Jonathan dos Santos leads LA Galaxy over Orlando City SC
LA Galaxy visited the Orlando City SC without their biggest star Zlatan Ibrahimovic who was serving the second and final game of his 2-game suspension handed down by the league. After a strong start to the season, the team from Carson looked to break their losing streak and come back with at least one point not having their best player on the field before their next midweek match.
Complete domination in possession by Orlando as they continually pressed LA Galaxy goalkeeper David Bingham with an onslaught of shots towards goal and keeping him on his toes. Within the first 20 minutes of play, LA Galaxy produced only one clear shot on goal compared to Orlando’s five but that shot on goal was all they needed.
As Jonathan Dos Santos found a loose ball just outside the 18-yard box, he sent a booming shot with the inside of his foot to beat the outstretched hand of Orlando goalkeeper Brian Rowe and getting the first goal of the match at the 19th minute.
Orlando City continued to press Guillermo Barros Schelotto’s team and had all 11 of their men defending on their own side of the field. So much so that they were able to get awarded a penalty at the 30th minute of the first half and the kick was taken by Portuguese star Nani. Unfortunately for City and Nani, Bingham was able to correctly guess the direction of the shot and was able to dive and safely to deflect the ball out of the goal.
A key save for the LA Galaxy as this helped keep them ahead and go into halftime with a 1-0 lead.
The second half was much of the same as Orlando pressed throughout the entirety of the game and making Bingham make some great saves to keep his goal safe and clear.
Orlando was close to scoring during the 67th minute as Sasha Kljestan who had just entered into the game and for the first time, this season had sent a dangerous cross to the box, and hit off of Kyle Smith’s chest and cleared at the line by LA Galaxy defender Perry Allen Kitchen.
A final effort by Orlando came during the 85th minute as Kljestan sent a cross into the box looking for an Orlando forward but was brilliantly cleared by Giancarlo Gonzalez.
The referee ended the whistle after 90+4 minutes of play and the Galaxy was able finally able to end their 4-game losing streak as they head into their next game mid-week against in Kansas City against Sporting KC. Orlando heads across the border up north to play Montreal Impact next Saturday.
