COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – The LA Galaxy’s nine-game unbeaten run came to a halt at the foot of the Rocky Mountains on Saturday evening.
Los Angeles took an early lead on Romain Alessandrini’s first-half goal, but then conceded two unanswered goals to fall 2-1 to the Colorado Rapids. The defeat was the Galaxy’s first loss since May.
The Galaxy have been far from perfect despite their recent success, and on Saturday, their defensive struggles came back to haunt them according to goalkeeper David Bingham.
“There has been a theme over the last couple weeks, where we’ve gotten good results and worked hard, but there are little things throughout the game that teams are punishing us for and we haven’t been able to turn it around yet,” he said. “We have to be able to close guys down and put pressure on the ball. If you don’t do that guys are going to punish you and that’s what they did tonight, and they deserve the points for it.”
Weighed down by the Colorado altitude, head coach Sigi Schmid admitted that his side appeared “sluggish” as they conceded tallies by Kellyn Acosta and Sam Nicholson.
Although the Galaxy’s unbeaten run went by the wayside, Schmid believes his side must focus on the good aspects of their recent success as they look to turn their fortunes around against Minnesota United next week.
“We have to make sure it’s just a bump in the road," the boss said. "We’ve had a good stretch, but all of those things come to end at some time, so we have to stand up. We know what we did wrong, we have to look at that and make sure we come out ready to play next week against Minnesota.”
