"We Need to Mature More": LA Galaxy’s Champions Cup Hopes Crushed by Tigres
The LA Galaxy's dreams of winning the Concacaf Champions Cup are over following the club’s 3-2 loss to Tigres UANL in Mexico on Tuesday night.
“We aren’t going through our best moments, but we have to be responsible and become men inside the pitch,” defender Julian Aude told reporters in the mixed zone in Mexico following the game. “Matches are all about the details, and the Galaxy doesn’t feel inferior to [Tigres]; it is a shame to be eliminated,” added Aude.
A pair of quick goals in the first 10 minutes of the match put the LA Galaxy in a hard position to fight back. Not only did Tigres grab the momentum of the match, but the atmosphere in “El Volcan” erupted to support the home side. Defender John Nelson was seen saying the words “I can’t hear” following a clearance in the first half.
Despite the two-goal deficit, the Galaxy continued to fight and blaze a path back into the game.
Joseph Paintsil scored his first goal of the season in the 40th minute to bring LA back into the game. The Ghanian forward was LA’s main threat in the attack as his speed and runs in behind the back line caused the best chances on the night.
Tigres got its third goal of the game from Romulo, who scored on a header that he easily placed past Galaxy goalkeeper John McCarthy. The Galaxy found a lifeline through Emiro Garces’ goal in the 60th minute but failed to find a match-winner in the last 30 minutes.
The defining moment of the match was the first 10 minutes of the game. Conceding the two goals in the span of a minute put the LA Galaxy on course for an uphill battle for the remaining 80 minutes of the match.
“I thought we were super naive, and after we gave up a goal, a lot of times you give up a goal, it's an emotional boost for the opposition, and they came pressing right off the kickoff, and we were super naive, trying to play into the midfield, and very casual, and it created a turnover and [Tigres] scored the goal,” said Head Coach Greg Vanney in his postgame presser.
In the lead-up to the game, Vanney emphasized needing to be “mistake-free” in Mexico to advance into the next round of the tournament. The LA Galaxy has been its worst enemy at times, which has led to its historically bad start to the season.
The way LA conceded straight from kick-off after losing possession was the most frustrating and emotional moment of the game. The Galaxy had lost control of itself and now made its situation go from bad to worse.
“We need to mature more as a group and recognize the ebbs and flows in the game, and understanding when to take risk, when to not take risk, how to play in our vision, but also be be smart and be competent not to make errors that ultimately come back to hurt you in the long run, especially in a knockout tournament,” said Vanney.
The LA Galaxy’s lack of maturity in certain game situations and inability to close out a game when there is pressure is why this Galaxy team is not elite. The focus now shifts to league play - where the LA Galaxy is in last place in the Western Conference.
“We've got to stop putting ourselves in these deficits where we're having to fight back. But what I did, like is the guys did battle back, and they fought, and this is a really tough place to play, and they're a very good team, and we showed the character to continue to scrap and battle and to try to find our way back all the way till the end,” said Vanney.
“We need to execute better if we want to turn these games into positive results so that we can start focusing on building ourselves back in the league one game at a time.”