Houston 1-1 LA

The LA Galaxy’s 2020 MLS season began in Houston, Texas on Saturday. There was a lot of excitement to see our new-look G’z in action. With three MLS debutants in the starting XI (Emiliano Insúa, Aleksandar Katai, and Chicharito) the team felt new. It seemed like we might be able to carry this hype into a win, but even when the Dynamo are poor, BBVA Compass Stadium still is not easy to play in.

LA came out on the front foot as just after a minute of play Katai could have put us up 1-0. Sacha Kljestan brought the ball down on the edge of the box, before sliding it wide to Insúa, who then crossed the ball into the head of Katai who knocked the ball into the post. It didn’t go in, but it was a great start for the Galaxy.

In the 13th minute David Bingham collected the ball and quickly punted it up to Cristian Pavón. Pavón took it in his stride and took it all the way into the 18-yard box before cutting back and rifling the ball into the top of the net, 1-0 LA. And just like that, on opening day, with an assist from the goalie, we have a top ten goal of the year candidate. It was just done so expertly, the punt was pinpoint, Pavón knew exactly when to cut back, and the shot was gorgeous. What a goal, to put it simply.

We had chances to build on that early lead, most notably a Katai shot from around 20 yards that beat the keeper, but narrowly missed the net. However, from there we lost almost all of our momentum and the game became mainly all Dynamo.

For the remainder of the half Houston had us on the back foot, but only managed one real chance. That chance came when Tommy McNamara played a through ball into Mauro Manotas who collected the ball too close to David Bingham which forced him to drop the ball a bit wider into Boniek García who put his shot into the outside of the goal. Watching the game live, this chance didn’t seem as dangerous. It appeared to be too hard of an angle to score, but watching it again it definitely could have ended in a goal.

Half-time, 1-0 LA. The first half was pretty even. For the first 20 or so minutes the Galaxy dominated, from about the 20th-45th minute the Dynamo dominated. It was never a back and forth game, it was just one team dominating for extended, yet equal periods of time. It certainly did not have the feel of us being able to hold on for the next 45 minutes. If we did not score again, we were almost certainly going to tie or maybe even lose.

In the 47th minute we had the chance to get our second when Chicha played an open Katai on the edge of the box, however he shanked his shot far over the bar. Don’t get me wrong, this shot was not a tap-in. That being said, he had a chance to take a touch and really lineup his shot just how he wanted it. At the very least, the chance should have ended with a shot on target.

Following that chance, the game began to get chippy. In the 49th minute Boniek got a yellow for absolutely taking Sebastian Lletget down, then immediately after Lletget got knocked down again, then in the 51st minute Katai got himself booked for border-line American football tackling Tommy McNamara. The game had started to heat up now and the next huge moment felt on the horizon.

That huge moment came in the 54th minute when Aleksandar Katai lost the ball within 30 yards of our goal and the ball was switched by a Dynamo player to Zarek Valenitn who played Mauro Manotas in on goal and Manotas fired it past Bingham and in, 1-1. This goal was so poor in two ways. First of all, Katai needs to be more careful with the ball in our own third of the field! If you give the ball up that close to the goal then you are asking to concede. Secondly, Bingham’s positioning was terrible. At most he is covering 10% of the goal, and that is generous. The entire center and far side of the goal as well as parts of the near side were wide open. That is classic Bingham though, have great moment like the punt to Pavón and have a terrible moment like this one in the same game.

After that the game started to really open up for us. For the next about 10-15 minutes we were actually taking the game to the Dynamo. In the 66th minute Chicharito sent Pavón a through ball that would have left him in on goal if he could get around one defender, however as more Dynamo players crowded around him he slipped the ball into Joe Corona who after a heavy touch took a shot towards the goal that beat the keeper, yet was cleared off the line Aljaž Struna, then on the second attempt Corona put the ball over trying to get it over Struna and in. If not for the original heavy touch by Corona we certainly would have taken the lead. Once that was taken his angle was cut down immensely and Houston got two defenders on the line. Still, it was extremely unlucky for us not to find the net there.

From there the game was still mainly Houston, but we were in it as well. There were no more clear cut chances, but there were still a couple that with some luck could have stolen three points either way. The Dynamo’s last good chance came from a ground cross in the 70th minute from Memo Rodríguez into a sliding Tommy McNamara who just couldn’t quite get enough on it to turn it to goal. Our final real chance came four minutes later when Chicha played Sebastian Lletget near the penalty dot who could only chip it up towards the net and get it batted away by Marko Marić.

Full-time, 1-1. The result wasn’t ideal, though I’ll take it. It’s an away draw against Western Conference opposition in a game where we were second best. We had our chances to win this game, but so did they. Sure, when we had chances they tended to be more clear cut, however they were getting half-chances every five minutes it seemed. Our defense did well (it is weird to say I know) to bend, but only break once. We absorbed Houston’s pressure really well. We let them press and for most of the game didn’t let them score. I feel like we have to look at this game really positively. Without Jonathan dos Santos and in Houston we earned a point and actually played alright defense, that is definitely success in a lot of ways.

Best performer: Cristian Pavón (He wasn’t mindblowing, but he scored and played well aside from that as well.)