Galaxy currently: WC 1st in ppg, 1st in goal differential!!! SS 2nd in ppg, 3rd in goal differential! What a massive win!
I’m in Florida. The TrickHog El Traffico Reverse Jinx is still going strong!! (Also— whatever Vanney said at halftime, I wish he would say it before the start of each game)
Cerrillo will be resting. Fortunately, we also have a bunch of guys like Paintsil, Delgado, and Brugman who should be well-rested and ready to play.
Cue “Not like us” by Kendrick Lamar 🎶 pic.twitter.com/gqwp2MtInu— Major League Soccer (@MLS) September 15, 2024
For the season we have scored 1.96 goals per game, 2nd only to Miami who are averaging an other-worldly 2.3 g/gm. On defense we are giving up 1.3 g/gm which is in the middle of the pack. tl;dr - we have a fantastic offense and a mediocre defense.
It's a real luxury that Reus doesn't need to take over the games. He just makes everyone around him better. Vanney mentions Marco Reus isn’t trying to take over games but rather focusing on fitting into the team. #LAGalaxy— Mike Gray (@MikeGrayAFC) September 15, 2024
Just got home, holy sh!t what a game! I absolutely love it when this team makes me eat crow, lol. Totally different mentality and effort in the 2nd half, but it was the first two absolute GOLAZOS that flipped LAFCs belief into serious doubt. At that moment I felt that we would be victorious. Shout-out to Joveljic and Cerrillo, damn those were top tier goals. I can't analyze the tactics nearly as well as most of you, but switching Reus and Fagundez (along with them both increasing their work rates substantially) worked wonders. I am so stoked for this team, they really showed us and themselves that they will be a force to be dealt with in the playoffs. Kudos my G's, but most importantly... F*CK YOU LAFC!!!
That was something else. Two completely different halves. Always love beating LAFC. Think I owe Puig an apology and am happy to do it. Are we for real? This game says we are.
Once again dominating the touches list, with Maya still there. Some Houston players creeping in the picture though
Miami looks impossible to leapfrog for SS, East looks extremely top heavy (to clinch playoffs it means their mid and bottom table teams are nowhere near as competitive), meanwhile the West is a lot more competitive down to even the mid table teams, as we're the only Team with an X to our name (that looks so beautiful)
Unironically I actually love that Riqui gets involved in the Twitter/X drama (Of course when he backs it up on the pitch) 😂🤫 https://t.co/3eQADAne9W— Riqui Puig (@RiquiPuig) September 15, 2024
Also, Tweets that aged poorly.....pretty darn rapidly First half feeling 😤👏 @LAFC3252 pic.twitter.com/2nsjDZ3Izr— LAFC (@LAFC) September 15, 2024
My streaming site killed the broadcast before I could see the end of the game stats (including xG) so I had to find my own Footmob and Sofascore matched xG so it must be a very consistent method of calculating that across the board. Either way, both teams outperformed their xG, us by a significant margin.
Whew. Tale of Two halves, literally Some players I thought were good all game, Pec and Reus were our two attackers I thought had good 90 minute games. I thought Nelson had an overall good game from start to finish as well. JMac was good from start to finish I thought, although its tough to rate the goals scored, but he was able to save some shots that kept us at 2 at halftime. Puig - Far too many giveaways in the first half, far too jumpy when it comes to his passing, but in the 2nd half really allowed the game to come to him a bit more, and seemed a bit more choosy in his passes Dejan - Not necessarily his fault for the 1st half but he seemed invisible. he was involved a lot more in the 2nd half, obviously getting his 2 goals. Both of his goals looked VERY Chicharito-esque, from the lovely little turn and shot to top far corner in the 1st, to the side of the boot flick to redirect on frame (Hard to tell if Puig's shot was on frame but Dejan made it a no brainer) Cerillo - I thought he struggled a bit in the first half, with Yamane bombing far forward Cerillo should be moving to cover the right side. CBs aren't usually good 1v1 defenders like that, their role is usually to play big body (AJ being the recent exception I can recall). But his 2nd half goal to tie it up, looked Michael Bradley-esque, very cheeky outside of the boot spinner to the top corner, absolute banger of a golazo. Diego - I thought was kinda meh all game, I think its more a case of Pec and Reus just absolutely cooking on the right side, with Yamane helping possession. Yamane was kinda meh in the first half, and since both goals happened on his side, he's partially culpable at least. But he was strong in the 2nd half, involved in possession down the right side helping to cook. both Neal and Yoshida were seriously weak in the 1st half, Neal obviously for his 1v1 duels against Bouanga he absolutely lost, but also Maya for his poor decision making (seriously they could have been up 3-0 because of his poor pass. Maybe it was a case of LAFC losing a lot of gas in the 2nd half, but they really improved. Neal, especially, having some excellent tackles and interceptions to salvage his game performance in the 2nd half, especially on Bouanga. Subs didn't do too much, but were able to close out the game at least. Berry came on and didn't have to do anything other than help keep possession and he kinda flubbed a pass back to Pec which didn't help.