The LA Galaxy and Minnesota United played to a 0-0 draw tonight in front of a sell out crowd of 19.779 at Allianz Field.
Minnesota United suffered a second draw at their new stadium in front of a capacity crowd for midweek MLS action. Looking at the stats sheet, it looked like the Galaxy limited Minnesota but, in many cases, Minnesota were their own worst enemy in front of net. Quntero, Martinez and Danladi were all off target when they were put into good positions.
The LA Galaxy’s backline has been very good except on the left side. Jorgen Skjelvik was constantly getting beat, his defensive teammates or poor shots saved him on the night. On the other side, it was 17-year old teenager Julian Araujo that was once again very impressive. Players rarely got past Araujo, and when they did , he recovered quickly and usually he was able to win the ball back. Araujo’s impressive night took a turn when he went down with a non-contact injury in the 79th minute. It looked as though he was grabbing his ankle or lower leg when he went to ground. He did not need to be stretchered off, however, it did not look like he was able to put weight on the leg a he was being helped off the field.
The Galaxy’s offense looked very one-dimensional for the second game in a row. The team’s wingers, Uriel Antuna and Ema Boateng seem like two sides of the same coin at times. They are both speedy and can be used as outlets up the sidelines but they can’t seem to put in any kind of quality service to Zlatan. Ibrahimovic himself seems to expect his teammates to put balls on a dime for him. His runs or lack thereof made him easy to mark. Zlatan ventured back into the midfield at times to try and create but was often left to settle for hopeful balls because the team wasn’t sure what to do with his passes. The LA Galaxy need to figure out how to play without Zlatan, even when he is on the field.
Goalkeeper David Bingham continues to show improvement, as he was called upon to make a big save on Angelo Martinez in the 28th minute. Ike Opara also had two headers that were goal bound knocked away buy the Galaxy’s Julian Araujo and Sebastian Lletget in the 30th and 32nd minutes.
The Galaxy extend their unbeaten streak to 7 games and now head home to face RSL on Sunday at The Diggity.
