Joseph Paintsil leads LA Galaxy past Portland Timbers, LA sit top of the West
LA's Ghanaian star put on a show at home as the Galaxy enter the Leagues Cup break
The LA Galaxy defeated the Portland Timbers 3-2 at Dignity Health Sports Park as Joseph Paintsil took center stage in the G’s final MLS match before Leagues Cup.
The Galaxy’s Designated Players got going as the game went on and soon put the G’s on the scoreboard. Riqui Puig played a well-timed ball for Paintsil who broke through the Timbers backline. A layoff pass for a wide-open Gabriel Pec led to the breakthrough and eruption of over 23,000 fans at DHSP.
The second half began with a bang as Puig scored his eighth goal of the season two minutes in. It looked like LA could go on cruise control but the Timbers struck back with a goal from Jonathan Rodriguez.
It would be Paintsil who extended the lead in the 57th minute for his 8th goal in LA Galaxy colors this season. But once again the Timbers didn’t allow LA to get comfortable as Santiago Moreno dribbled through the middle of the LA Galaxy backline in the 73rd minute.
The Galaxy held through in the final 20 minutes and eight minutes of stoppage time to pick up a key win and have pole position atop the Western Conference.
Paintsil finished the night with a goal, two assists and two chances created in 86 minutes of action. He once again played as the Galaxy’s center forward due to Dejan Joveljić’s absence due to injury.
Heading into the start of this week, Paintsil was still in a run of poor form and getting back into match fitness as he missed a month of the season due to a hamstring issue. The Ghanian had been playing non-stop for almost a year but the injury forced him to be on the sidelines.
"I think the injury taught me a little bit of a lesson because I needed to relax myself because I was playing a whole lot of games and I just came to continue in the season here,” said Paintsil postgame.
“I think it helped me recover and I came back faster and, yeah, I'm really good”.
As the saying goes; speed kills. And Paintsil is a headache for defenders with his pace on and off the ball.
“Joseph, the speed he has, every defender is scared of him,” said Fagundez.
“At halftime I told him, hey, check two and go. Look at the goal. I was so happy for him because the amount of work that he puts the amount of sprinting and running and he wants to be in the box. He wants to score goals and today he deserved it.”
The Ghanian has goals in back-to-back games playing at the number 9, a position that he called “not a difficult role” after the game. He’d played before during his days with Genk and expressed postgame that he would play anywhere that would help the team find success.
“With the way [Paintsil] runs and you don't necessarily want him just staying in one place, let him threaten different channels, different gaps behind different defenders, creating all kinds of issues for guys. We get balls on the outside and he's running,” said Vanney postgame.
“He's keeping the oppositions' back lines very busy and very worried. He's really involved. He's done a great job of holding up play and linking people in and things like that.”
With players like Puig providing lots of passes and Pec being a threat on the wings, it allowed Paintsil to find ways to thrive and find his shooting boots - even though the trio might show its visible frustrations on the pitch.
“Sometimes I get mad at Riqui, Riqui gets mad at me, Riqui gets mad at Gabe (Gabriel Pec). It's not that we don't like each other, but we want the best for each other,” said Paintsil to reporters.
As he left the field with a standing ovation from the home crowd and hugs from his teammates, it left you wondering just how good the Killa P’s can be to end the 2024 MLS campaign. There is still that feeling of potential despite seeing LA’s DP’s steal the show multiple times this season.
“With the bond that we have, it's really strong and as we keep going, if we go like this, like I said, in a couple of months we'll be unstoppable with our offensive plays.”