The Galaxy’s Jose Villarreal gets tripped up from behind.
Galaxy admittedly lethargic in draw with Dynamo
By Ivan Yeo
“I didn’t like a whole lot on the night,” admitted Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena.
“We weren’t very good to be honest with you. We lost too many battles on the night; I think they played harder over 90 minutes than we did. I think that made a difference in the game. We had a chance to win possibly going away if we were a little sharper.
“We had a mental breakdown on a corner kick. Robbie Rogers loses his man, and it’s a goal. In a game like this where your opponent is sitting back and defending with numbers looking to get at you on the break, or perhaps on a restart, we’ve got to be better than that. To concede a goal shortly after we scored, that’s not good on our part.”
It should have been an easy night for the Los Angeles Galaxy.
A highlight goal scored by the league MVP at home early in the first half of the third game of the season should have enough for the defending MLS Cup champions to get three points against the Houston Dynamo.
However, the Dynamo sent a reminder to the Galaxy as to why you have to play the full 90 minutes, as they caught the Galaxy sleeping just once, but it was enough to get out of the StubHub Center with a point courtesy of a 1-1 draw.
“I didn’t like a whole lot on the night, we weren’t very good to be honest with you,” Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena said. “We lost too many battles on the night; I think they played harder over 90 minutes than we did. I think that made a difference in the game. We had a chance to win possibly going away if we were a little sharper.”
Things got off to a great start for LA just three minutes in, as Keane took a pass from Jose Villarreal and sprinted uncontested for the Dynamo penalty area. Nathan Sturgis tried to close some space on Keane, but Keane instead nutmegged him, raced into the penalty area and fired a ball that deflected off keeper Tyler Deric, but trickled across the goal line, giving LA the early lead.
So things should’ve been easy for LA from that point on right?
Well, things didn’t quite go that way. LA for whatever reason took its foot pedal after the goal, whether it was struggling to link passes together, losing battles to loose balls or attempting to break down Houston’s defense. Maybe they thought Houston would be demoralized after giving up such a highlight goal early in the match, and lot of credit has to go to Houston for not folding the tents after that goal.
“When we got the goal, we were good for about ten minutes then we stopped playing,” Keane said. “We dropped off, and let them play. They got the goal, and then they got a grip on the game. They look fairly comfortable I would say. They probably looked like they were a little bit of a better team in the first half; and with possession at times. But at home, we should be certainly doing a lot better than that.”
Whatever the reason, the Galaxy’s lethargy came back to bite them in the 11th minute, and it came off a corner LA admits they should have done a better job defending.
Oscar Boniek Garcia sent in a corner kick inside the LA penalty area, David Horst out-jumped Omar Gonzalez to head the ball on goal.
Goalscorer Nate Sturgis
Galaxy left back Robbie Rogers observed the battle between the two Center Backs, but apparently forgot about Sturgis, whom he was marking on the corner kick. Sturgis as a result snuck in behind an unaware Rogers and touched the ball past LA keeper Jaime Penedo into the back net for the equalizer.
It is early in the season, and a match like this may end up being nothing more than just a blip on the radar for the Galaxy in the long run. However, the Galaxy know that too many games like this can very easily put them in a hole that may end up being too insurmountable for them to climb.
Yes the Galaxy in years past have started out slow and end up finishing strong, but a new season always brings about a new twist and therefore a new challenge, and LA knows that recipe of starting out slow but finishing strong may not always be there for them,especially when you are the defending MLS Cup champions.
Often the league match is a bigger fixture for the opponent than for them, such is the desire to topple the Champions.
“One of the worst things, we’re disappointed of course because when you’re the champions, when people come here have to understand as a team that people want to beat us all the time. And we have to accept that every week, that when people play against us, they want to beat the Galaxy,” Keane said.
That will not do for the coach but he was generous to the opposition:
“Just on the night, I don’t think we were sharp, and I give Houston credit. They played real hard.”
Houston Dynamo
LA Galaxy 1, Houston Dynamo 1
Saturday, March 21, 2015 – 7:30 p.m. PT
MLS Regular Season
StubHub Center – Carson, CA
Scoring Summary:
LA – Robbie Keane (Assisted by Jose Villarreal) 3’
HOU – Nathan Sturgis (Assisted by David Horst, Óscar García) 11’
Misconduct Summary:
HOU – Giles Barnes (caution) 6’
HOU – Luis Garrido (caution) 39’
LA – Baggio Husidic (caution) 39’
LA – Juninho (caution) 58’
HOU – Kofi Sarkodie (caution) 77’
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Jaime Penedo; Dan Gargan (Edson Buddle 86’), Leonardo, Omar Gonzalez, Robbie Rogers; Jose Villarreal, Juninho, Baggio Husidic (Mika Vayrynen 69’), Stefan Ishizaki (Alan Gordon 68’); Robbie Keane ©, Gyasi Zardes.
Substitutions not used: Brian Rowe, A.J. DeLaGarza, Todd Dunivant, Ignacio Maganto.
TOTAL SHOTS: 10; SHOTS ON GOAL: 4; FOULS: 16; OFFSIDE: 3; CORNER KICKS: 4; SAVES: 2.
Houston Dynamo: Tyler Deric; DeMarcus Beasley (A.J. Cochran 55’), Jermaine Taylor, David Horst, Kofi Sarkodie, Nathan Sturgis (Will Bruin 79’), Óscar García, Luis Garrido, Brad Davis, Ricardo Clark (Rob Lovejoy 42’); Giles Barnes.
Substitutions not used: Leonel Miranda, Chandler Hoffman, Joe Willis, Alexander Lopez.
TOTAL SHOTS: 6; SHOTS ON GOAL: 3; FOULS: 14; OFFSIDE: 2; CORNER KICKS: 5; SAVES: 3.
Referee: Juan Guzman
Referee’s Assistants: Fabio Tovar and Apolinar Mariscal
4th Official: Kevin Stott
Attendance: 19,087
