LA Galaxy fall 2-1 to Portland Timbers in friendly

On a chilly Saturday night at the StubHub Center, the LA Galaxy concluded their preseason with a 2-1 loss vs. the Portland Timbers.

Both teams went back and forth the first 25 minutes before the Timbers shifted a gear. After Diego Valeri just missed a wide-open chip, Fanendo Adi took advantage of some lax defending by Daniel Steres to glide in on Brian Rowe before firing past the keeper into the net.

Moments later, Giovani dos Santos collected Joao Pedro’s pass inside the box, but from a dangerous position Gio could not get a shot off. Soon afterwards a brilliant Jelle Van Damme long ball found Ari Lassiter who’s first touch put him behind the Timbers defense, but his pass to Gio was lacking pace and intercepted.

Portland doubled their lead in the second half when Darlington Nagbe got behind Rafael Garcia and played a simple ball to Adi for an easy finish.

Things looked bad for the Galaxy, who despite their preseason form have lacked offensive cohesion, but an excellent set piece courtesy of Romain Alessandrini put LA back in the match, as the Designated Player placed a perfect ball to the back post for Dave Romney to square across the box, and the onrushing Steres glanced a header into the net.

In injury time, Alessandrini drew a foul right outside the 18, but his attempt was high as LA fell short.