By Michelle Huitink // @AdorableEars
Recap:
Feb 3rd-vs. Real Salt Lake we lost 3-1. The only goal was in the 33’ with a header from Ciani. Lletget played 35 minutes since his injury.
Feb 10th-vs. NYCFC we won 3-0 with goals by Kamara, Hillard-Arce, and Husidic
Feb 15th-vs. Fresno FC a 3-1 win that I was able to view on Periscope. Lletget, Pontius, and Hillard-Arce.
Feb 17th-vs. San Jose Earthquakes 4-2 loss. Ola Kamara scored twice and then the defense fell apart in the second half as we allowed three goals. Unfortunately, SJ scored twice off of Bingham’s deflected saves. A new attendance record was set at 5,015.
Feb 21st-vs. Closed door scrimmage loss vs Vancouver Whitecaps.
Feb. 24th-vs, Whitecaps 2-1 loss. This game I’ll focus on because I was actually in attendance and it’s the last game before the season starts. The only goal was a penalty scored by Giovani dos Santos, his only one in the preseason. The Galaxy had 14 shots on goal! Ciani did the best we’ve seen him defending as a center back.
14 shots last night has the #LAGalaxy feeling confident heading into Sunday’s home opener: https://t.co/QsiBpnptLO
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) February 26, 2018
LINEUPS for the February 24th match (subs in parenthesis):
LA Galaxy: David Bingham; Rolf Feltscher, Michael Ciani, Jorgen Skjelvik, Ashley Cole ©; Perry Kitchen, Joao Pedro (Servando Carrasco 38’ [Chris Pontius 86’]); Romain Alessandrini, Giovani dos Santos, Emmanuel Boateng (Sebastian Lletget 68’); Ola Kamara.
Lletget still won’t be starting as a precautionary measure to make sure he’s fit coming off his Lisfranc injury last season, a condition so rare in which one or more of the bones in the foot are displaced.
Speaking of injuries, Joao Pedro started because Jonathan dos Santos is injured, but expected to be available for the home opener.
I would’ve liked the Galaxy to have crushed it. I have to admit, at times, it looked like when I play FIFA 18 lol, yet we still love the game and keep trying. Let’s keep it real, though. They just came off being in last place and while the preseason doesn’t look good, I say, this is what preseason is for: to understand where this is coming from and tweak it so we can get good results.
This team had an overhaul. This isn’t even the finalized team either. It’s too early to lose hope. They’re just starting to connect, our offense and defense are starting to build up, which showed against Vancouver. We kept it together and created plenty of opportunities. We’re still working on our finishing, but this is all part of the adventure.
I’m ready to get comfortable with the team. I welcome and welcome back David Bingham, Brian Sylvestre, Rolf Feltscher, Tomas Hillard-Arce, Emrah Klimenta, Jorgen Skjelvik, Servando Carrasco, Perry Kitchen, Ola Kamara Chris Pontius, Hugo Arellano, David Romney, Daniel Steres, Emmanuel Boateng, Michael Ciani, and Baggio Husidic.
I embrace Ashley Cole as captain and can’t wait to see Sebastian Lletget play a full 90. We need to give the 2018 team a chance, which is why I’m not a supporter of Zlatan Ibrahimović coming here yet, if at all. We’ve always relied on bigger names like David Beckham for far too long. Alessandrini and the boys are more than capable and have reputations of their own to live up to.
We fans don’t want to get accustomed to losing, but the key to getting results is who we have on the team and with coach Sigi Schmid. Kamara is very promising and I really think he’s the starter we’ve been looking for.
Soccer is psychological, this is why and when they need our support most of all.
I’m bringing more foreign friends to the home opener and slowly, but surely converting them to supporters of the LA Galaxy. Hope to see you there.
Matchday is scheduled for Sunday, March 4, 2018 at 7:00pm PT.
Follow and chat with me on Twitter // @AdorableEars
Check us out on Instagram @mlsfemale
