Takeaways from LA Galaxy's 3-3 draw in St. Louis
Pec shines in St. Louis, Paintsil leaves goal contributions on the table, and LA continues to struggle in closing out games .
The LA Galaxy and St. Louis City SC record a thrilling 3-3 tie in the Midwest on Saturday afternoon. Brazilian attackers Gabriel Pec and Matheus Nascimento put the SoCal side on the scoreboard, but City’s Brazilian striker João Klauss, who scored a hat-trick, salvaged a point for the homeside.
From the Galaxy’s perspective, this draw feels like a sour loss. Pec scored his second goal of the game in the 87th minute, and it looked destined to be the winner. But it was Klauss who found the ball deep into stoppage time and continued his finishing clinic with a rocket of a shot into the top corner.
The Galaxy once again drops points, and the odds to make the playoffs worsen for Greg Vanney’s side.
“At the moment where we are in a position to take three points on the road, we have to see that game out and we have to manage that situation way better than that,” said Vanney to reporters postgame.
Here are some of the major takeaways from Saturday’s match in St. Louis. An entertaining game that brought lots of taking points.
Inability to Close
With a 3-2 lead late in the game, the Galaxy needed to close out the match. This scenario has been an Achilles heel for the Galaxy all season long, whether that’s with a lead or holding onto a draw.
A St. Louis long ball ended up at the back post, where Klauss ’s finish captured a point at home. City has scored three goals only twice this season, both being against the LA Galaxy.
“I know no match in my life will be perfect, so you have always mistakes in your game. It's a part of it. Of course, when these mistakes, it's not going in our way, we concede goals, it makes us -- for the team, I don't know how many mistakes we did in the last weeks or the beginning of the season,” said Reus.
“There's a free kick which we have 30 seconds plus to defend the organizing of that free kick for them to be able to hit just a direct ball and it end up behind us in the back of the net, two touches, it doesn't make sense to me. It doesn't register,” said Vanney to the media.
“We manage to lose the first [header] and we lose the second one, and Klauss bangs two of them home from kind of an odd angle where he makes no mistake about how he hits it, and he finds a good spot. Ultimately the shot, neither of the shots are on Novak. It's how we deal with things in front of Novak to not allow him to get to those positions. At the moment where we are in a position to take three points on the road, we have to see that game out and we have to manage that situation way better than that,” added Vanney.
The goal for the Galaxy is to collect as many points as possible in order to build enough momentum to potentially go on a run for the final playoff spots at the end of the season.
Saturday’s match was a winnable game for the Galaxy. This results keep the Galaxy at the bottom of the Western Conference as time goes by. According to Reus, the Galaxy isn’t losing games because of a lack of talent but rather themselves.
“It's not like the last 16 or 17 games that we lost them because we are not good enough. It's about we are doing too many mistakes, and if you stop it, you can go on a winning streak.”
Getting Back Into Form
The Galaxy attack goes into another gear when Pec is dangerous on and off the ball. The G’s frontline has struggled to find consistency, with the Brazilian unable to be the lethal finisher he was last season.
Pec was flying down the wing since the start of the match, and it felt destined that he would play a major role in Saturday’s game.
“As the game opened up and I thought on our right side when we were able to organize some collective movement on that side, I felt like we could get to some really dangerous positions. When Gabe was able to get on the run and not just look for the ball at his feet I felt like he could create some dangerous moments,” said Vanney.
That was the recipe for the first goal as Pec continued to make a run inside the box and eventually got on the end of Marco Reus’ pass to score LA’s opening goal. The German recorded two assists on the night, with his no-look backheel assists being his highlight of the game.
With Pec making dangerous runs and occupying dangerous spaces, it made it much easier for Reus to be the playmaker.
“Me and Pec, we have a special relationship, I would say, because he has much, much talent but sometimes he has to understand that just sprinting and going forward and doing different things is not every time the perfect time to do it,” said Reus when asked about Pec.
“I know he's young and he can learn really, really much, especially this season, when it's not going that well for him the first part of the season. Now, this week, it was a little bit like -- he was scoring goals and pushing himself hard in the training. This is, at the end, like you train the whole week to prepare for the game and this is the result at the end,” added Reus.
The Brazilian looked like he scored the winning goal in the 87th minute after he capitalized on a poor pass in St. Louis’ own half. It was destined to be his game but unfortunately, the Galaxy had to settle for a tie.
Leaving Goal Contributions on the Table
The game state of the match could’ve changed if Joseph Paintsil was able to either score or set up Nascimento on a breakaway in the 15th minute of the match.
Paintsil also had another moment at the end of the game where his shot was blocked and calmly saved by Roman Bürki. It was one of these games where Paintsil struggled in the final third and his impact was limited.
“[Paintsil] is finding himself in some good situations by virtue of his qualities and his speed and some of those direct moments. But I feel like sometimes he's still over thinking those moments a little bit, and maybe they are trying to be too precise or -- but just I feel like the play is running through his head too much and it's not just in the flow and in the rhythm and at speed,” said Vanney.
“I feel like he's maybe in his head a little bit on some of these. I feel like when he's trying to come inside and hit shots, I feel like he's trying to set himself up for the perfect thing and really trying to organize the shot and it gets blocked. And then when he gets into that open space, I think, again, he's thinking too much and he needs to trust his instincts and his ability to do the right things,” added Vanney.
Paintsil has one goal and one assist in 11 ML regular-season games this season. With Pec starting to find form and rhythm, the Galaxy needs Paintsil to start being an efficient attacker and start putting up goal contributions. Saturday’s match has a different ending if Paintsil executes during that moment in the 15th minute.