{"id":46602,"date":"2023-04-23T19:27:51","date_gmt":"2023-04-23T23:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/?p=46602"},"modified":"2023-04-23T19:27:51","modified_gmt":"2023-04-23T23:27:51","slug":"la-galaxy-finally-win-post-match","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/04\/23\/la-galaxy-finally-win-post-match\/","title":{"rendered":"Galaxy Finally Win; LA Galaxy Post Match Talking Points for April 22"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_46604\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-46604\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-46604 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2023\/04\/ChichaPuigDejanLAvAus.jpg\" alt=\"The Los Angeles Galaxy was finally able to get their first win of the season. They won at home against Austin FC 2-0 on Saturday, April 22, 2023. (Photo Credit: LA Galaxy)\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2023\/04\/ChichaPuigDejanLAvAus.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2023\/04\/ChichaPuigDejanLAvAus-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2023\/04\/ChichaPuigDejanLAvAus-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2023\/04\/ChichaPuigDejanLAvAus-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/14\/2023\/04\/ChichaPuigDejanLAvAus-600x400.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-46604\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Javier &#8220;Chicharito&#8221; Hern\u00e1ndez, Riqui Puig, and Dejan Jovelji\u0107 were all part of a Los Angeles Galaxy attack that created dangerous moments. The trio led the Galaxy to a 2-0 home win against Austin FC on Saturday, April 22, 2023. (Photo Credit: LA Galaxy)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>Los Angeles &#8211; <\/strong>Los Angeles Galaxy fans can finally celebrate. An announced 18,000-plus were on hand at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday, April 22, 2023, to watch the Galaxy finally win a match. Galaxy fans should be encouraged by what they saw. The Galaxy was able to convincingly handle a normally excellent Austin team 2-0. Better still, they were able to build on the dominant, but ultimately a futile <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/04\/17\/galaxy-dominate-but-lose\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">home loss to LAFC<\/a> by controlling this match from start to finish. The cherry on top? Getting Captain Javier \u201cChicharito\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez and his DP mate, Riqui Puig on the scoresheet and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlssoccer.com\/news\/chicharito-la-galaxy-rediscover-fun-in-first-win-of-2023\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">having fun again<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>LA Galaxy Post Match<\/h2>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">G&#39;S UP \ud83d\udc99\ud83e\udd0d\ud83d\udc9b<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/LAvATX?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#LAvATX<\/a> x <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AngryOrchard?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@AngryOrchard<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/RlBQzjNw2E\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/RlBQzjNw2E<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LAGalaxy\/status\/1650001379082252289?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 23, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>More First-Half Struggles<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The match started as most have for the Galaxy this season. LA dominated the opening exchanges, but could not make the pressure pay off. Chicharito was spared from having to explain to a first-half one-on-one miss after he was judged offside. The captain would&#8217;ve been relieved to see the offside flag come up as he should&#8217;ve done better to put the chance away.<\/p>\n<p>But in truth, no one on the Galaxy was sharp. The team could be seen learning in real-time to a 3-5-2 formation change. The introduction of Dejan Jovelji\u0107 into the starting lineup as a winger had a learning curve as well. And LA was almost made to pay a harsh lesson, as Austin ended the half the brighter side. A Sebastian Driussi goal was waved off after Austin was judged to have fouled a Galaxy defender in the build-up to the goal. An extremely tight call, it allowed the Galaxy to go into the half tied 0-0 and all to play for.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>READ MORE: <\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/2023\/02\/24\/l-a-galaxy-2023-season-preview\/\" target=\"_self\">2023 LA Galaxy Season Preview: Riqui Shoots for MVP<\/a><\/strong><\/h4>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Here are the receipts!!!! Look at the lines on the grass and hire me to do VAR!!!!!! <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AustinFC?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#AustinFC<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MLS?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MLS<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MLSSeasonPass?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MLSSeasonPass<\/a> LA Galaxy has been robbing the rest of the league for years on rigged calls like this!!!!! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/FTJMTFGfsu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/FTJMTFGfsu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Ribbinator (@adamribbeck) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adamribbeck\/status\/1649982133191028737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 23, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Chicharito Gets Going\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It wouldn&#8217;t take long for the Galaxy to get going in the second half. And they finally got a bit of luck to go with it. After a Mark Delgado pass was misplayed by Puig, the Catalan was able to poke the 50-50 ball into the path of Jovelji\u0107. He gathered the ball just outside the Austin 18-yard box and played a quick shovel pass into the path of Chicharito. The captain would not make the mistakes he made against LAFC and in the first half here. He would catch up to the pass and take a first-time right-footed shot that blasted into the center of the net. The relief was palpable as Chicharito got his first goal of the year and the Galaxy jumped out to the 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n<p>There was still more to come from the Galaxy. Just 10 minutes later, LA showed off its devastating counterattack. After a Mark Delgado pickup in the middle of the park, the Galaxy was off to the races. The midfielder would carry the ball the length of the field with Jovelji\u0107 and Puig to his left. Delgado waited just enough to slide the ball into Puig&#8217;s path on the left wing. Riqui Rocket would take two touches before firing a low, driven strike into Brad Stuver&#8217;s net for the 2-0 Galaxy lead. Up by two goals and cruising, a weight seemed to come off the club. Chicharito admitted as much post game.