Carson, Calif. — The LA Galaxy saw their 29 unbeaten home streak come to an end Saturday night as they fell to the Vancouver Whitecaps 1-0.
The Galaxy were again short on players with Gyasi Zardes, Bradford Jamieson IV, and Jaime Penedo out on national team duties, Jose Villarreal out with a left shoulder sprain, and Robbie Rogers still recovering from an ankle injury (he went 60 minutes with LA Galaxy II last night against the Orange County Blues).
To put things in perspective, Bruce Arena has put out a different lineup in the 16 games played so far this season with ten different back line combinations.
This alone is one of the reasons behind LA’s slow start this season.
The lone and winning goal came off a bad turnover in midfield by Mika Väyrynen that led to Kekuta Manneh racing down the field and then sliding the ball past Omar Gonzalez and Brian Rowe.
Overall, the attack never really came for LA as they registered ZERO shots on goal (six off target) in the whole game while they had 65% of the possession. Even though they still lost, the team has not had a chance to get used to each other yet especially with a different starting lineup every game.
“It wasn’t a lack of effort, it was a lack of quality,” said Bruce Arena after the game.
They are still desperately lacking the midfield maestro that Sarvas and Donovan provided last season while injuries has been nagging almost every player on the team.The Galaxy has started off slow in passed season and cranked it up towards the 2nd half and sneaking into the playoffs. Here’s to hoping that is the case for this year’s team.
This was the Whitecaps’s first win at StubHub Center in seven tries and second win over the Galaxy this year.
For LA, they face the Columbus Crew at Mapfre Stadium where they are still winless on the road. Keane will depart for Dublin on Sunday and will be gone until June 14th for Ireland’s Euros qualifiers. Zardes should be available next Saturday but his minutes might be limited as the United States has a mid-week friendly against Germany in Cologne.
