Nightmare Continues: LA Galaxy suffers 4-0 loss to Seattle Sounders
The Galaxy is outplayed by Seattle in return to MLS action on Sunday night
After a dream start to Leagues Cup, the LA Galaxy returned to its nightmare season in MLS with a 4-0 loss to the Seattle Sounders at home on Sunday night. LA sits at the bottom of the Supporters Shield standings with 16 points through 25 games.
A Julian Aude own goal started Seattle’s goalscoring run in Carson in the first half. A brace from Daniel Musovski and a goal from MLS debutant Snyder Brunell rounded out the scoring from the Cascadia side.
The LA struggled to grab a hold of the match on both sides of the ball. Seattle made it difficult for LA’s best players to get clean looks at the goal in the final. The Cascadia side was also patient on the ball and found ways to take advantage of LA’s backline when the opportunity arrived.
Like many times this season, the LA Galaxy was unable to parlay positive momentum this season and now finds itself dealing with a humbling defeat.
“A big part of it is we weren't playing and moving fast enough off some of these situations to support each other so we weren't getting into so many confrontations, dueling confrontations, that I feel like was very disruptive for us on the evening,” said Vanney to reporters after the game.
“I don't know if it's four games in a short period of time, one day less rest. We can talk about all that stuff, but we never hit the necessary speed on the night in many regards. Therefore, I felt like we got pretty dominated in a lot of areas of the field and in the game through the course of the night.”
Going Silent
Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil struggled to get into a groove against the Seattle backline. Unlike the last few matches in Leagues Cup, LA didn't have acres of space to run in behind, and their opponents gameplanned perfectly to limit direct attacks.
The stats show Seattle’s domination on the night. The Sounders recorded 23 shots compared to LA’s eight on the night. The Galaxy recorded 0.36xG compared to Seattle’s 3.22 tally.
The physicality of the Sounders, especially in the backline, is what Vanney talked to the media about in his post-game press conference.
“They have some physical guys out there and they're physically confident. We have managed the press before, and it just comes down to you have to play faster, you have to play cleaner, you have to arrive for each other, and you do things in less touches. I felt like we in too many dribbling duels and we lost the ball in the dribble more times tonight than I've seen us lose the ball in the dribble many times,” said Vanney.
Striker Matheus Nascimento had the fewest touches on the night (18) and won just three of his nine duels on the night. Seattle center backs Kee-Hee Kim and Yeimar Gomez dominated their duels on the night and added a level of physicality that LA couldn’t match.
Seattle’s ability to bunker down and defend space in behind made it difficult for LA’s best players to be in dangerous positions. Take Pec for example, rather than finding touches close to the goal, a majority of his touches came in the middle third of the pitch.
The Galaxy was forced to create exclusively through intricate possession moments to break down the Sounders rather than play vertically. Pec was defended well on the night as Seattle rarely gave him breathing room on the night.
LA’s attacking sequences in the final third were relative and lacked the dynamism needed to break through the Seattle backline.
“I felt like we never hit the speed. It's as simple as that. Against a team like this, you have to be able to play at the top speed and execute at the top speed, or you're going to be under it,” said Vanney.
When in transition, LA will always have a chance to win. Seattle executed its game plan to perfection to take out LA’s most dangerous phase of the game, and it culminated in a dominant win for the visitors.
Seattle’s Reality Check
“We've never been able to catch any sort of consistent form and rhythm inside of the league and gotten results out of it and closed out games when we need to.”
Those words from Vanney sum up the season entirely. The LA Galaxy had a quality performance in the Leagues Cup, but that’s now in the rear-view mirror following Sunday’s loss to Seattle.
“Seattle is one of the most solid team in the MLS,” said Maya Yoshida postgame. “11 players, even the subs, they fight 50/50. They cover and help each other. This is I think very matured, one of the most matured squad in the MLS.”
With this loss, the Galaxy’s maximum point total for the season is 40 points. The ninth seed (last playoff spot)in the Western Conference over the last three seasons has averaged 45 points.
LA just wasn’t able to be an elite team at anything this season. The Sounders came to DHSP and showed how to be an elite team on both ends of the pitch. Keep in mind that Seattle was missing multiple key players due to injury.
The road doesn’t get any easier for Vanney’s side. Up next is travelling to face Inter Miami and then it's Leagues Cup quarterfinal against Pachuca.