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It\u2019s more of a release because I think when you are in these types of clubs, and when I say type, I mean very, very successful clubs\u2026 The pressure of responsibility and the standards are very high. It\u2019s not the same to be in another club and you don\u2019t win six games. [If you don\u2019t win] Six games in LA\u2026 As you can see, we don\u2019t even have fans in our stands,&#8221; Chicharito said of the win and the goal.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">CHICHARITO! \ud83d\ude24<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LAGalaxy?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@LAGalaxy<\/a> open the scoring early in the second half. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/xHxnxUPfy4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/xHxnxUPfy4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Major League Soccer (@MLS) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLS\/status\/1649986125971464192?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 23, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>A Defense for Now and the Future<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>While the Galaxy attack came alive, the defense was busy shutting down a normally potent Austin offense. And they couldn&#8217;t get a sniff. Galaxy season MVP so far, Jalen Neal, recorded a game-high seven clearances, completed 67 passes (95.7% pass accuracy), and finished the match with four duels won and six possessions won. As impressive as the center back has been, it&#8217;s easy to forget he is just 19. Neal&#8217;s defensive partners on the day, aren&#8217;t much older.<\/p>\n<p>Lucas Calegari is just 21 himself. The Brazilian has been a constant attacking threat on the right side of the defense for the Galaxy. He has also been a dependable replacement for former Galaxy defender and current Barcelona FC star Julian Araujo. While not as pacey as Araujo, Calegari offers a more defined offensive presence as a right back. And indeed the Galaxy usually looks more dangerous when Calegari gets forward.<\/p>\n<p>On the opposite flank, new arrival Julian Aude made his first start against Austin FC. And he didn&#8217;t look out of his depth once. On the contrary, Aude played like he&#8217;s been with the team for some time, such was his contribution.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think one of the things that you see as we continue to build this team, is we\u2019re trying to build the team that can compete right away, which, we\u2019re working on and tonight is the first step in showing you that, but also a team that has a really bright future. And so, you know, you see that in those three guys and others that are out there,&#8221; Vanney said of his young defenders.<\/p>\n<p>Together, these three should form the bedrock of the Galaxy defense for years to come.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Just the beginning \ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddf7<\/p>\n<p>Congratulations on your first <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MLS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@MLS<\/a> start, Juli\u00e1n Aude! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/Uwlk4ag188\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/Uwlk4ag188<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/LAGalaxy\/status\/1649980933137907712?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 23, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong>Defending the Badge &#8211; Riqui Puig<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This one is easy. Puig put the team on his back for the second game running. Everything good seems to flow through him. His goal was a just reward for his good performance. The only notch against him is his yellow card which will keep him out of LA&#8217;s next game. They&#8217;ll certainly miss him as the Galaxy plays Orlando City on the road next Saturday while looking for a second straight win.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83c\udf7f <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RiquiPuig?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@RiquiPuig<\/a> vs. Austin FC:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 8,5 Match-rating (MOTM) \ud83c\udf1f<br \/>\u2022 1 Goal scored \u26bd\ufe0f<br \/>\u2022 2 Chances created<br \/>\u2022 64\/73 Successful passes<br \/>\u2022 88% Passing accuracy<br \/>\u2022 5 Shots taken<br \/>\u2022 2 Shots blocked<br \/>\u2022 102 Touches<br \/>\u2022 2 Interceptions<br \/>\u2022 6 Recoveries<br \/>\u2022 3 Fouls won<br \/>\u2022 3 Duels won <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yhXiWPiY7c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/yhXiWPiY7c<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Michael (@MichaelEmilio_) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MichaelEmilio_\/status\/1650067362320637954?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 23, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Los Angeles &#8211; Los Angeles Galaxy fans can finally celebrate. An announced 18,000-plus were on hand at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday, April 22, 2023, to watch the Galaxy finally win a match. Galaxy fans should be encouraged by what they saw. The Galaxy was able to convincingly handle a normally excellent Austin team [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3969,"featured_media":46604,"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":[3114,17,1444,119,23],"tags":[4509,88,4817,4030,5487,5447,402,5203,4432,3055],"class_list":["post-46602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-austin-fc","category-galaxy","category-lafc","category-mls","category-whitecaps","tag-dejan-joveljic","tag-gyasi-zardes","tag-jalen-neal","tag-javier-chicharito-hernandez","tag-julian-aude","tag-lucas-calegari","tag-maxi-urruti","tag-riqui-puig","tag-sebastian-driussi","tag-tyler-boyd"],"modified_by":"Raheem Bashir, Site Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46602","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=46602"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/soccer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}