MLS LA Galaxy

LA Galaxy Fall 1-0 to Orlando City SC in Front of Sell-Out Crowd at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday Afternoon

Published on March 19, 2022 under Major League Soccer (MLS)
LA Galaxy News Release


LOS ANGELES - Playing their second home match of the 2022 MLS regular season, the LA Galaxy sustained a 1-0 defeat to Orlando City SC in front of a sell-out crowd of 25,174 fans at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday afternoon.

LA Galaxy Against Orlando City SC

Saturday's match marked the sixth MLS regular-season meeting between LA and Orlando, with the series tied 3-3-0. The loss to Orlando marked the Galaxy's first loss at home to Orlando City SC (2-1-0). In 13 regular-season matches coached against Orlando, LA Galaxy Head Coach Greg Vanney holds a record of 8-3-2.

Goal-Scoring Plays

ORL - Facundo Torres (Ercan Kara, Ruan), 9th minute: Streaking down the right wing, Ercan Kara's cross into the box found the head of Facundo Torres, whose header from close range was directed into the far corner of the net.

Postgame Notes

Saturday's match marked the sixth MLS regular-season meeting between the LA Galaxy and Orlando City SC, with the series tied 3-3-0.

In three matches played against Orlando at Dignity Health Sports Park, LA holds a record of 2-1-0.

The loss to Orlando snapped a six-match unbeaten run at Dignity Health Sports Park, dating back to Sept. 15, 2021.

In 13 regular-season matches coached against Orlando, LA Galaxy Head Coach Greg Vanney holds a record of 8-3-2.

The Galaxy out possessed Orlando 62.8% to 37.2%.

Raheem Edwards finished the match with a game-high four chances created.

Edwards registered a team-high eight possessions won in the loss to Orlando.

Mark Delgado finished the match a game-high 75 passes attempted with a 97% pass accuracy.

Julián Araujo and Víctor Vázquez each created three chances in the match against Orlando.

The match against Orlando marked Sacha Kljestan's 49th career appearance for the Galaxy.

Samuel Grandsir has played in 38 consecutive matches for the Galaxy since making his debut for the club on April 18, 2021.

Efraín Álvarez made his 60th MLS regular-season appearance for LA, which ranks as the second-most by an active player on the Galaxy roster.

The Galaxy sold out Dignity Health Sports Park for a second consecutive match.

Next Game

Following the international break, the Galaxy will travel to face the Portland Timbers at Providence Park on Sunday, April 3. The April 3 match kicks off at 1:30 p.m. PT and features a national television broadcast on FS1.

LA Galaxy (2-2-0, 6pts) vs. Orlando City SC (2-1-1, 7pts)

March 19, 2022 - Dignity Health Sports Park (Los Angeles)

Goals by Half 1 2 F

LA Galaxy 0 0 0

Orlando City SC 1 0 1

Scoring Summary:

ORL: Torres (Kara, Ruan), 9

Misconduct Summary:

ORL: Ruan (caution), 44

ORL: Moutinho (caution), 70

ORL: Araujo (caution), 90+2

Lineups:

LA: GK Jonathan Bond; D Julián Araujo, D Séga Coulibaly, D Nick DePuy (Dejan Joveljić, 79), D Raheem Edwards; M Mark Delgado, M Rayan Raveloson, M Douglas Costa (Efraín Álvarez, 45), M Víctor Vázquez (Sacha Kljestan, 68), M Kévin Cabral (Samuel Grandsir, 62), F Javier "Chicharito" Hernández ©

Substitutes Not Used: GK Jonathan Klinsmann; D Kelvin Leerdam, D Derrick Williams, D Eriq Zavaleta; M Jonathan Pérez

TOTAL SHOTS: 20 (Raveloson, 5); SHOTS ON GOAL: 3 (Three players tied, 1); FOULS: 12 (Raveloson, 3) OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 12; SAVES: 1

ORL: GK Pedro Gallese; D Ruan (Kyle Smith, 68), D Antonio Carlos, D Robin Jansson, D Joao Moutinho; M Cesar Araujo, M Sebastian Mendez, M Mauricio Pereyra © (Rodrigo Schlegel, 79), M Junior Urso; F Ercan Kara (Benji Michel, 68), F Facundo Torres (Tesho Akindele, 83)

