Los Angeles Galaxy lose a heartbreaker to Orlando City SC
By Mary Coyne
Their east coast struggles continue as the Los Angeles Galaxy fall to Orlando City 2-1 on Saturday.
Maybe it’s the long plane flight, but for some reason, the Los Angeles Galaxy have been unable to win a regular season game on the east coast since 2013, according to Caitlin Murray of FOX Sports.
On Saturday, the trend continued and the Galaxy fell short, 2-1, to Orlando City, a team who continues to win at home and who now sits second in the East.
Orlando scored the first goal only 9 minutes in off a Will Johnson strike and the Galaxy was once again playing from behind. They looked sloppy and out of sorts in the first half – can we blame that on the time change?
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But they settled in and battled back in the second half. Giovanni dos Santos almost had the equalizer but his free shot hit the post. So it was once again team savior Romain Alessandrini who evened it up in the 83rd minute with his fourth goal in three games.
But Orlando’s Cyle Larin’s stoppage time goal off a corner kick snatched the lead and the win for Orlando.
Galaxy goalie Clement Diop made his 5th straight start for the team and while he had several spectacular saves, he had too many questionable positionings which had to worry head coach Curt Onalfo.
Luckily Diop was bailed out by the posts – once on a Jonathan Spector shot six minutes in and again in the 18th minute when Diop came almost 25 yards out and was beat by Carlos Rivas.
It was a tough to lose after having fought their way back which Onalfo commented on after the game:
"Disappointing because of how hard we fought to get the equalizer. It’s hard to get points on the road, travel all the way across the country. You go down early and you keep pushing, keep fighting. We had chance after chance and we just felt it was common and then it came and it was disappointing that we didn’t close it off properly."
At this point, all the Galaxy can do is continue to work together to find that rhythm that is so lacking. Team captain Jelle Van Damme called for them to “look at themselves” and learn from their mistakes telling Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider, “We have to talk about it and see what we can do better. It’s a process where we have to learn from. Those mistakes cannot happen every game.”
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Let’s hope they’re quick learners because up next for the Los Angeles Galaxy is a matchup against the MLS Champions Seattle Sounders at home on Sunday.