The second Sigi Schmid era may have gotten off to more of a whimper than a bang, but LA’s defense looked solid en route to a goalless draw Saturday night at the StubHub Center.
Today's starting XI vs. Seattle. #LAvSEA @urh2o https://t.co/vfAi6HteiK
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) July 30, 2017
Schmid has long favored building teams out of the back, so it wasn’t surprising when the Galaxy came out in a defensive posture to positive effect: The Galaxy defense was a significantly more cohesive unit, and Pele van Anholt did well to shore up many of the issues that have plagued the right back position.
On the flip side, the Galaxy were unable to generate anything in attack. To an extent, this was to be expected: Fixing the offense is going to take some time, and new Designated Player Jonathan dos Santos was unavailable.
Unfortunately, Jelle Van Damme earned a needless red card late, which coupled with yellow card accumulation means the center back will miss the next two matches.