New faces propel Galaxy to win over Fire
You certainly would not recognize this version of the LA Galaxy, certainly not from the team that started the season.
Four weeks after getting bounced from the Leagues Cup tournament, the Galaxy used the extended time off to retool the squad. During that time, the Galaxy acquired Edwin Cerillo from FC Dallas and Diego Fagundez from Austin FC in a trade that sent Memo Rodriguez to Austin. The Galaxy were also busy in the free agent market, bringing in players such as Japanese center back Maya Yoshida and former Sheffield United striker Billy Sharp.
Finally, after four weeks, the Galaxy got to showcase their new editions on the pitch, in front of its fans at Dignity Health Sports Park, and it was a success. While the Galaxy had the added benefit of playing a man up for most of the match, the Galaxy still went out and won the match, getting goals from Tyler Boyd, Riqui Puig and Sharp and thus earning the 3-0 decision.
“Bringing guys in and being very pointed in types of players and who you’re able to bring in midseason to really help the group was good work by everyone involved,” Vanney said of the new editions. “We needed a veteran centerback, someone to help us lead, because we lost Martín [Cáceres]. We needed a defensive midfielder because we lost Gastón [Brugman]. We needed some goal creation, some goals, some finishing. We have Diego [Fagundez], we have Mikey [Barrios], we have Sharpy [Billy Sharp]. We brought in some guys who really know our league so it doesn’t take them any real time to transition to that real part of it, and we brought some guys who are experienced and have played in a lot of places and who understand how to adapt pretty quickly.”
Cerillo go the start alongside Uri Rosell in a double-pivot role in the midfield, while Yoshida started alongside Eriq Zavaleta in the back line. Both players presence on the defensive side of the field were vital in the Galaxy earning a rare clean sheet. Sharp subbed into the match in the 70th minute and got his first goal in a Galaxy shirt near the end of the match from the penalty spot.
“Not bad. I’ve been here three or four weeks and fortunately or unfortunately we had the hurricane so I had extra time to prepare well,” Yoshida said of his performance. “As I said at my first press conference the team is treating me very well so I can focus on the first game and prepare well for the first game and of course the first game is not always easy especially since the last time I played 90 minutes was in May so for more than three months I hadn’t played 90 minutes so I had a little bit of doubt and I tried to play simple as much as possible. After the red card every changed and it was much easier for us and we could score the first goal and then after that we had to wait for the second goal and after that it was much easier.”
The Galaxy got a key break in the 29th minute. It happened when Gaston Gimenez stepped on Douglas Costa’s right foot as the two were chasing down a 50-50 ball. Worse for Gimenez, he had already picked a yellow card earlier in the match, meaning this yellow card ended his night early and forced Chicago to play a man down.
The Galaxy immediately capitalized, getting on the scoreboard a minute later. Douglas Costa sent a free kick into the penalty area, the ball deflected off Maya Yoshida, but fell to Boyd, and he sent the left footed shot past keeper Chris Brady far post to stake the Galaxy to the lead.
The Galaxy then finished off the match in the second half. The Galaxy doubled the lead in the 72nd minute, as Costa took the ball into the penalty area, fed a ball to Puig, who then took a touch off his left foot, then fired a right-footed shot that beat Brady near post. The Galaxy were then gifted a chance to seal the three points in the 89th minute, as Marky Delgado sprung Daniel Aguirre with a run into the penalty area, but Jonathan Dean pushed Aguirre from behind and referee Ismail Elfath made the easy decision to send the Galaxy to the penalty spot. Puig initially stepped up to the spot, but decided to defer to Sharp. Sharp made the decision pay off, as he sent the penalty past Brady to the left to wrap up the win.
The only thing that did not go right for the Galaxy was the inability to get Fagundez into the match. Vanney attributed that scenario to a peculiar situation involving jersey numbers.
“I’ll give you to the best of my knowledge. I still need to do a full investigation to understand completely,” Vanney said of Fagundez’s situation. “Diego as wearing number 21. Evidently at the league office, he’s still number 14. Not sure exactly why, because that was his number at Austin. So when he was populated on the roster for the day, he was populated at number 14 from the league perspective. Don’t know why that change hadn’t happened with the league and didn’t happen on the roster paper and why that wasn’t picked up in the process.”
The Galaxy will have a busy week, first with a game up north against the San Jose Earthquakes on Wednesday, followed by a Saturday night match at home against the Houston Dynamo.