MLS
LA Galaxy and LAFC share points in second ‘El Tráfico’ of the season
The two Los Angeles teams had to settle for a draw in the latest edition of the derby on Sunday at the Dignity Health Sport Park.
There is no room for mistakes for many teams in Major League Soccer who are trying to book their ticket to the playoffs this campaign. Los Angeles Galaxy and LAFC had to settle for a 1-1 draw in the latest edition of ‘El Tráfico’ that was played on Sunday at the Dignity Health Sports Park.
LAFC scored the first goal of the match in the 11th minute after a powerful header from a corner kick from Mamadou Fall, but the home side responded eight minutes later with Samuel Grandsir scoring his third goal of the campaign. This is not a good result for either team with six games left of the regular season.
The Galaxy has not won in their last nine matches
"I think, obviously, as you've seen some of our final actions, is trying to get the timing right, trying to get the last ball, the last action as right as possible, getting to the areas we want to get to,” said LA Galaxy manager Greg Vanney.
"I feel again like our timing, our final pass, our final decision, our final fun, those things are still a little off from where we'd like to be. I thought we were more efficient around the goal in the first part of the year, I don't think we were necessarily creating more chances in the first half of the season, I think we were just finishing more of the chances we were creating, and therefore, it feels different, you know."
With this result, the Galaxy remain in sixth place in the Western Conference with 39 points and a record of 11W-6D-11L. The team with the most titles in MLS (5) has not won in their last nine games and they will return to action on 16 October against Portland.
LAFC is out of the playoff picture
Now the ‘Black & Gold’ are in a struggle to make it to the playoffs with six games left of the season (three at home and three away). They are out of the playoff picture because they sit in ninth place with 34 points, four from seventh place. It was not a great result for LAFC but they snapped from a three-game losing streak.
“Hard foot game, typical of a derby and I thought our mentality was very good. I am proud of how my players pushed and we competed. We know we have to push to the end because we are not in the spot we want to be. We can’t look backwards and find a way to compete every game,” said LAFC coach Bob Bradley.