LA Galaxy suffer 2-0 defeat to NYCFC

The Galaxy did well at first but eventually fell back into bad habits as New York City FC soundly defeated LA 2-0 Saturday night at the StubHub Center.

Jonathan dos Santos made his first start in a Galaxy uniform, while his brother Gio was a late scratch with a knock.

The first half for the Galaxy resembled how the side looked in Sigi Schmid’s debut vs. the Sounders: Defensively LA were solid, locking down NYCFC’s attack with relative ease, while the Galaxy attack was pragmatic, unable to get anything going in the final third. Arguably LA’s best chance came when Van Anholt smashed a rebound from distance, only for the impressive Sean Johnson to parry the shot over the bar.

However, the Galaxy’s concentration would wane in the second half, and the lethal NYCFC attack punished LA on multiple occasions. In the 54th minute, a missed slide tackle from Jermaine Jones gave Jonathan Lewis the time and space he needed to curve a shot over Brian Rowe and off the bottom of the crosssbar into his net.

Twenty minutes later, David Villa squirmed free outside the box to curl a devastating golazo around Rowe and in to seal another home defeat for the blue, white and gold.