CARSON, Calif. — The LA Galaxy didn’t find their first win on Sunday night against St. Louis City. The Galaxy remain winless on the season (0-3-0) and are tied for the worst start in club history (1997 also 0-3-0).
Despite allowing three goals and watching a stadium empty after allowing the third one, the Galaxy had their best showing of the season. That’s a tough pill for a team that has only managed one solitary goal on the season and allowed a St. Louis side, who hadn’t scored in their first two games, to net three.
Bright spots included Harbor Miller, Isaiah Parente, Marco Reus, and Emiro Garces.
Low spots shined an even brighter light on Novak Micovic. The Galaxy are in a full-blown goalkeeper controversy at this point. Even if most neutral observers can say the spotlight has been particularly harsh on Micovic.
This team will improve as they get healthier, but results can’t/won’t wait for that. So finding some modicum of success will be important in the next handful of games. Scoring goals will be the only thing that lifts the Galaxy from this moment.
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NOTES & QUOTES
Isaiah Parente impressed.
In his first ever start for the LA Galaxy, Parente was calm, quick with his feet, creative with his movement and accurate with his passing. Parente made 18 passes into the final third, was 3 of 4 on long balls, was a perfect 4/4 in ground duels, and was 110/117 (94%) in passing. And if you squinted your eyes, you could almost see a shadow of Riqui Puig. He needs more time at the position, but he left a GREAT impression with Greg Vanney and other observers of this game. The best part is he brought Marco Reus into this game and the Galaxy need a more active and connected Reus.
“I think one of the things I have struggled with in the first three games is facilitating the ball from the initial phase of the attack to the next phase of the attack. And whoever is in there working with Eddie (Cerillo), it’s got to be efficient with reading and connection, and that has to happen fast. It’s intricate. It’s not slow and methodical.
“I felt in the first couple games, just between the guys that were in there with Eddie, they are just not ready for the intricate speed and the tight play that is happening inside of those areas. And that takes time. I get it. It’s not the easiest thing to ask somebody to do. I thought Isaiah (Parente) did a nice job today of doing that, and that allows us to keep Marco higher, and we can get Marco the ball in better positions instead of Marco having to come take the ball in lower positions. In Costa Rica, we actually played Marco a little lower to help facilitate getting the ball forward and now seeing Isaiah being able to do that in this particular game, helps us to put Marco into better positions to impact the attack and the final action and the final pass and those kinds of things.
“So I thought Isaiah did everything he needed to do today from that regard, and that helps. That helps me, again, as I look at the pieces and how they can fit together. I thought Isaiah did himself some justice.” — Greg Vanney, LA Galaxy Head Coach
The Galaxy offense looked better than it has all year.
Building off the success of Parente, Reus, Gabriel Pec, and others had their best offensive outing of the year. Reus was slippery inside the half spaces and had a shot go off the post in the first half. The Galaxy had their first real sustained attack and pressure in this game and if not for Roman Burki, St. Louis’ goalkeeper, the Galaxy could have and should have netted at least a goal.
But the Galaxy gave St. Louis life with some questionable goalkeeping and giving away bad balls in transition moments. Like last year, when the Galaxy give the ball away in bad spots, they struggle to recover. And even Emiro Garces, who has superhuman speed and recovery ability, couldn’t rescue LA from itself.
“We created enough chances to score three goals ourselves today and we have zero,” said Vanney after the game.
“In the grand scheme of things, in their goal creation, they didn’t create many opportunities, aside from some transition moments, set piece stuff. But we give them hope by giving them goals.
“You know, a team that couldn’t get anywhere near the ball, they had no idea how to get close to the ball. They were suffering, and we throw/kick the ball in our own goal, and it gives them a chance to breathe and to believe in something that on the day, they didn’t know what they were believing in the first half.
“They say goals change games. It changed the energy of the game. It changed the emotions of the game. I think that’s the story of the game in some ways. And then we lose balls in ways that we can’t lose balls that then turn into transitions that lead into another goal. These are clear possession moments where we just have to link up the ball and it comes right back at us. We got some really good looks. I thought we had good, orchestrated attacks through the course of the game against a team that was a lot of numbers behind the ball. We were still able to break them down and create good chances. That’s a sign of progress for me.”
The calls for John McCarthy are getting louder and Greg Vanney has a goalkeeper problem on his hands.
Vanney laid the first goal of the game on Novak Micovic. Micovic and Yoshida semi-collided on a corner kick that was near the front post. Micovic didn’t go up strong enough and the ball was knocked down behind Yoshida, before being cleared off the line by Garces. But St. Louis eventually found a big enough hole to put them up 1-0.
Micovic would allow two more goals — both to his near post if you think that says something about a goalkeeper — and looked shell-shocked after allowing the first goal. He didn’t go up for a cross almost immediately after the first goal on a ball St. Louis should have scored.
“Decisions are not going to be in the emotion of the moment,” Vanney said after being asked about his goalkeeper decisions, “but in the grand scheme of things, I think it comes down to presence, and, you know, if the keeper is going to get it, he’s got to be loud and clear and early and take the ball. Otherwise, the guys who are zoning are going to attack the ball. And so between them — and I leave the goalkeeper as the guy who most is responsible in the situation — (he) needs to make that situation clear.”
Marco Reus acknowledges the perfectly horrible start. And talks about the missing player, the injuries and what the Galaxy really need right now — a win.
“I mean, it’s the worst start that we could have,” said Rues after the game. “We played four games, four losses. Conceded too many goals. We are not scoring so many goals — just one.
“I think today in the first half, we played, I would say, ‘Well, we created many, many chances. But at the end, we lost the game and that is really what matters.’
“Of course, at the moment, it’s a little bit frustrating because we had a couple of changes this season with players who are really important for us. Some of them are injured. Some of them are not here anymore. And new players were coming in, so they needed, of course, a little bit of time. But in this sport, you don’t have time.
“We really have to understand that our standard, even in training, has to be higher than last year. Because every club who is playing against us, they want to win. We have to find a solution and find the chemistry in our team to build the mentality of winning each game. At the moment, as I said, it’s really frustrating. But I can say that during my career, I had a lot of these situations, when it’s not going well for the team. We have to stay together and work harder, like every day. First of all, we have to score goals and win games. Yeah, today was not our day, and in three days we have another chance.”
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