MLS Playoffs Knockout Round: Seattle Sounders 3-2 LA Galaxy
It was a thrilling game with 4 goals in the first 25 minutes of the game. Back to back goals at the 5th and 6th and we were tied 1-1. The tone was set and Seattle would take the lead only 5 minutes after LA’s equalizer. But the Galaxy will only take 10 minutes to tie this up 2-2 at the break. The second half saw the Sounders dominating and creating the most chances up to the last 15 minutes where they sealed a final 3-2 advantage.. too hard for the LA “Millionaires” to come back from.
Because yes this is a failure and major one for the Galaxy. After a spending spree getting over the summer to sign Steven Gerrard and Giovanni Dos Santos, the Galaxy detached themselves from the competition at least on the team salary value… But instead of blaming a lackadaisical end of the season, the Galaxy had a chance to secure home advantage for the first game but fail in Kansas City. On the other side, Seattle deserves to win and finally pass the LA obstacle after three consecutive eliminations against the Galaxy in the playoffs:
Read what the players and coaches and to say post-game:
LA Galaxy – Steven Gerrard:
“I think if we analyze the entire season [since I arrived in July], we were brilliant up until three or four weeks ago. Then all of a sudden we’ve been conceding sloppy goals, and that’s certainly got carried into tonight…. In general, we’re conceding too many goals on set pieces and crosses into the box. It feels like we’ve got to score two or three goals to win games at the moment, and that’s not how it should be.”
LA Galaxy coach Bruce Arena:
“We played pretty well. We should have won this game tonight. We literally gift-wrapped the game. If you’re going to give away goals like that, you don’t deserve to win. That’s for sure…. To concede the three goals that we conceded is absolutely poor.”
Sounders coach Schmid:
“Having gone through some of the struggles we went through [against the Galaxy], it makes you stronger. You learn more from failure than you do than from success sometimes. We struggled a little bit but I think the guys knew, ‘Hey, this is a window of opportunity we’ve got to take advantage of.”
“The difficult road lays in front of us. We’ve only got three days to rest and we’ve got to use that wisely and use it to the best of our abilities. Hopefully, we’ll get some guys back for this weekend and we push forward.
“But our current run of form can propel you into the unknown. That’s kind of what we’re riding right now.”
