Galaxy steal three points against Montreal.

Sigi Schmid’s LA Galaxy side overcame the odds to pick up three points on the road on Monday.

By Ivan Yeo

It was not looking good for the Los Angeles Galaxy on Monday afternoon.

Mired in a four-game losing streak, losing ground in the Western Conference playoff match, the odds were stacked against the Galaxy in a rare Monday afternoon road match against the Montreal Impact. Montreal outshot the Galaxy 23-7 for the whole match, and the deck was stacked against the Galaxy even more in the 41st minute when Zlatan Ibrahimovic was red-carded for an incident with Michael Petrasso that forced the Galaxy to play with 10 men the rest of the match.

However, unlike the last month or so, when LA probably would’ve capitulated in these situations, the Galaxy persisted, and took advantage of one opportunity. Ola Kamara’s goal in the 75th minute and the goalkeeping of David Bingham was all the Galaxy needed to steal three points on the road with a 1-0 win over the Impact at Stade Saputo.

After weathering Zlatan’s red card and a barrage of Impact chances, the Galaxy got one chance and made the most of it. Bingham sent a goal kick over the midline, Dave Romney headed the ball to Emmanuel Boateng, whose header forward sprung Kamara, who had slipped past his marker, Marco Donadel. Kamara fought off Donadel’s challenge, dribbled into the penalty area, cut inside Jukka Raitala and fired a ball past Evan Bush into the back net to give the Galaxy a rare lead.

The Galaxy got the win despite losing Ibrahimovic late in the first half. It started when both Ibrahimovic and Petrasso were trying to get position on a dead ball situation. Petrasso appeared to step on Ibrahimovic, which apparently didn’t sit well with him, and he proceeded to slap Petrasso on the side of the head and both players went to the ground. After video review was initiated, Petrasso got a yellow card, but Ibrahimovic got the worst of it, as he got the straight red.

Sensing an opportunity with the man advantage, Montreal immediately went on the offensive. Ken Krolicki received a pass inside the penalty area and took a shot towards the near post, Bignham parried the shot away and Montreal was forced to settle for a corner attempt in which nothing came of it. Seven minutes later, Nacho Piatti sent a cross inside the box to Alejandro Silva, one-timed a shot for the far post, but Bingham dived and made the save with his left hand. A minute later, Raheem Edwards took a ball from Silva, saw a sightline and sent a shot towards the framework, big Bingham managed to parry the ball over the crossbar.

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