CHESTER, Pa. – Are the LA Galaxy’s road woes finally over?
LA have lost just once on the road in 2016, but Galaxy players are looking to turn draws into victories after picking up just a point again away from StubHub Center.
On just 72 hours rest and after a cross-country trip, Los Angeles held on for a hard-fought 2-2 draw with the Philadelphia Union on Wednesday night at Talen Energy Stadium. After making six changes from the squad that beat the New England Revolution on Sunday, Galaxy boss, Bruce Arena was pleased to leave the City of Brotherly Love with a share of the spoils.
“We changed six players from our game on Sunday, so I give our guys credit to deal with the travel and getting the point and playing against an impressive team,” Arena told reporters. “Overall, I think we have to be pleased to leave with a point.”
Not everything was sunny after the Galaxy’s draw in Philadelphia, however.
The match was the Galaxy’s season in a nutshell: Brilliant going forward with room for improvement at the back, as LA conceded a pair of preventable goals. Once Philly pulled level, the Galaxy were forced to dig deep to withstand a Union onslaught driven as the home side were buoyed by boisterous crowd.
If Los Angeles are to capture silverware this year, midfielder Steven Gerrard believes the Galaxy must shore up their defense at home and on the road.
“We only got a point, and we came here for three. It’s a decent point because we were playing a good team,” Gerrard said. “We’re a team that needs to start winning on the road, we’re capable and have the players to do so. We’re slightly disappointed with the point.
“We have to stop conceding goals because when you concede goals you aren’t going to win football matches. We’re scoring very heavily at home and getting away with it, but we need to toughen up away from home.”
And if they’re going to improve on the road, veteran left back Ashley Cole says the Galaxy’s defense must begin to shut down offenses and rack up shutouts.
“You never like to concede goals whether it’s home or away and to concede two goals away like we did today is not good. I don’t think we’d kept too many clean sheets this season,” Cole said. “We need to look for that and work harder as a team because we need to keep clean sheets if we want to win the league.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog atLAGalaxy.com/Insiderand contact him atLAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com
