CARSON, Calif. (May 19, 2019) – Andre Shinyashiki now has two goals as a professional soccer player. Both have gotten his team points. Thanks to his 82nd minute goal, Colorado Rapids got their first win of 2019 against LA Galaxy, who were without Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Andre Shinyashiki Gets Colorado Rapids First Win at Zlatan-Less LA Galaxy
The first half was a back-and-forth affair. The Galaxy had more of the ball and got some opportunities by overloading the 18 yard box. Colorado stayed compact and was able to pass through the midfield quickly to create counter attacks.
Colorado’s best chance came in the 19th minute. With the Galaxy pushed into the attacking third. Jonathan Lewis and Kei Kamara combined in the midfield to get around Diego Polenta. Lewis found himself behind the last defender and in on goal. Goalkeeper David Bingham came off his line to cut down the angle but Lewis chipped the ball over him and wide of goal.
Polenta got in some trouble on two separate occasions. First, he and Kamara collided off the ball and Kamara was holding his jaw. Polenta had his arm stretched out on the play. Then Polenta got his studs into the back of the leg of Sam Nicholson. VAR took a look, but the call of a yellow card stood.
The teams simplified things in the second half, playing very direct. Long balls were lumped into the box in numbers. As the game got stretched, both teams had open looks. Kamara, Nicholson, and Polenta all had chances but couldn’t finish.
Kamara hit the post and flubbed several chances. Nicholson got a breakaway and chipped Bingham but Giancarlo Gonzalez cleared the ball off the line. Polenta had a chance inside the box but shot it off the post.
Finally a goal was scored in the 82nd minute. On a counter attack, the Rapids had three players to two defenders for the Galaxy. After some passing to open space, Kamara shot the ball into Bingham. The ball fell to an unmarked substitute Andre Shinyashiki and he rolled it into the bottom corner past Bingham.
The match ended 1-0 to Colorado.
Counter attack level ?#Rapids96 | #LAvCOL pic.twitter.com/Y6569YTIwA
— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) May 20, 2019
Three Takeaways:
No Zlatan, problem: The Galaxy clearly had ideas on how to create chances without their DP striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic. They didn’t have the finishing touch or leadership in the attack though and it cost them the game.
Shinyashiki plays hero: Andre Shinyashiki has two goals this season and both of them have gotten Colorado a result. In a game begging for someone to finish an open look, he was the only one who did.
No finishing: Both defenses had issues in this game. Marking and tracking back in transition was terrible. Still, both teams had trouble finishing.
