CARSON, Calif. – LA Galaxy Insider Adam Serrano provides the “Three Things We Learned” from the Galaxy’s scoreless draw in their CONCACAF Champions League first leg match with Santos Laguna.
THE LA GALAXY ARE IN FOR A BATTLE IN TORRÉON
The LA Galaxy will have it all to play for next Tuesday when they travel to Torréon for the second leg of their CCL quarterfinal series with Santos Laguna.
The Galaxy piled on the pressure at times against the Mexican side, but they’ll need to be considerably sharper next Tuesday when they travel to the incredibly hostile Estadio Corona. Remember, away goals are the tiebreaker if the two teams are even after 90 minutes in Mexico.
They’ll face a slightly different Santos side as the Guerreros are expected to have their two starting strikers back for the second leg after Andres Renteria (yellow card accumulation) and Djaniny (injury) missed out on the match at StubHub Center. Santos will be without the services of midfielder Diego Gonzalez, however, after the midfielder picked up his second yellow of the tournament.
THE LA GALAXY SHOW THEY CAN HANG WITH SANTOS…
The LA Galaxy proved on Wednesday evening that they can cause problems for the Santos Laguna backline, but they were unable to get on the board in their scoreless draw with the Mexican side.
Despite basically still being in preseason, the Galaxy’s attacking trio of Robbie Keane, Giovani dos Santos and Gyasi Zardes found plenty of space to cause problems for the Santos back four. The Galaxy's attack looked sharpest in the opening period with the club launching six shots in the opening 45 as opposed to five -- all of which were off target -- in the second half.
Dos Santos, in particular, looked sharp as he repeatedly terrorized the Santos defenders and nearly found the back of the net twice.
The Los Angeles attack must be sharper however in Torreon next Tuesday with the team likely needing an away goal to earn passage through to the semifinal round.
…BUT BOTH GOALKEEPERS ARE STELLAR
Dan Kennedy and Agustin Marchesin put on a clinic in Wednesday’s scoreless draw between Santos Laguna and the LA Galaxy.
The Santos goalkeeper put in a man of the match performance on Wednesday with five stops in the scoreless draw. The most important of Marchesin’s save came in the opening minutes when the Argentine shot-stopper denied a Jelle Van Damme header with a one-handed save to keep the score level.
Not to be outdone by his opposite number, Kennedy made three saves in the draw. The 33-year-old’s finest moment came in the 65th minute when he made a diving save to keep Bryan Rabello off the board. He’ll need to be on his game once again next Tuesday when the Galaxy head into Estadio Corona searching for a result to get through to the semifinals.
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog atLAGalaxy.com/Insiderand contact him atLAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com
