CARSON, Calif. – It was an all too familiar feeling on Saturday.
As has been the case too often for the LA Galaxy in 2017, the team was simply outplayed by the opposition. Sigi Schmid’s squad saw their fledgling two-game unbeaten run snapped thanks to a 4-0 shellacking at the hands of Toronto FC at StubHub Center.
After bagging the opening goal in the 24th minute, Toronto took firm control of the match, finding the back of the net three more times and holding Los Angeles without a single shot on goal.
“It wasn’t good enough,” Schmid told LA Galaxy Insider. “We all need to look in the mirror because that was not good enough.”
The Galaxy started the match relatively strongly with Jonathan dos Santos nearly putting Los Angeles on the board with a rocket from 35 yards out in the opening moments. However, once Tosaint Ricketts opened the scoring off a free kick in the 24th minute, Toronto never looked back.
Los Angeles’ attackers found themselves negated by a Toronto defense that offered them little space to operate while the visitors were too easy to capitalize on any lapses by the Galaxy’s back four. Schmid was understandably frustrated with his squad after the game, addressing them in a postgame meeting that defender Dave Romney stated was quite “frank.”
“The main message was that guys are playing for their jobs. Play for some pride. That’s the main message. You’ve got to go to practice now and work hard and play hard,” goalkeeper Jon Kempin said. “Have some pride. It wasn’t loud, but he was frustrated. Anytime you lose 4-0, especially after we were starting to build after a 3-0 win and tie against Seattle. We were kind of on the right track, and this is a little step back backward. So the main thing he said was is this going to be a road bump or are we going to go off the path.”
With the postseason now nearly unattainable with the club 11 points south of the red line, the Galaxy’s focus becomes much more personal as they play out the final six games of the season and look ahead to the 2018 campaign.
“Guys are playing for their jobs, [Sigi has] said it before,” Romney said. “Couldn’t be any truer than that. If that doesn’t motivate you I don’t know what else will.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at www.LAGalaxy.com/Insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com
