CARSON, Calif. – Two six-pointer matches in one week for the Los Angeles Galaxy? One win, one draw, four points. Despite a sixth minute Daniel Steres red card, a resilient Galaxy survived Seattle Sounders FC behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Jonathan dos Santos. David Bingham, not so much.
LA Galaxy Draw Sounders, Survive Daniel Steres Red Card
The match got turned on its head just six minutes in when Steres was sent off. Seattle were moving into an attacking position and Steres took down Raul Ruidiaz. the defender was given a straight red card for denial of a goal scoring opportunity.
The Galaxy almost had a chance to take the lead just minutes later when it appeared that Jonathan dos Santos was fouled but VAR called off the foul. Ruidiaz broke the deadlock in the 42nd minute after some good work by Jordan Morris on the counter attack.
Just before halftime, the Galaxy made it 1-1. Sebastian Lletget send the ball to the back post. Jostling with Kim Kee-Hee, Ibrahimovic got to the ball in the air and headed it across goal and in.
The Galaxy got in front in the 65th minute when Ibrahimovic scored on a penalty that he drew himself. It was all Sounders after that, up a man and desperate to get a point given the match and their form.
After several chances, the game was tied up in one of the weirdest ways possible. Morris made a run for a long ball just outside of the box. Goalkeeper David Bingham came off his line and got to it first. His clearance went off Jorgen Skjelvik and rolled into the back of the net. It went down as an own goal on Skjelvik.
The match ended 2-2.
Three Takeaways:
Zlatan rolling: Ibrahimovic is up to 20 goals on the season. He’s got a monopoly on the Galaxy offense and the Gs desperately needed both goals from him in this game.
Up a man, missed chances: Despite having double the possession and shots, the Sounders couldn’t get the win in this game. Ruidiaz missed on severa
Good and the bad: On the whole, it was a good week for the Galaxy, but two mistakes cost them dearly. The Sounders end the week with just a point where they should have won this game.
