Seattle 4-3 LA

So, that hurt.

The LA Galaxy went to Seattle to face the Seattle Sounders on Sunday. This game could easily end up being season defining. We went in just one point behind Seattle with the chance to return to second place in the Western Conference. The issue was in that if we lost we could drop to second if Minnesota beat LAFC, which they did. I could go more into the lead up to this match, but I would prefer to skip that and talk about my frustration.

The game started very similarly for the Galaxy as it did two weeks ago. Just six minutes in a center-back gets a card, this time only yellow, but still, six minutes in, really? This is usually not something I would even note, but it’s just the similarity was so blatant.

The first chance of the match came as an aerial through ball to Uriel Antuna which he put far over the bar in an attempt to chip Steffan Frei.

The game was boring, but it just felt like a moment was about to come to break the game open. I didn’t know if it would be us or them, but it would come.

The Galaxy had been on top of things, but we know that this Galaxy side likes to dominate and not convert. And we did just that again.

Two minutes into stoppage time of the first half and a very poor clearance from Giancarlo González gets played across goal in for Raúl Ruidíaz to easily put in from no more than three yards from goal, 1-0 Seattle. Uh oh, in live standings we are now four points down from Seattle. And if trend follows you can count us out of this one. This is all thanks to awful defense, just abysmal. Which will become a theme in this match I promise.

Right after that Ruidíaz would outplay González and Diego Polenta to earn himself a good shot that would ultimately get kocked over the bar by David Bingham. We were lucky to only be 1-0 down.

Half-time score, 1-0 Seattle. First half was extremely typical of LA since late July. Be the clear better team to start the match then just lose focus and go 1-0 behind. We weren’t dead at this stage, but we had put ourselves in a difficult to get out of hole. In the 1st half we strangely were playing Zlatan Ibrahimović in a very deep role. It worked well for moving the ball, but the issue was of we got it into the box we had no one who could finish. If we could just get one in we could change this game!

2nd half began as all Seattle. Virtually no LA attack, just Seattle. Since the Sounders aren’t the Galaxy you can probably guess how this would go for us. If you guessed 2-0 Seattle you’d be correct. A 55th minute corner-kick was (again) poorly cleared by Giancarlo González only to be picked up by Cristian Roldan who powerfully struck the ball past David Bingham and in, 2-0. Welp, good game. At least, that’s how it felt. The last ten minutes had been all Seattle. I was worried we were going to get obliterated 4 or 5-0 in all honesty.

In the 59th minute Joe Corona was subbed on for Favio Álvarez which completely changed the game. Favio was off this match and Corona was just that man we needed.

Later in the half Los Angeles began to find their footing, our first big chance came to a largely open Uriel Antuna who’s header (yes, you read that right, Antuna won a header) ended up straight at Steffen Frei.

In the 66th minute a Sebastian Lletget corner kick found the head of Ibrahimović who beat Steffan Frei to the ball and put it in the open net, 2-1. Game on? Maybe. The LA Galaxy have a habit of losing momentum after we score so we had to make sure we kept the intensity up, then we could just take something from this.

Just nine minutes later in the 75th minute a Cristian Pavón shot deflected off of Zlatan and into the path of Uriel Antuna who finished off the easy chance, 2-2. Yes, that goal was almost all luck. But, I don’t care we’re 2-2 again! (By the way it’s worth noting Zlatan got a registered assist on that play, which is just funny based on what happened.) Anyway, we were now back level, we could NOT leave here with zero points now! We had come to far, three was still possible, but one would be more than welcome from me.

That’s right, awful defense still needs to reappear again. A very simple give and go between Ruidíaz and Jordan Morris near midfield went right through Giancarlo González and broke down our entire backline allowing Morris to easily finish a breakaway, 3-2 Seattle. This was it, the pinnacle of dreadful defense, a simple elementary school style attack tore apart our defense and allowed an easy goal. Why are we pushed up that high anyway? Our defense is not fast and Seattle’s offense is very fast. All in all a huge disgrace of a play. It is worth noting however, the lack of VAR on this play as Ruidíaz is certainly offside. Nonetheless we deserved to give up that goal based on our defensive play.

Still not dead yet, we have more in us. In the 81st minute Diego Polenta would bomb a ball from nearly the half-way line that would go right into the path of Jørgen Skjelvik who would hit a nice half-volley into the net, 3-3. Yes, Jørgen Skjelvik just scored. It was his first goal for LA and his first in almost three years. Again, just don’t lost from here guys, please. Indeed, a win would be great, but a tie would be good. Let’s just accept the tie, please.

Of course we did not accept the tie. In the 89th minuted we were caught trying to counter attack Seattle and gave up the ball around 30 yards from our goal only for the ball to be played out wide then played centrally and tapped in by Roldan, 4-3 Seattle. Well of course we had to spoil our great comeback by a sloppy counter followed by, you guessed it, awful defense. I don’t even know what more to say, I’m so let down. We were never going to tie it now, that was it, we lost.

Full-time score, 4-3 Seattle. We blew it. We had the chance to go back to LA in 6th and only one point behind Seattle. Instead we got greedy and we now sit four points behind Seattle, in 7th. We have one win the last seven games, that is a dreadful number, a number FC Cincinnati would be furious at and we are THE Los Angeles Galaxy, what happened? Where did it go wrong? I just don’t know, and that’s the biggest issue. What even can change? Everything feels so uncertain, I find it totally possible we win all of our last six games, while it’s also possible we only win one of our last six or maybe even none. So who knows what this is? Maybe this is an MLS Cup Champion to be, maybe the is a 9th place team to be. Bottom line is who knows anything right now?

Oh, also I want to add Giancarlo González was absoloutely horrible yesterday, no need to bring it up it was just so clear I felt I had to say it.

Best performer: Joe Corona (Jonathan Dos Santos was also good but Corona totally changed the game)