While LA Galaxy II were able to maintain their unbeaten streak, they dropped two more points, drawing with Orange County Blues 1-1 on Friday night. Jose Villarreal opened the scoring with 21 minutes remaining but OC equalized soon after to share the spoils.
In the opening minute, LA Galaxy II had a superb opportunity to score following a set piece by OC. Denzel Slager, who played last year for the Blues used his fantastic speed to get on the end of a long ball hit over the top of the defense. Slager took a couple of extra touches but failed to get a shot off as the Blues’ goalkeeper thwarted the danger.
Orange County should have scored the opening goal in the 20th minute but wasted their chance. Josh Turnley stepped up from his defensive spot and OC’s Trevin Caesar found space in behind. This left Caesar in all alone versus Dan Kennedy but the former found the outside of the right post.
Slager put on a nice attacking showing in the opening 45 minutes. He showed great technique down the right touchline, as the Dutch-born pulled off a turn to open up space. Slager continued his run into the final third before whipping in a cross back towards the middle of the box. But none of his teammates were able to get on the end of his delivery as the opportunity went to waste.
Jack McBean has been extremely instrumental in Los Dos’ success this season thus far. He has scored a couple of goals, and set his teammates up for goals of their own. In the second half against the Blues, McBean had the ball down the left before finding Jose Villarreal inside the area. Villarreal took a couple of touches to get his barrings straight before placing his shot into the bottom right hand corner of the goal.
Unfortunately, for the young guys, they could not hold their lead. In the 74th minute of the match, Orange County won a dangerous free kick. Didier Crettenand stood over the ball and curled his shot perfectly into the bottom right. Kennedy did manage to get his fingertip on the shot but he was not able to keep it from going past him.
The young G’s return to action on Wednesday as they welcome in San Antonio to StubHub Center.
Scoring Summary:
- LA – Jose Villarreal (Assisted by Jack McBean) 68’
- OC – Didier Crettenand 73’
LA Galaxy II Starting XI:
Dan Kennedy; Nathan Smith, Lee Nishanian, Jeffrey Payeras, Josh Turnley; Denzel Slager (Ethan Zubak 80’) , Jeff Larentowicz (Bryam Rebellon 60’), Alejandro Covarrubias, Jaime Villarreal; Jose Villarreal, Jack McBean
Substitutions not used: Bennett Sneddon, John Neeskens, Kainoa Bailey, Ryo Fujii, Adonis Amaya