PORTLAND, OR (July 23, 2016) – With early goals from Robbie Keane and Gyasi Zardes, the LA Galaxy got their sixth straight win, and fourth in a row in league play. The defeated the Portland Timbers 2-1 on Saturday afternoon at Providence Park. It wasn’t pretty, but it was effective.
LA Galaxy Get Gut A Check Win In Portland
Both managers had to do some lineup juggling for the match. The Galaxy played a midweek game, but head coach Bruce Arena was able to rest most of his stars. Jeff Larentowicz stepped in for the injured Steven Gerrard in central midfield. Dave Romney started at left back for Ashley Cole, who still has a hamstring issue. Emmanuel Boateng made his second straight start on the wing.
Portland head coach Caleb Porter started Jermaine Taylor at center back for Captain Liam Ridgewell, who is having calf issues.
The Galaxy took a few minutes getting into the game (and used to the turf), but settled in in the 7th minute. Larentowicz found Giovani dos Santos just inside the box, who made a run towards the touch line and found Keane far post, who scored.
Just four minutes later, they would double their lead. Jelle Van Damme sent a long ball to Boateng, who got some space and delivered a cross into the box. The ball took a bit of a lucky bounce off center back Nat Borchers and found Zardes, who directed it to the bottom corner of the net.
Portland would respond with an onslaught of chances, generating 18 shots in the game to the Galaxy’s 9. Zarek Valentin cut the deficit in half with a bouncing shot that was set up by an excellent run from Darlington Nagbe.
The half ended 2-1 with Portland having much better play towards the end. The second half was very similar with Portland dominating possession and creating most of the chances. The Galaxy defense did a very good job preventing Diego Valeri and Fernando Adi from taking advantage. This forced the ball out to less dangerous attackers. On the whole, Portland just wasn’t able to finish on several occasions.
Bruce Arena’s side was nothing short of heroic in emergency defending situations on the day. The middle four of Larentowicz, Nigel de Jong, Daniel Steres, and Van Damme were excellent throughout the match. They stepped up when needed, switched marks at the right time, and bottled up both Valeri and Adi for much of the game.
An argument can be made that the Galaxy were too conservative with a two goal lead, playing to defend a lead. Much like the game in Seattle, they took an early lead and gradually parked the bus as the game went on. For the most part, the Galaxy have only used this game plan on the road and many MLS teams use it successfully to get road results.
While this strategy may not be sustainable, help is on the way. Arena played a very defensive midfield with De Jong and Larentowicz. Gerrard is on the mend and will bring some attacking prowess to the central midfield. Boateng started having played 90 minutes on Wednesday. He faded in and out of the game.
Arena certainly should make some adjustments and not have his team bunker so quickly and often with a lead. This team has the depth to rotate some of the older players in and out. They did a very good job managing the scorelines in both games this week. These things will help the LA Galaxy get a gut check win or two down the stretch.
