CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy extended their unbeaten run to three games, but once again struggled in front of goal during their 1-1 draw at home to the Portland Timbers.
Despite the return of Giovani dos Santos from injury, a Galaxy attack that was without Robbie Keane and Steven Gerrard struggled to create opportunities against the defending MLS Cup champions. The Galaxy ultimately canceled out Fanendo Adi’s opener thanks to an own goal by Nat Borchers, but the team was left frustrated with their showing.
“Obviously it wasn’t good enough,” Bruce Arena said after the match. “We controlled the play for long periods of time but still didn’t produce enough quality opportunities.”
Added captain Nigel de Jong who wore the armband for the injured Keane for the second consecutive match, “We got away with a point today. It could have been worse if we lose three points at home. They had one shot on goal, and one goal. But credit to Portland, they are a good team, very compact. But we had the best opportunity to score the first goal and it didn’t happen, and you saw what happened. But overall, a point against the former champions is not bad.”
The return of Dos Santos and Gyasi Zardes to the starting lineup added an extra dimension to the Galaxy’s attack, but too often the duo struggled to put shots on target. When Los Angeles did register an effort on frame, Portland’s Adam Kwarasey was there with four saves on the night.
Aside from Borchers’ own goal, the Galaxy’s best chance of the night came in 58th minute when Sebastian Lletget found Mike Magee alone in the penalty area only for the chance to go harmlessly wide.
“We were supposed to be aggressive as soon as the whistle started but Portland did a great job by sitting their back line in the very far back, dropping off,” Zardes said afterward. “And also sitting their two center midfielders, they kind of dropped them off as well and they were just looking for that counter so I think Portland did a great job.”
As they stated after their scoreless draw with Vancouver, the Galaxy contend that being more aggressive in front of goal will cure their scoring ills heading into next week’s match on the road against the Houston Dynamo.
“We’ve just got to keep being aggressive, we can’t get frustrated,” Lletget said. “We’ve got Houston next and that’s always a big one.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at LAGalaxy.com/Insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com
