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MLS LA Galaxy

LA Galaxy Battle LAFC to 1-1 Draw at Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday Night

October 4, 2021 - Major League Soccer (MLS)
LA Galaxy News Release


LOS ANGELES - Playing their third game in the span of seven days, the LA Galaxy battled crosstown rival LAFC to a 1-1 draw before a sellout crowd of 25,174 fans at Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday night. Samuel Grandsir notched his third goal of the season, while Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez and Victor Vázquez each tallied assists in the draw against LAFC.

LA Galaxy Against LAFC

Sunday's contest between the LA Galaxy and LAFC marked the 12th regular-season meeting between the two clubs, with the Galaxy leading the series 5-2-5. In six regular-season meetings against LAFC at Dignity Health Sports Park, the Galaxy hold an unbeaten record of 4-0-2. In three meetings between LA and LAFC in 2021, the Galaxy lead the series 1-0-2.

Goal-Scoring Plays

LAFC - Mamadou Fall (Eduard Atuesta), 11th minute: Eduard Atuesta's corner kick delivery into the penalty area found the head of Mamadou Fall, who powered his header into the top right corner.

LA - Samuel Grandsir (Victor Vázquez, Chicharito) 19th minute: Combining in midfield, Chicharito found Vázquez, who quickly played a through ball that released Grandsir behind the LAFC backline. Grandsir took a touch around the onrushing goalkeeper and rolled his shot into the empty net.

Postgame Notes

The LA Galaxy are 11-11-6 (39 pts) this season, sitting in sixth place in the Western Conference standings.

Sunday's contest between the LA Galaxy and LAFC marked the 12th regular-season meeting between the two clubs, with the Galaxy leading the series 5-2-5.

In six regular-season meetings against LAFC at Dignity Health Sports Park, the Galaxy hold an unbeaten record of 4-0-2.

In three meetings between LA and LAFC in 2021, the Galaxy lead the series 1-0-2.

Jonathan dos Santos played in his 99th game (87 starts) across all competitions for the Galaxy since joining the club in 2017.

Samuel Grandsir is the only player on the roster to appear in every match this season (28).

Grandsir notched his third goal of the season in the draw against LAFC.

Victor Vázquez tallied his fourth assist of the campaign.

Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez notched his second assist of the year.

The LA Galaxy honored club legend Landon Donovan with a statue unveiling in Legends Plaza and inducted him into the club's Ring of Honor.

Next Game

Following the international break, the Galaxy play host to the Portland Timbers at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday, Oct. 16. The Oct. 16 match kicks off at 7:30 p.m. PT and features a regional television broadcast on Spectrum SportsNet.

LA Galaxy (11-11-6, 39pts) vs. LAFC (9-12-7, 34 pts)

Oct. 3, 2021 - Dignity Health Sports Park (Los Angeles)

Goals by Half 1 2 F

LA Galaxy 1 0 1

LAFC 1 0 1

Scoring Summary:

LAFC: Fall (Atuesta), 11

LA: Grandsir (Vázquez, Chicharito), 19

Misconduct Summary:

LA: Araujo (caution), 10

LA: Grandsir (caution), 18

LAFC: Edwards (caution), 22

LA: DePuy (caution), 30

LAFC: Crisostomo (caution), 44

Lineups:

LA: GK Jonathan Bond; D Julian Araujo (Oniel Fisher, 69), D Séga Coulibaly (Daniel Steres, 77), D Nick DePuy, D Niko Hämäläinen; M Jonathan dos Santos ©, M Rayan Raveloson; M Efrain Álvarez (Sebastian Lletget, 69), M Victor Vázquez (Dejan Joveljić, 55), M Samuel Grandsir (Sacha Kljestan, 77), M Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez

Substitutes Not Used: GK Jonathan Klinsmann; M Adam Saldaña; F Kévin Cabral, F Ethan Zubak

TOTAL SHOTS: 10 (Rayan Raveloson, 3); SHOTS ON GOAL: 1 (Samuel Grandsir, 1); FOULS: 12 (Three players tied, 2) OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 4; SAVES: 0

