Favio Álvarez all seem to be really great. The crossing in this game was also great, from Pavón and Polenta mainly but also sometimes from Antuna and Feltscher. We were also taking more shots than I’ve seen us take all year which was great since I was feeling like we were not even taking close to enough before this. All around this was the best I’ve seen the Galaxy play in a while, but sadly we still lost. And now for the reasons we lost. It was was really just us missing chances and D.C. playing good defense. Really to single out one person it was Zlatan being way off of his game. Sure I’ve seen him look lay before and go missing in games, however that was normally just because the service to him was bad. This game the service was there and he was just not finishing, lacking the killer instinct he has always had, even when he’s played poorly. The fact that it was this game of all games really scares me as it feels like he’s freaked out by Pavón taking so much attention off of him. Hopefully I’m wrong, but the timing certainly feels bad. Let me know what you guys think, am I right in being scared that Zlatan is rattled by Pavón or am I completely wrong? Why or why not?

Best performer: Diego Polenta (his crosses were good and his play with Pavón was even better)