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2016 Season
Steve Carrillo

LA V Seattle – LA Galaxy are TWO Lletget

Stephen Brandt
2016 Season
3 min read

Seattle  WA – The LA Galaxy went up to Washington to play a club that was coming off a challenging week. The Sounders fired their first manager in their MLS era, and transferred the Uruguayan number 10 in Nicolas Lodeiro, so needless to say, this was going to be an interesting match for both clubs.  The match ended in regular time 1-1.

The first half was a possession based match, with neither club getting a foothold on the scoreboard. The Galaxy’s stout defense Stood tall against a Seattle team intent on scoring. But Jelle Van Damme and Ashley Cole, offseason replacements for a departing Omar Gonzalez, repeatedly stonewalled their attacks.  But a 0-0 first half just saw a resilient Brian Rowe push away chance after chance.

In the second half, the scoring opened in the 49th minute, when Sounders forward Nelson Valdez assisted on a Christian Roldan’s shot past Rowe. The Sounders opened the half, like their interim manager, and Seattle soccer lifer Brian Schmetzer, had given the speech to end all half time speeches. They were peppering shots on goal, and passing the ball like some clubs who played in the ICC here in the States this passed week.

The Galaxy followed up that with a goal from Sebastian Lletget, whom had come on at the 63rd minute for Emma Boateng. Lletget took a pass from Steven Gerrard, and shot the ball into the back of the net. It wasn’t the only shot the guys had, for the Galaxy had 10 shots on toward goal, and three shots on target. They did however have four shots off target, and three shots blocked.

Stats wise the Galaxy had 43% possession of the ball for the match while having only 440 passes for the game. The Galaxy also had a passing accuracy of 81% for the match. Brian Rowe was the most active of the two goalies collecting five saves for the match. The Sounders had three players with more than three shots on goal: Clint Dempsey had five, newcomer Nicolas Lodeiro and Jordan Morris had four.  The Galaxy had only two players with three shots on goal the former teammates of Liverpool Robbie Keane and Steven Gerrard.

LA Galaxy come home next week to play the New York Redbull on August 7th, at 6:30om PT on FS1. This next week will see the Galaxy play 3 consecutive home games. Redbull on Sunday, FC Dallas on Wednesday night August 10th, (US Open Cup Semi-finals0, and Colorado Rapids on Saturday August 13th.

MAN OF THE MATCH:

Jelle Van Damme continues to be the aggressive glue that holds this LA Galaxy defense together. In this game, Van Damme was the no-nonsense aggressor that wouldn’t back down from challenges and twice saved a sure goal off the line. With Van Damme the LA Galaxy lose this game. Agains, when everything else doesn’t seem to be clicking Jelle Van Damme has proven himself to be one of the most important pieces of this team.

“Huge. He [Jelle Van Damme] had two goal-line saves for us, which is always big. A.J. [DeLaGarza] had one last time we were up here. They [Seattle] missed a couple of good opportunities that were close, so it’s one of those ones where you kind of count the clock go down and you’re just happy to walk out of here.” Brian Rowe, LA Galaxy Goalkeeper 

NOTES:

  • Gyasi Zardes missed this game due to a Chest muscle strain. The injury occurred during training earlier in the week. His timetable for return is unknown.

  • Steven Gerrard and Ashley Cole both returned to the lineup after missing games previously.
  • Gerrard recorded his 8th assist of the 2016 MLS Season.
  • Brian Rowe is one of only 3 MLS Goalkeepers with a GAA of below 1.00 (0.89).
  • Jeff Larentowicz made his 300th MLS Start.
  • The LA Galaxy were 5-0-1 across all competitions in the month of July. That included a 2-0-1 record against Seattle.

QUOTE OF THE GAME:

“It’s just the chemistry. I just think the chemistry has really caught on and the philosophy – everybody is really buying into it. The manager has done a good job of voicing it and we listen, and we’re just really coming together.” Sebastian Lletget, LA Galaxy Midfielder – on why the Galaxy are getting so many results

SCORING SUMMARY:

  • SEA – Cristian Roldan (Assisted by Nelson Valdez) 49’
  • LA – Sebastian Lletget (Assisted by Steven Gerrard, Giovani dos Santos) 78’

LINEUPS:

  • LA Galaxy: Brian Rowe; A.J. DeLaGarza, Daniel Steres, Jelle Van Damme, Ashley Cole; Jeff Larentowicz (Mike Magee 71’), Nigel de Jong; Emmanuel Boateng (Sebastian Lletget 64’), Steven Gerrard, Giovani dos Santos (Baggio Husidic 90’+2); Robbie Keane ©
  • Substitutions not used: Clement Diop, Leonardo, Dave Romney, Alan Gordon
  • Head Coach: Bruce Arena
  • SHOTS: 10; SHOTS ON GOAL: 3; CORNERS: 3; OFFSIDES: 4; SAVES: 5

 

  • Seattle Sounders FC: Stefan Frei; Tyrone Mears, Brad Evans ©, Chad Marshall, Joevin Jones; Osvaldo Alonso, Cristian Roldan, Nicolás Lodeiro, Clint Dempsey; Jordan Morris, Nelson Valdez (Herculez Gomez 57’).
  • Substitutions not used: Tyler Miller, Zach Scott, Oniel Fisher, Andreas Ivanschitz, Alvaro Fernandez, Oalex Anderson.
  • Head Coach: Brian Schmetzer
  • SHOTS: 18; SHOTS ON GOAL: 8; CORNERS: 2; OFFSIDES: 4; SAVES: 1

LA GALAXY HIGHLIGHTS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QadVkwOHCjA