Never mind the season, this week alone has been a whirlwind of sorts for the Los Angeles Galaxy.
On Wednesday, the Galaxy suffered two losses. First, they were knocked out of the US Open Cup by a Real Salt Lake side that they had just beaten a week earlier, then compounding matters, in that USOC match in Utah, the Galaxy’s star striker Javier Chicharito Hernandez suffered a non-contact knee injury that a day later was confirmed as a torn ACL, meaning Chicharito will miss the rest of this season and the start of next season.
Having been through all that, playing a Sunday matinee match against St. Louis City SC, the Galaxy fell behind on a wonderful strike from Nicholas Gioacchini midway through the second match. However, instead of packing it in, as has been the case whenever the Galaxy start trailing in a match, the Galaxy summoned a resolve that has rarely been present so far this season, as Daniel Aguirre got a tying goal moments later, and the Galaxy held on for the point courtesy of the 1-1 draw at CityPark.
“I think the group is, in a way, just rolling up our sleeves, and we have to deal with whatever we have to deal with now,” Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney said regarding the adversity the team has so far faced this season. “The games are coming and they’re going, and we’ve got to take points, and we don’t have time to get too caught up in things that are happening.”
After 67 minutes in which it was mostly the aggressor, but was unable to find the back net, St. Louis finally broke through in the 68th minute. Indiana Vassilev crossed a ball into the penalty area, the ball took a bounce before Gioacchini booted a ball off his left foot with his back facing goal, yet the ball perfectly sailed over keeper Jonathan Bond and into the back net at the back post area.
Given how the Galaxy’s season has gone, one might expect that goal to be a death knell for the Galaxy. However, the Galaxy got once chance in the 75th minute and capitalized. Douglas Costa pressured Jake Nerwinski into a turnover, passed a ball forward to Preston Judd, who then played Costa into the penalty area. Costa crossed into the six-yard box and Aguirre came in and sent a leaping one-timer past keeper Roman Burki to level the match.
“I mean, it was honestly just quick, a turnover and then Preston just turned with the ball and played Douglas out wide,” Aguirre said of the the buildup to the goal. “Preston was out of obviously the nine spot, so I just saw the space in there, and I just wanted for them to play the ball across.”
The Galaxy will finally get a chance to decompress, as its next match will not be until Wednesday, June 21st, when they host Sporting Kansas City.
