By Michelle Huitink // @mchuitink
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: David Bingham; Julian Araujo, Diego Polenta, Daniel Steres, Jorgen Skjelvik; Sebastian Lletget, Jonathan dos Santos, Joe Corona (Servando Carrasco 87’); Romain Alessandrini (Ema Boateng 16’ [Giancarlo Gonzalez 90’+1]), Zlatan Ibrahimović ©, Uriel Antuna.
Los Angeles Galaxy are on a five game winning streak and remain unbeaten at home in 2019.
17-year-old defender Julian Araujo made his debut start for the LA Galaxy Friday night. He was an unexpected choice in the backline, but he replaced Rolf Feltscher who was out injured.
The Galaxy battled a tough team and poor ref calls, yet still managed to take out the undefeated Houston Dynamo 2-1. Forever Orange, adorned in dark blue this evening (their Parley kit made of recycled plastic bottles, in honor of Earth Day), did not go down without a fight though.
Ibrahimovic scored his seventh goal in just his fifth game on a penalty in the 31st minute.
David Bingham brought his A game, making big saves this match. See below for what was probably the most important of the match:
Giancarlo made his debut as well. The Galaxy scored shortly after he entered the game.
Defender Diego Polenta redeemed himself with his first goal of the season, the game winner in the 88th minute on an assist from Jonathan Dos Santos. JDS is consistent every match and is the fire in the midfield.
Injuries picked up this match were to Romain Alessandrini and Emmanuel Boateng. It’s very unfortunate, especially since both try so hard for the team.
Jorgen Skjelvik is consistently bad. This match he committed the foul that ultimately got Houston the penalty. The call even went to VAR and the referee seriously got it wrong, but that doesn’t absolve Skjelvik.
Head coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto didn’t make subs sooner, perhaps, because there isn’t anyone of the available players who could have really made a better impact on this game. For this reason, depth really needs to be built. He’s got his work cut out for him. The whole team does.
It was an intense game against a challenging opponent, full of frustration, and a strange night as even Zlatan couldn’t finish non-penalty shots in front of net, but what matters is the Galaxy won and now they are in second place in the west.
Next match is a quick turnaround. The Galaxy play away this Wednesday, April 24 against 6th place Minnesota United FC.
Featured image: @LAGalaxy on Twitter
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