LA Galaxy Still Struggling, LAFC Shows Its Power in Houston

While the LAFC continues to roll through the MLS championship, their local rivals the LA Galaxy are struggling to find their form. LAFC easily defeated Houston Dynamo away from home with 3-1, proving their dominance. On the other side, Galaxy was trashed in Cali Classic with the same result.

Clubs from Los Angeles played their MLS matches last night, and the mood after them is totally the opposite among the big rivals.

For quite some time, Galaxy is trying to find the proper rhythm, but for some reason, this crew is simply playing way below the expected level of play.

Against the Quakes, the hosts reached the lead after only two minutes, when Rolf Feltscher netted following a corner-kick. At that point, everybody at Dignity Health Sports Park believed that Galaxy might win the second match in a row after a long time. Yet, that didn’t happen.

They somehow prevailed not to concede a goal until the end of the halftime, further resisting for the whole hour. But then came the hurricane from San Jose. In just 25 minutes, Quakes beat David Bingham three times. And just for your information, Galaxy’s goalkeeper was the man of the match. Bingham broke the MLS’s record with 14 saves in one game!

“Even at halftime, when we were winning, in that moment, we were saying, ‘What’s happening?’ I wonder why,” Guillermo Barros Schelotto said. “Now is very soon to analyze the game.”

Quakes outshot the hosts 32-5! It is something which hasn’t been seen for a long time in LA. The scorers for the visiting team were Vako, Hoesen, and Yueill.

“The whole team is very disappointed; I think we really have to analyze the game and see what went wrong,” Joe Corona said.

Following the match, all the big names from Galaxy’s team left the stadium without speaking with the journalists. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Jonathan dos Santos, and the above-mentioned Bingham all stormed out, frustrated because of the final result.

Galaxy is now 12 points behind LAFC in the Western Conference. The other club from the City of Angels defeated Houston Dynamo in Texas, inflicting them the first loss at home this season. The result was 3-1, and the game itself had a lot of similarities to the one at Dignity Health Sports Park. Houston took the lead after three minutes, through Rommel Quioto, but the guests turned the tables and smashed Dynamo with three straight scores.

Adama Diomande was in the middle of attention, because of his double, which came very quickly. At first, the Norwegian shocked the hosts in the second minute of the injury time of the opening half. Just four minutes into the latter part of the event, he struck once again, taking the momentum on LAFC’s side and killing the morale of the rival.

“I’m starting to come back in form. I’ve been out for a while with injuries and starting to build confidence back now,” Diomande stated after the match.

The 29-year old striker was involved in the third goal also, setting the position for Diego Rossi to net.

Coach Bob Bradley made numerous changes in the starting lineup, probably wanting to spare some players and save their energy before the big clash against the local rivals. Galaxy and FC are meeting next Friday in El Trafico, and the hosts are going to be Ibrahimovic and the boys.

The tension is already felt in the air because these two sides were considered to be among the biggest favorites to win the title. Apart from the reputation, Galaxy’s future here is at stake, as they don’t have any room for mistakes. Another loss would definitely hurt their championship ambitions.

El Trafico’s kick-off is at 10 pm ET.