Substitutes Not Used: GK Mason Stajduhar; D Thomas Williams; M Joey DeZart; F Alexandre Pato, F Silvester van der Water

TOTAL SHOTS: 6 (Torres, 2); SHOTS ON GOAL: 2 (Torres, Smith 1); FOULS: 13 (Four players tied, 2) OFFSIDES: 3; CORNER KICKS: 2; SAVES: 3

Referee: Alex Chilowicz

Assistant Referees: Micheal Barwegen, Chris Wattam

Fourth Official: Ricardo Fierro

VAR: Victor Rivas

Weather: Partly cloudy, 64 degrees

Attendance: 25,174

All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial

LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES

LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY

On this not being the rebound he wanted after the Seattle game, and what saw from the match today:

"I mean, it became... again, last week, we lose the game on an execution on set pieces. This week, we didn't manage a transition well, which then gives the away team a 1-0 lead. We got a little overzealous on the transition. We got and try and win the ball right away and we don't. They're behind us. Now, our center backs are kind of scrambling in between, trying to rotate across and deal with the ball. And, he puts in a perfect cross, and a great finish. And now, all of a sudden, in a game, that we're, again, we're in control of, even though it was relatively early, we're down 1-0. And we're uphill. And, again, we create chances, we get the balls into decent spots. The connection in the final action, not precise enough to put something in the back of the net, and the game continues to kind of progress where we, as it starts to go, we start to feel more and more, I think, like we're chasing it. And it gets a little bit murky at the end. They have a lot of numbers behind the ball. We're trying to get numbers in from of the goal. And then of course there's some transitions in that. But, I thought, again, we played through their pressure. We got into their half of the field with relative ease. We get into attacking situations. Sometimes I think we're impatient, and we try to hit final passes at the wrong times, instead of working to get deeper. Working to get to the end lines. Playing the numbers a little bit, and working for more clear opportunities. We got a little impatient. And then, again, I think as the game ticks away, emotion starts to creep in to the game, and it'll get fuzzy down the stretch. But, again, another game that we just didn't execute on the final actions, and we showed vulnerability in the transition, and gave one away early on, then made it an uphill struggle."

On having 20 shots, but only three on target and if there's something there worth paying attention to on generating chances, but not quality chances:

"A little bit. I mean, I think, for sure, again, it's... as I said before, there's times where I think we need to be a little bit more patient, and work for a little bit more depth. It makes for the finish to be a little bit better. There's sometimes when I think, just, we do work into those areas, and we do play balls across the face of the goal, or we do find areas, and we miss the goal, we hit the goalkeeper, that was obviously not on a ton of occasions, but on a number of them. And, yeah, there's a combination of both things. I think we can work for better chances, but I also think we need to put more things on target and make the goalkeeper come up with more saves. Work for more second balls, in terms of rebounds and different things. And I think we are getting to areas and we are creating chances, but those chances need to be, obviously, on target, or really connect into the goal. But, some of the possession ,some of the ball movement, some of the circulation to get to the final action has been very good. That's why we have been in such control of a lot of these games. But, we've got to finish. And we have got to manage every play in the game if we're not going to score any goals. And we didn't manage early on.

On heading into international break off a bummer of a result, and what his focus will be for the next weeks and his approach:

"We're four games into the season. We still have a lot of growing to do as a group. But, for sure, one of the things we need to improve on is just the timing and the final action. Not bailing out of attacks for low percentage situations, and work better for high percentage situations. But, yeah, some final quality Final action stuff. We need to continue to build on every phase of the game. I think we've showed a pretty good ability to play out of pressure and to work into the attacking half of the field. But, we've got to create more quality chances. The second part is just defensively, I feel like we've got to eliminate our vulnerabilities. We didn't manage the transition well today. So, that's something that we need to think about. And there were other transitions where we just didn't even... we weren't prepared for the transition, which was the most frustrating thing for me. Is, we've got guys not involved in the attack need to be prepared for the transition so that we can stop the other team from just getting into our half of the field so easily. And, I think that's some of us chasing the game - when I say we get emotional - when we're down one. We've got guys who are now going forward, and we're not paying attention to our transition responsibilities. The attack doesn't work. They find a player. They're into our half of the field. Now you've got to do a lot of work to get into the attacking half of the field again. So, we've got to remain disciplined even if things aren't in our favor right off the bat. Trust the process. Stick to our roles. Just stick to what we're trying to do to create chances. So, again, it's four games in. I think there's just things we need to continue to grow upon as a group and work. And then we've got to have more execution obviously in and around the goal and those final actions."

