{"id":41864,"date":"2022-03-20T17:48:53","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T21:48:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/?p=41864"},"modified":"2022-03-20T17:57:31","modified_gmt":"2022-03-20T21:57:31","slug":"la-galaxy-lacks-orlando-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2022\/03\/20\/la-galaxy-lacks-orlando-city\/","title":{"rendered":"LA Galaxy lacks ideas and goals in 1-0 loss"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Four games into the 2022 MLS season, the Los Angeles Galaxy has shown who they are.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lagalaxy.com\/news\/match-report-la-galaxy-0-1-orlando-city-sc\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Saturday\u2019s 1-0 loss at home<\/a> to Orlando City courtesy of a Facundo Torres header confirms it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>LA Galaxy lacks ideas and goals in 1-0 loss<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are a team capable of giving Los Angeles Head Coach Greg Vanney good, but not great performances with plenty of possession and goal opportunities but not many actual goals attached.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They are a better team than last year to be sure, but the simple fact the Galaxy isn\u2019t finding the net regularly has led to its 2-2 record after four games.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Four games they certainly could\u2019ve won.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Four games where they had the goal opportunities to do so.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But if anything, at least the Galaxy is consistent and stuck to the script Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">They looked dangerous early in the match and produced three corner kicks in the first eight minutes of the match, pegging Orlando City back in their own final third.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pressure was telling and should\u2019ve brought a goal for Los Angeles, only for their defensive Achilles heel to pop up once again.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2022\/03\/12\/xavier-arreaga-header-galaxy-sounders\/\" target=\"_self\">Galaxy let themselves down three different times defensively<\/a> after outplaying Seattle on their own turf last week and against Orlando, an inability to transition and cover a lethal counterattack was their undoing.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Lions open the scoring. Poor defending to not pick him up as he runs into the box. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/d7HcYrrmBn\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/d7HcYrrmBn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Last Word on LA Galaxy (@LWOS_LAGalaxy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LWOS_LAGalaxy\/status\/1505275499831988227?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 19, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI mean, it became\u2026 again, last week, we lose the game on an execution on set pieces. This week, we didn\u2019t manage a transition well, which then gives the away team a 1-0 lead,\u201d Vanney said of the play that led to the Facundo Torres headed goal off the Ercan Kara cross. \u201cAnd, he puts in a perfect cross, and a great finish. And now, all of a sudden, in a game, that we\u2019re, again, we\u2019re in control of, even though it was relatively early, we\u2019re down 1-0. And we\u2019re uphill.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Not for lack of chances&#8230;<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another game that we just don\u2019t execute in the final actions and we showed vulnerability.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite being \u201cuphill\u201d as Vanney said, the Galaxy outshot Orlando 20-6 the rest of the way, but just 3 of those shots were on frame. In the halftime interview, he mentioned Orlando only having one chance that led to goal. Orlando put their chance away, however, as the Galaxy continued to spurn theirs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Victor V\u00e1zquez\u00a0had a few chances.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Javier \u201cChicharito\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez\u00a0had a few good looks at Orlando\u2019s goal as well.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Raheem Edwards, perhaps the best Galaxy signing of the off-season, continued to get forward and had a few opportunities too.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While Galaxy DP K\u00e9vin\u00a0Cabral should definitely be disappointed to not see his name attached to a few goals as he had perhaps the best of the Galaxy goal opportunities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Galaxy midfielder Sacha Kljestan made no excuses for the team. He spoke of the team\u2019s inability to convert chances, a problem he blames on lack of execution.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cMore execution just of the final play, where we were just a half-step late or early or just the final touch was like a half touch off tonight. It was just not very clear and precise in our execution in the final play today,\u201d Kljestan told assorted press after the loss.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt can be frustrating, but on the bright side, we controlled all four games through possession so far. We have yet to face a team that is controlling more of the ball than us or controlling the midfield. So that\u2018s a very big positive for us because that\u2019s the way that we want to play.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Kljestan might have a point, but Galaxy fans will take little solace in good performances with a lack of goals; even less in a lack of wins. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>They&#8217;ll have two weeks off now to figure out the execution part of the game plan before the next <em>El Tr\u00e1fico <\/em>on April 9 against LAFC.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Galaxy better soon, or four games that should have gone the L.A.&#8217;s way, might turn into five.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>Photo Credit: Kevin Cabral and the Los Angeles Galaxy had plenty of goal chances but no goal and no three points at home against Orlando City. Photo with LA Galaxy permission.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Four games into the 2022 MLS season, the Los Angeles Galaxy has shown who they are.\u00a0 And Saturday\u2019s 1-0 loss at home to Orlando City courtesy of a Facundo Torres header confirms it.\u00a0 LA Galaxy lacks ideas and goals in 1-0 loss They are a team capable of giving Los Angeles Head Coach Greg Vanney [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3969,"featured_media":41881,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17,1444,119,3,10,22],"tags":[4863,4862,307,4030,4207,1574,139,4864],"class_list":["post-41864","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-galaxy","category-lafc","category-mls","category-news","category-ocsc","category-sounders","tag-ercan-kara","tag-facundo-torres","tag-greg-vanney","tag-javier-chicharito-hernandez","tag-kevin-cabral","tag-raheem-edwards","tag-sacha-kljestan","tag-victor-vasquez"],"modified_by":"Matt Pollard","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3969"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}