LAFC: GK Jamal Blackman; D Mamadou Fall, D Marco Farfan (Sebastian Ibeagha, 89), D Raheem Edwards (Diego Palacios, 45), D Jesus Murillo; M Latif Blessing, M Jose Cifuentes, M Daniel Crisostomo (Francisco Ginella, 45), M Eduard Atuesta (Moonhwan Kim, 63); F Brian Rodriguez (Danny Musovski, 67), F Cristian Arango

Substitutes Not Used: GK Tomas Romero; M Bryce Duke; F Michee Ngalina

TOTAL SHOTS: 14 (Three players tied, 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 7 (Seven players tied, 1); FOULS: 15 (Jose Cifuentes, 3) OFFSIDES: 3; CORNER KICKS: 5; SAVES: 0

Referee: Armando Villarreal

Assistant Referees: Frank Anderson, Corey Rockwell

Fourth Official: Baldomero Toledo

VAR: Kevin Stott

Weather: Clear, 80 degrees

Attendance: 25,174

All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial

LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES

LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY

On his overall thoughts of the game:

"I thought we had some chances in the first half that we were moving in. So I challenged the guys to move the ball forward just a little bit faster, see if we could build some more speed into our attacks, try to get Julian [Araujo] building a little more speed into the attack on that right side because I thought Sam [Samuel Grandsir] was giving us a good run over on the left. I thought, by and large, we were pushing the game in the first half, I thought in the second half, at times, we were not as clean with the ball, not as clean with our possessions. We weren't able to get into the pockets until a little bit later, the second part of the half, where we were able to get into those spaces on the outsides of those two pillars and we need to just build some speed into the attacks and get some numbers in front of goal. Victor [Vázquez] was struggling a bit physically so we switched him off to put another forward on. I think when you change a forward and midfielder like Victor, you are going to lose some possession out of it because Victor is such a good possession oriented player who drops into the midfield and creates numbers. Now when you have two strikers that is one of the things you kind of lose sometimes and in the scenario you get two guys high and that's one less number that's in the midfield to overload to find some of those gaps. I think that led a little bit to us being a little clunkier and through the second half a bit, but it also was trying to get another guy running through the box, if we could get into some of those crossing situations. So I mean, I think that was that and I think the game starts to open up as guys get a little bit tired as little mistakes start to happen here and there, both sides, the game starts to get really stretched, and then it becomes anyone's ballgame. And then on the end I think sometimes we were just rushing our attacks, you know, as we weren't allowing for some of our attacks to develop, especially on the right side we were trying to get some overloads and create some numbers, we were just so fast to go away from it instead of getting guys there to be able to get [Oniel] Fisher running around the outside because he was fresh, Julian was struggling a bit with just his shins and just had pain through his legs, so tried to get Fisher on with some fresh legs in there and tried to get Sacha [Kjlestan] in to just kind of organize some of the running, but like I said sometimes we were in a rush on that side, I felt the rush turned into turnovers and the turnovers into attacks going the other way sometimes, so yeah that is kind of how I felt about it in the end and I thought the effort by the guys was an incredible shift and work, it's a tough third game, we came from being on the road and they came from being home so it's a tough third shift but I thought our guys put in a great effort. And I thought we left a couple goals on the table in the first half, especially a couple of headers just over the bar, a couple balls in the second half maybe, I think Nick [DePuy] had one and Dejan had one just over the bar, but it also becomes a game of execution as well in those final actions."

On only getting one shot on goal all game:

"I still think some of our final actions have to be tidy or we have to have better choices, our runs can be a little bit cleaner, the timing can be better. I think we are getting into good spots, but we have got to get more things on the goal, we have to make the goalkeeper make more saves, right, and we have to put more pressure on the net. We are kind of around the net, we are kind of in the box, but not enough of it is actually on the frame and making the opposition really come up with plays or saves, for sure. So those are things, are they concerning, of course, we are at that time of year where you want to be putting multiple balls on net and you want to be scoring goals and we are fighting for ever goal we get right now."

On Kévin Cabral not playing tonight:

"He played last game. He didn't miss it. He came off of the bench in the last game and why he didn't come in today is between Kévin and I, and our team, and some of the things we are looking for at this point in the season. It's not always just about being able to run, sometimes in this part of the season we need a little extra something in the fight. And so, you now, Kévin is aware of where we are at and needs to bring that every single day, we are in that stretch where you just got to compete, you have got to battle, you have to fight physically, you've got to do all the little things to help the team and I want him to fight through that right now and to push and he knows where we are at and he is going to get there because he has a lot of talent, but we want to just push him a little bit on some of the other stuff."

