LOS ANGELES (Wednesday, Oct. 27, 2021) – Playing the first of two road games in the span of six days, the LA Galaxy fell 2-0 to Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park on Wednesday night.
LA Galaxy Playoff Picture
With two matches remaining in their 2021 MLS regular-season campaign, the LA Galaxy (13-12-7, 46 points, -4 GD) sit in sixth place in the Western Conference standings, three points behind the fourth-place Portland Timbers (15-13-4, 49 points, -1 GD), one point behind fifth-place Vancouver Whitecaps FC (12-9-11, 47 points, 1 GD) and one point ahead of seventh-place Real Salt Lake (13-12-6, 45 points, 3 GD). Additionally, Minnesota United FC (12-11-9, 45 points, -4 GD) sit in eighth place, while LAFC (12-12-8, 44 points, 5 GD) rest in ninth place in the Western Conference.
Goal-Scoring Plays
SKC – Johnny Russell (Gadi Kinda), 40th minute: Attacking down the right wing, Johnny Russell cut in on his left foot and fired a low shot that beat Jonathan Bond at the near post.
SKC – Johnny Russell (Gadi Kinda), 82nd minute: Building down the right side of the penalty area, Russell latched onto Kinda’s pass and curled a left-footed shot into the far corner of the net.
post Game comments
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY
On his thoughts after the loss to Sporting KC:
“As I said to the guys, from the start, we weren’t set up great. And then we felt like the whole game that we were trying to organize ourselves in a way that we could settle in and get more comfortable, get more of the ball, still be dangerous and defend in a way that we were comfortable. I felt like, for me, I was chasing the game the whole time to try to get us into some way that we could feel comfortable and still be dangerous in the game. As I said to them, I appreciate their effort. I thought they worked hard the entire game and they fought for everything in the game. They tried to battle through the game, but we just never really found our comfort zone within the game. And so I put that on me in terms of our organization and just trying to get us into the right spots. I felt like we were too narrow at the start just with Seba [Sebastian Lletget] inside, and so we didn't create any spaces for us to be able to play forward early in the game. So then we got Kévin [Cabral] on and tried to just get more width ahead of the ball and try to open up some space. As we did that, we had some moments, but we also weren't as solid defensively and we also weren't necessarily as dangerous and weren't able to really get dangerous in front of their goal or around their goal. So as we started to go, we started to try to find different ways that we could support our forward and to get more something in front of the goal; more presence in front of the goal, more balls in front of the goal, something that can threaten their goal. In the process of doing that, and trying to get some numbers in the right place, we obviously exposed ourselves a little bit. They had two shots on goal in the grand scheme of things, but having said that; we just never really found a comfortable position in the game to be able to get some control of the game. That's why I say the guys battled and we dealt with a lot of stuff, but we just never really found our comfort and our flow in the game of how we were going to control the game and how we were going to create a chance. But the guys competed for 90 minutes, we put this one behind us and now we’ve got to concentrate and prepare hopefully for the next one with an extra day to get on the field and try to work on preparation for Seattle. They’re also a good team. We have to give them credit. They're also a good team who very much understands their structure and they've got guys who filled their roles very well and their structure played a good part in the game for them being able to control things.”
On what Sporting KC did to control the midfield battle:
“They pressed us with kind of a narrow front three and their two attacking midfielders really tried to get up and get in on our midfield. So it was hard for our midfielders to find space, hard for Jona [Jonathan dos Santos] and Rayan [Raveloson] to find any space and to try to find the ball. Victor [Vázquez] … it was also tough for him to find the ball. Their midfielders really just sought out our midfielders, and then we needed to do a good job with our center backs to try to really eliminate the striker to be able to force somebody out to defend us. They were releasing from their weak-side winger strong to our center back and we just weren't quick enough to find the solution. Sometimes I felt like we were narrowing up our space too much ahead of the ball, and so we weren't able to play through the lines, which means you stay in front of that pressure. And when you stay in front of the pressure, you become very vulnerable for losing balls in between the lines. That's what was happening for a good chunk of the first half, and I thought it got a little bit better as the game progressed, but still not enough where we got really comfortable in the game and started to flow and get some rhythm in what we were trying to do.”
On why Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez wasn’t available for the match against Sporting KC:
“The night before travel, he reached out to the doctors. He was not feeling well. They followed up with him. It wasn’t anything to do with COVID, but he had a high fever and some other issues physically. Just throat soreness, achiness and things like that that it’s a risk to put him in an airplane with the rest of the group. And so it's better to let him get some rest, hopefully fully recover and give us everything he has for the last two matches.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER JULIAN ARAUJO
On what he saw in the match against Sporting KC:
“We had a different plan this game. It didn't work out the way we wanted to go, but this game is over with now. We can't really stress over it any more. We know we have two games… We have two finals to focus on. We have Seattle next on Monday and we’ve just got to [get up for it] now. We’ve just got to turn it around, we’ve got to recover and we’ve got to focus on what we need to focus on and learn from the mistakes we made today. We're going to have our full squad next week, so we're going to be ready for Seattle and hopefully turn it around.”