On Douglas Costa status:

"He felt it between five and 10 minutes into the game. Said he went into a 1-on-1 and he took somebody on with a little acceleration and he just felt like it was tight. He didn't have any real push off. I saw him stretching it about 15 minutes in, so I was keeping an eye on him to see what his response was going to be. And I was trying to reach out to him across the field to get a sense of how he was, but, he never really changed speeds. He never really got into another gear. So, I could tell going into halftime that there was something going on. And, as soon as I walked over to him, he said, 'I just feel like I'm tight and I can't explode and I can't change speeds or sprint.' And so, I don't know how severe, or if it was more severe, I think he would have pulled himself earlier, so I would say if there's anything severe or serious. However, he certainty feels right, so that's something we're definitely going to have to manage here over this break."

On Kévin Cabral and the amount of faith he has shown in him, but his play is still showing growing pains in certain moments overall:

"As it relates to Kévin [Cabral], I think, the obvious things for me, in the final action, Kévin needs to be more consistent and he needs to be more productive. That's the first thing. The second is, the running the Kévin does, and the work that he does, we don't have anyone on our team who does that. Sam [Grandsir] does a little bit of it, but not the same. It's the consistency of working behind the back line, running through the back line into the depth. It's working to add another player in front of goal. There's things that I think we have to be patient with, because he does those things different than anyone else on our team. And, that creates opportunity and space and control for others. So, there's things that I appreciate about his performances that maybe aren't' as clear as goalscoring chances and scoring goals. Those bear out in the numbers that we look at and things that we assess. Having said that, what most everyone else sees is the execution side of things and for sure that has to take a big step forward because we need more end product. Whether that's the pass. Whether that's the finish. Because, he found himself, again, in a few good places where, with a little more quality and a little more confidence maybe, he puts things on goal, he makes keepers make the save, he puts it in the back of the net and we get more out of it. So, I would just say that side is definitely a work in progress. But, the running and the sprinting and the high speed running, we don't have anyone that's even close to him in our group that gives us that on a consistent basis. Which, there's value in that for us. But right now when we're searching for foals, we need the final piece too. We need the final product. That's for sure."

LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER SACHA KLJESTAN

On what he saw during his time on the field:

"When I came in, we were already down 1-0, so I'm just trying to bring a little bit of energy and really start to push the game to get us just playing at a little faster tempo. I think we started the second half very well. There were a couple of half chances at the beginning from corner kicks. We were starting to put pressure on them, which we tried to do for the rest of the second half. I think in the end, we just ended up rushing things a little bit. They ended up going five in the back and just bunkering down and we have a ton of possession. We weren't really able to break them down and I think what hurt us a little bit is just we didn't have the ability to stay patient and wait for things to open up. I think we started throwing long balls forward or throwing the ball in the box and things weren't really happening for us. I think just learning for us from this game is even when we go down 1-0 early on that we just stick to the game plan. We still try to move the ball from side to side. We still have got to be patient with the ball and still do the right things. Getting impatient never helps and sometimes games get crazy at the end. If you just settle the game down and still find ways to break them down the way we like to play; that would be best for us."

On the Galaxy outshooting Orlando 20-6, but only having three shots on target:

"Sometimes yes and sometimes no. More 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."

On the team creating a number of scoring chances, but not converting them:

"It 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's a very big positive for us because that's the way that we want to play. We want to be able to control the games through our midfield and with the ball. Having said that, we would like to create better chances from the run of play though our possession and then on the other side I would like to see us be able to create more chances through transition. We've been pretty good defensively and pretty good against the ball and limiting other team's chances and their build ups and then forcing them to play direct. I'd like to see us create some of those turnovers that we get in the attacking half of the field into a quicker chance on goal. We're working on things like that, but from a positive look on things that we have controlled all four games with possession and we've yet to see a team that can do that to us yet."

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Major League Soccer Stories from March 19, 2022


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