LA 0-2 Colorado

Photo Credit: Kelvin Kuo

Before I say anything let me get two things out of the way. I had to work during this game so I could not watch it, also I was swamped with homework this week so that’s why this is coming out only a couple hours before our next game. For those reasons this will not be fleshed out. I made this account so I could give the view on Galaxy games of someone who isn’t just a reporter, but of someone who really cares about every little touch, but by not watching that I lose a lot of that aspect.

Luckily for me, my time constraint will get some help by the fact that there weren’t too many chances in this game. The closest we came throughout the first half was in the 25th minute when Efraín Álvarez let a shot off from within 25 yards that skimmed just past the near post.

Just about 10 minutes later Colorado then almost struck first when very poor clearance from Nick Depuy gave the ball straight to Younes Namli who let fly very well and beat Bingham just couldn’t quite get the ball into the bottom corner. The ball went just wide and you’d have to imagine Depuy felt a serious sense of relief.

In the 40th minute a streak of about 220 minutes without giving up a goal ended for the Galaxy. The play started when Namli switched the ball to Sammy Vines, Vines then carried the ball down the wing before finding a way too open Cole Bassett who scored easily, 1-0 Colorado. It really is a shame that a streak of almost two and a half games without giving up a goal ended by giving up such an easy goal. The marking on this goal was frankly awful. Bassett could have walked the ball in if Bingham weren’t there. Why exactly Emiliano Insúa is not in the box defending this I do not know. You can see in the replay that he tries to run in to defend the cross but he is way too late. He was lazy getting back and we got punished. I have harped a lot on Insúa but he seemed to be getting better so hopefully this was just a blip.

The Galaxy then went down the field and played a couple passes before setting up Joe Corona well in the 42nd minute just outside of the box, unfortunately his shot was not good enough and William Yarbrough easily kept it out.

Half-time, 1-0 Colorado. Again, I did not watch this game so it is hard to give a summary of the first half. What I will say is that from what I saw in the highlights and what I heard from my friends we were really bad. Especially in a creative sense. There was a reason that I only had two plays to write about for us and they were both effort from beyond the 18. Anyway, hopefully in the second half we would be a bit more exciting.

Three minutes into the second half luck almost went the way of the Galaxy when an Efraín Álvarez free kick from 40 or so yards missed everyone and nearly crept slowly into the far post, however was just tipped out for a corner. Still, it was a good way to start the half. Maybe we had woken up a bit at the half!

52 minutes in we kept piling on the pressure when after some quick passes the ball found Julian Araujo on the wing, he put in a low cross to Zubak who was within the six, yet he could not get it past Yarbrough who knocked the ball away from very close range. All the signs of a goal on the way were there now.

In the 65th minute however, the Rapids twice came scarily close to doubling their advantage. This happened when Andre Shinyashiki slipped his way past Araujo and dropped the ball for Johnathan Lewis who had a mostly open net, but fired the ball off the bar. Then, after we failed to clear the ball, it was smacked across net and to the feet of Shinyashiki who seemingly had a certain goal, though thankfully David Bingham made one of the saves of the season to somehow keep the Rapids out of the net. How exactly we got lucky enough to not concede on this play, I don’t know. Though we managed to do so and we were still in the game because of it.

A minute later the Galaxy failed to convert on another chance. This time it came when a sloppy pass in the back was picked off by Julian Araujo who quickly played Efra, who should have shot but instead faked it and ended up getting the ball caught under his feet. All he could do from there was slide the ball through for a way offside Araujo and the play died. I’ll be honest Efra kind of blew this. He had a spectacular chance to shoot and didn’t take it. The creativity just was not there on Saturday.

In the 75th minute we put the game to bed for Colorado. A standard foul committed by Araujo in their half was called and he was not happy. He jumped up immediately and yelled at the ref, this got him a second yellow and put us on 10 men. The red was coming. Not in this game, just in general. For weeks now Cobi Jones has been talking about Araujo’s hotheadedness and it showed here. It was a foul, pretty standard stuff honestly. Though, Araujo did not agree and lost his head and in turn lost the game too.

Once again, LA got caught far too high up the field and Steres and Depuyhing out to dry. Steres briefly got the ball, but the swarm was too much and he lost it. The ball then got to Shinyashiki who played it through for Braian Galván. Galván then crossed it to the back post, Bingham got a bit on it, but largely missed it and Lewis tapped it home in the 78th minute, 2-0 Colorado. The goal was initially ruled offside, but overturned for a goal by VAR. If Araujo’s red didn’t seal the game, this did.

The game actually almost found a way to get worse for us in the 82nd minute when Shinyashiki played Kellyn Acosta on the edge of the box. Acosta ripped a great shot, but it hit the post and stayed out.

Again in the 86th minute, Acosta almost put us three behind. Once again, there was no effort to play any defense so Colorado easily countered us. Nicolas Mezquida played a very easy through pass to Acosta who luckily did poor on the finish and missed the net.

Full-time, 2-0 Colorado. This was a really bad game for us. There was no creativity and even less defensive effort. Steres and Depuy both were left abandoned by the rest of the team far too often, Efra isn’t as helpful in attack as Araujo, and Araujo’s lack of compsure killed us. I wish I could think of a positive to say in all honesty. All I can say is I appreciate that Araujo came out on Instagram and apologized for the red, but sadly apologies don’t overturn suspensions. It is nice to see he feels bad about the red, but it would be nicer if he just hadn’t done it at all.

Speaking of Araujo, why exactly Schelotto puts him in right-back right now, I don’t understand. I have praised GBS recently, however, we are noticeably worse with Julian in defense. Yes, he is a better defender than Feltscher and Efra is a better techincal player than Araujo. With that said, Araujo’s pace is almost always too much for defenses and Efra just doesn’t have that. Unfortunately, even if GBS learned his lesson Araujo still can’t play on the wing today because of his red. But, ideally Schelotto has learned his lesson about where to play Araujo. Anyway, to summarize – this game sucked.

Best player: Daniel Steres? (I didn’t watch it as I said, but it looked like he did okay under the pressure which is more than I can say about pretty much any other G’z)