On whether or not the team is aware of the playoff line:
“We're not really keeping our focus on the line. We know that we want to get to the playoffs. We know what it's going to take. We know that we’ve got to win these games coming up and we're not really keeping an eye on the line. We know how many points we need to get and our goal is to get to the playoffs. We're going to do whatever we can to get there.”
On what he thinks Sporting KC did to disrupt the Galaxy’s rhythm:
“I don't really think it was Kansas that made us feel uncomfortable. I think it was just ourselves. I think we lost some sloppy balls all around. We lost a lot of balls in the midfield for them to transition on us. They had two shots on goal and they scored both of their chances and this is how the game ended up. I know we had a couple of chances, but ultimately I think it's on us and we need to turn it around and we need to learn from today and focus on Monday.”
Postgame Notes
The LA Galaxy (13-12-7, 46 points, -4 GD) sit in sixth place in the Western Conference standings, three points behind the fourth-place Portland Timbers (15-13-4, 49 points, -1 GD), one point behind fifth-place Vancouver Whitecaps FC (12-9-11, 47 points, 1 GD) and one point ahead of seventh-place Real Salt Lake (13-12-6, 45 points, 3 GD).
The loss to Sporting KC snapped the Galaxy’s four-match unbeaten run.
Wednesday’s match marked the 66th MLS regular-season meeting between LA and Sporting KC, with the Galaxy leading the series 26-25-15.
In 34 road contests against Sporting KC, LA holds a 9-17-8 record.
Samuel Grandsir is the only player to appear in every match this season (32) for the Galaxy.
Jonathan dos Santos finished the match with a team-high three chances created.
LA allowed only two shots on target during the match, which marked the eighth time the club has held their opponents to under three shots on target this season.
LA Galaxy (13-12-7, 46pts) at Sporting Kansas City (17-7-7, 58pts)
Oct. 27, 2021 – Children’s Mercy Park (Kansas City, Kan.)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
LA Galaxy 0 0 0
Sporting KC 1 1 2
Scoring Summary:
SKC: Russell (Kinda), 40th minute
SKC: Russell (Kinda), 82nd minute
Misconduct Summary:
SKC: Isimat-Mirin (caution), 90+1
Lineups:
LA: GK Jonathan Bond; D Julian Araujo, D Séga Coulibaly, D Derrick Williams, D Niko Hämäläinen (Ethan Zubak, 84); M Jonathan dos Santos ©, M Rayan Raveloson, M Samuel Grandsir (Oniel Fisher, 72), M Victor Vázquez (Kévin Cabral, 45), M Sebastian Lletget (Sacha Kljestan, 72); F Dejan Joveljić (Efrain Álvarez, 86)
Substitutes Not Used: GK Jonathan Klinsmann; D Daniel Steres; M Adam Saldaña
TOTAL SHOTS: 9 (Rayan Raveloson, 3); SHOTS ON GOAL: 2 (Dejan Joveljić, Kévin Cabral, 1); FOULS: 9 (Julian Araujo, Victor Vázquez, 2); OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 5; SAVES: 0
SKC: GK John Pulskamp; D Andreu Fontas, D Nicolas Isimat-Mirin, D Graham Zusi, D Luis Martins; M Ilie Sanchez, M Roger Espinoza (Cameron Duke, 74), M Gadi Kinda, M Remi Walter; F Johnny Russell © (Grayson Barber, 89), F Khiry Shelton
Substitutes Not Used: GK Kendall McIntosh; D Amadou Dia, D Roberto Puncec, D Kaveh Rad; M Jake Davis, M Jose Mauri; F Wilson Harris
TOTAL SHOTS: 10 (Johnny Russell, 4); SHOTS ON GOAL: 2 (Johnny Russell, 2); FOULS: 10 (Roger Espinoza, 4); OFFSIDES: 3; CORNER KICKS: 10; SAVES: 2
Referee: Alan Kelly
Assistant Referees: Matthew Nelson, Jose Da Silva
Fourth Official: Jon Freemon
VAR: Kevin Terry Jr.
Weather: Showers, 57 degrees
Attendance: 18,711
All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial
Next Game
Next up, the Galaxy travel to face Seattle Sounders FC in their regular-season road finale at Lumen Field on Monday, Nov. 1. The Nov. 1 match kicks off at 7:00 p.m. PT and features a national television broadcast on TUDN.
