LA Galaxy knock off Sporting KC on the road

Arriving in Kansas City the day of the match after tornados forced LA to re-direct their flight to St. Louis, the Galaxy rode a strong defensive performance en route to a 2-0 win over Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park.

Guillermo Barros Schelotto opted to field a 4-3-3 with Uriel Antuna and Favio Alvarez on the wings but LA were defensive in nature, dropping numbers behind the ball and forcing Sporting to play around them. A double chance featuring Felipe Gutierrez was SKC’s best oppurtunity, but Daniel Steres was there to block Gutierrez’s strike from close range before Kelvyn Rowe pulled the rebound just wide.

Despite LA’s trouble in arriving to the venue Sporting KC have been a fatigued side susceptible to second half goals, and in the 55th minute Zlatan Ibrahimovic would cushion a back post header centrally for new signing Favio Alvarez to slam into the net.

Both teams exchanges chances with Felipe Gutierrez placing a header off David Bingham’s crossbar and Ibra failing to finish off a breakaway. In the late stages of the match Perry Kitchen found Uriel Antuna on the left flank, and his industrial run gave him the time to locate Zlatan on the back post. Ibra collected off his chest before slicing a low blast towards Tim Meila, who made contact but couldn’t prevent the ball from slipping into the net.

2-0 LA, who would go on to secure back-to-back road wins.