Carson, CA – The LA Galaxy faced off against the New England Revolution in a match that should have fallen in their favor, unfortunately, the outcome was not as expected. The Revolution beat the Galaxy 2-1, resulting in their 3rd straight home game lost.
From the first whistle, you could really tell both teams were going for it all. The New England Revolution came out on the attack quickly with a strike on goal at the 3’ mark. Luckily for the Galaxy, David Bingham had some strong gloves on the shot, as it was headed for the bottom left of the net. From that point, the Galaxy started playing a bit smarter and keeping the ball tight and in the midfield.
What slowed the pace of the game was when Sebastian Lletget got injured and had to be walked off the field by the trainer. In came Chris Pontius with fire in his eyes nearly making a goal right off the bat until he was tackled questionably inside the 6-yard box. This sparked the fire the Galaxy needed to continue the pressure, making 6 attempts on goal. Mostly led by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, however, they just couldn’t make it past the gloves of keeper Brad Knighton of the Revolution.
Just as the whistle was about to be blown to mark the end of the first half, Cristian Penilla of the Revolution fired a bullet that snuck right under Bingham’s gloves to give NE the 0-1 advantage going into the half. The Galaxy needed to re-work something even having 57 percent of possession they need to hit the back of the net with those power shots coming from within the 18-yard box.
With the start of the second half underway, LA looked to make more attempts to equalize the match. The Revolution’s forwards had control of the pitch for the majority of the game. The Galaxy back line seemed to be get caught on their heels more often than not. By the 51’ the Revolution had a ringer off the crossbar keeping the difference at only one.
Not until the 59’ when Teal Bunbury of the Revolution struck an amazing shot right past Bingham’s gloves. It wasn’t until the 84’ of the game when Zlatan made an amazing goal with a sick bicycle kick right into the back of the net. The Galaxy had a fire lit under them, as the Revolution tried to slow the pace of the game. Even with a stunning performance at the end of the match, Ibrahimovic was the only one to make the contact needed to get LA on the board.
Overall I feel as if the Galaxy came into this game with too much of a relaxed feeling. Since the Revolution only had 3 wins this entire season, it seemed like LA didn’t take them seriously. With the explosiveness of the Revolution forward line and strong back line, they just made it impossible for the strikers of the Galaxy to break through. LA will hit the road for their next match up against FC Cincinnati on the 22nd of June. Before that, they will take part in US Open Cup action against Orange Count FC on June 12th. They won’t be back home until July 4th, so they have a long stretch of travel in their future.
Written by Matt Whyte
Image CRedit: Darryl Waters / The SkyBoat