On the focus over the next couple of weeks:

"I think, obviously, as you've seen some of our final actions, is trying to get the timing right, trying to get the last ball, the last action as right as possible, getting to the areas we want to get to. I feel again like our timing, our final pass, our final decision, our final fun, those things are still a little off from where we'd like to be. I thought we were more efficient around the goal in the first part of the year, I don't think we were necessarily creating more chances in the first half of the season, I think we were just finishing more of the chances we were creating, and therefore, it feels different, you know. I think we're in the box more, I think we are controlling games in the opposition's half a little bit more now than we even were in the beginning of the year, we were just more efficient around the goal in the first half of the season and that equated to goals and in the end it equated to, you know, us being able to get results and get on top of games. This was another game where we give up the first goal off of a set piece and then we're pushing for the game through the stretch. We have to work a little bit on the final action, and just try to get our timing right as much as we can, we won't have everybody here but we can certainly work with the guys that we have and spend some time with Javier [Hernandez] and Deki [Dejan Joveljić] in front of the goal to mix and match their runs, sometimes I feel there's a lot of similarities in the two of them and sometimes we can work to get some of them playing off of each other a little bit more, and working together so when we play with two strikers that can be an option too."

LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER VICTOR VÁZQUEZ

On whether or not the team feels frustrated during the winless streak:

"Yeah, actually, it is not so much, but of course, when you are not winning games and it's bigger stretch that we didn't get three points, of course, you know, you have a bit of frustration even more when you deserve sometimes to win. I think in Austin, we were much better than Austin. For example, finally we lost the game with two mistakes that we are maybe we are not ready or we are not fighting. Sometimes in Austin we are giving sometimes a strong chances to there to the opening that we don't have to do it again, Salt Lake it was the same. I think we deserve also to win because we had more chances at the end of the game. They got this chance and this guy has got an amazing goal also. And today, I think it's a bit the same. I think we create a few chances in the first half. We felt that we were under control then in the second half. I think he was like more fifty-fifty. They had the ball. We had the ball. But finally, we create more chances than them. And like you said, we hit two times the crossbar, one time the post. And this is football, and you don't put it in the back of the net, then you pay it and we have to we have to keep it up to continue like that. Now we have a break on. We have six games left that it's six finals. It's still on us because we are we are still in the playoffs, but everything is more tight.

On whether or not he's concerned with the lack of goals:

"You know, of course, when you are not scoring goals and not winning games, it's always a concern. We are trying our best always. But like Greg said, I think he's right for sure. Sometimes we are a bit like rushing the things. We are trying to make more things that maybe we should or we know. I think we have to do sometimes more simple, because the simple things are the difficult ones. And this is my thought, and this is the way I play always. I think we have to move the ball faster. We have to move the ball more easy, like playing one touch, two touch. And don't be like you want to be the hero. You know, just play for the team, try to create these spaces. And finally, the chance is going to come like in the first goal. Of course, today I gave an assist. It's about us. It's about the finish from Sam. It's also great. Then I think we have to find these moments when we really find these kind of spaces to put some guy or some teammate in front of the goal one against one, against the keeper or one against one against the defender? And don't rush the things like Greg said, I totally agree."

On how the team will approach the international break:

"We are approaching every game like a final now. I think every team does the same. It's only now six games left. We have a break now. Two weeks break and we're going to get Portland here. They are in an amazing period now that I think the last seven, eight games [in which] they didn't lose. And it's also a rival because they are, I think, like four or five points ahead of us. If we get that win, everything is going to be more tight. I think like we have to do things in ourselves. Like you said, we are still in the playoffs. Everything is, like I say, also before everything is more tight. And we feel also, of course, the pressure from the other teams that they are coming hard and they are doing this and they are doing the things right also. But we have to believe. And we have a great team. We have a good team. We show it during the whole season. Of course, now we have this stretch that we couldn't win in nine games, but still everything on us."

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