How the LA Galaxy Lost Home Field Advantage in the Playoffs

No, this is not an article about the last game of the year. I’m examining the whole season and looking at the moments where we caused ourselves to drop unnecessary points. This does not mean I will just be examining every loss as sometimes we were just the worse team and were playing a good opponent and a loss was fair.

Let’s start on May 11th. That day we played at home against New York City FC and lost 2-0. When I first thought about writing this article I was not going to include this one, but then I rewatched the highlights and remembered when and how our two goals were given up. In the 44th minute we went 1-0 down off of a rebound that no Galaxy players followed and in 1st half added time we went 2-0 down off of a stupid penalty. When I say stupid I mean Uriel Antuna used his arm to block a ball that David Bingham was easily going to collect only to almost score an own goal. The referee rightly ruled it a penalty and I as I said, 2-0 NYC. From the 44th minute to half-time we gave up two easily avoidable goals and ruined our game. We nearly got into the break level and instead gave up TWO! This game you could definitely begin to see cracks that were not just stamina related (as was the case in our previous two losses), but were just dumb play. Also, Zlatan got suspended for putting his hands on the neck of Sean Johnson in this one meaning we would miss him for the next games.

Only a week later and we suffered another embarrassing defeat. Sure, we were Zlatanless but we were facing the Colorado Rapids who had no wins, two draws, and nine losses to start the season. We are terrible without Zlatan, so a tie seemed very possible, but a loss? Surely not. We controlled the game, but allowed Colorado some fast breaks that for 80 minutes weren’t going in. We (as will become a trend) did not adjust to fix this blantantly obvious problem and in the 81st minute on a quick counter the ball popped out to Andre Shinyashiki who slotted the ball into a mainly open net, 1-0 Rapids. We did not find a leveling goal and actually lost to a team with by far the worst start in MLS history. Granted, Colorado totally picked it up after this. However, that likely never would have happened if we had adjusted to defend counter attacks and not lost this game late (as will also become a trend.)

Our next three losses are all not worth going into deep detail for, but still worth mentioning. A home loss to New England where again we conceded right before the half to go 1-0 down and two awful performances against San Jose that saw us lose 3-0 away and 3-1 at home. New England I only brought up because we again conceded right before half-time and San Jose because it was a derby that we clearly did not take seriously and it was the only case I saw this year of a team who understood exactly how to beat us. They know how David Bingham plays since he played in San Jose before LA and they used that against us. They took tons of shots on him since they knew he usually parries the ball instead of catching it and it worked, they even ended up taking a total of 57 shots over the two games. These three games weren’t really us shooting ourselves in the foot, but just interesting games to note.

For the next game where we lost it ourselves we head to Atlanta. Again we were Zlatanless for this one and the game wasn’t super close (we lost 3-0), but the way in which we lost was ridiculous at best. We came out of the gates looking good and like the better team. It’s not easy to play like the better team in Mercedes-Benz Stadium (unless you’re playing against the Falcons) but, we did it. We had chances, yet of of course those pesky counter attacks were clearly plaguing LA once again. An own goal from Dave Romney killed all of our momentum and put ATL up 1-0. Then to make matters worse, just before half-time (because when else would we concede?) Giancarlo González scored our SECOND own goal on the day. Who scores two own goals in a game? I mean come on, could we shoot ourselves in the foot anymore? Oh, yeah of course we can. Atlanta’s 3rd goal was off of a penalty kick. To sum up, we failed to convert our chances and go punished by an own goal, then scored another own goal, then gave up a penalty. What a way to lose!

This brings me the only draw on here. A 2-2 draw at home against the Seattle Sounders. This game is a confusing one. On one hand we pulled out a draw against one of the best teams in MLS after we got a red card just six minutes in. On the other hand we had a chance to win and blew it in the 82nd minute by having our goalie head the ball into the face of Jørgen Skjelvik and into our goal for another own goal on the season. With that we dropped two points and Seattle gained one all by our doing in crunch time. Also, I still count this as us blowing because we would have won this game if Daniel Steres had not gotten sent off six minutes in.

Now, to the other match with Seattle. Where we went 1-0 down right before half, (again of course). Not long after the break and Seattle made it two. But, good news – we managed to come back from 2-0 down to make it 2-2! Then off of counter (because how else?) we fell behind again. But it was still ok, because we made it 3-3! Now we would shut down the game for sure. No? We didn’t do that? We subbed on an inexperienced Julian Araujo who while trying to start a counter attack slipped and gave the ball up only for it to be crossed and tapped into the back of the net in the 90th minute for 4-3 Seattle? Yep, that makes sense based on the trend we have been following of completely failing to shut down games.

From there we then allowed Colorado to complete the double over us by losing 2-1 in Commerce City. This was a game defined by poor refereeing decisions against the Galaxy, but regardless we failed to beat the Rapids in two tries and we conceded twice past the 75th minute this time. I could go deeper into this one, but really all you need to know is it was just very disappointing.

It then looked like we had picked things up and were making a run not just for the playoffs, but for home field advantage. If we could just beat Vancouver or Houston we had have at least one playoff game at Dignity Health Sports Park!

I bet you can guess what happened next. We lost to Vancouver. Not only did we lose, but we gave up four goals, came back three times and still lost, we gave up one goal right before half, and we gave up one right before the final whistle. Does it get anymore 2019 LA Galaxy than that!? In fairness none of the goals were an own goal, if one was then that would have epitomized the current LA Galaxy. On a less joking note, I felt myself on the verge of tears after this match and I really did not know why. Obviously the loss was awful, but we still had one more shot at home field advantage. I think what it was was that deep down I knew what was coming. The situation all too familiar. Playing Houston on Decision Day when it was huge for us and meaningless for them. Something inside said to me that we were going to blow it somehow.

My something inside was right. We lost the lead twice, gave up four goals, conceded at the end of the first half, conceded at the end of the second half, and lost home field advantage. Not much went right for us on October 6th. Honestly I don’t even want to talk about it anymore because I get so angry.

But, one thing October 6th did do was make me realize something. I always find myself when writing these articles using the word “disgraceful” and I felt like I was overusing it if I use it that much. But, no that’s not it. It’s that we always lose in a spectacular fashion. We can never just lose 2-1 in a good game to a team better than us because they were better on the day. No, it’s always we lose to a bad team, or we get blown out (which I did not even touch on today), or we lose on a late goal. Something that always infuriates me and all fans. It can never just be normal. I guess that’s the essence of this article, we almost always lose because of ourselves. In reality we are probably the 2nd or 3rd best team in MLS, but we just play like it so rarely and because of that we lost out on home field advantage for the 2019 playoffs.

Imagine if we had just held out in even two or three of those 10 games. We not only would have hosted a playoff game but likely would have gotten the 2nd seed in the Western Conference and hosted the conference semi-final as well. But, we did not so I guess I’ll see you guys in Minnesota.

I’m not sure how you guys will like this article since I understand it is a lot of analysis, but it is something I have been thinking about doing since after Decision Day, so let me know if you liked it in the comments.