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The LA Galaxy played their second of three preseason games in Tucson, Arizona on Wednesday, which finished in a 2-2 stalemate against the Colorado Rapids.
Both teams essentially used separate groups for each half, but the teams were both matched up relatively evenly and fairly full-strength, so this gave us a better sense of how they will look when the season begins.
LA used a much stronger lineup overall for this game, Sebastian Lletget, Jonathan dos Santos, Victor Vazquez and Efrain Alvarez getting their first minutes of the public preseason games for the Galaxy. I think one player to note, Homegrown Jalen Neal maintained his place in the XI to start, this time from center back.
The squad for today's matchup in Tucson ️
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) April 7, 2021
Watch the match live on https://t.co/WCFaMskSAo pic.twitter.com/JdDPf9JSEk
The Rapids also had a pretty strong XI to open the game, so this was a solid matchup.
Game time!
— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) April 7, 2021
Irwin (GK)
Rosenberry
Trusty
Abubakar
Vines
Acosta
Price (C)
Rubio
Barrios
Namli
Shinyashiki
Live blog: https://t.co/vTXg2OfO1a
Live stream: https://t.co/Nkk33xaRWP pic.twitter.com/5lNPd6A13d
The teams traded decent half-looks in the first quarter-hour, and the Rapids found the breakthrough in the 17th minute, with Sam Vines’ cross poked in at the far post by Michael Barrios, the cross seeming to catch the Galaxy unawares defensively.
Vines to Barrios
— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) April 7, 2021
Rapids strike first! https://t.co/Nkk33xaRWP pic.twitter.com/rPJTPSOdHu
But the Galaxy had an answer in the 25th minute, courtesy of Sebastian Lletget. An early cross was sent in by Julian Araujo, Colorado struggled to deal with it, and Lletget pounced on the chance in front of goal with a nice chip to make it 1-1.
GOAL ✨@SLletget with the equalizer! pic.twitter.com/K4PMfTK1yn
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) April 7, 2021
The Galaxy completely swapped their XI at halftime, bringing in many of the same faces that have played the last three games.
New #LAGalaxy XI to start the half:
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) April 7, 2021
Klinsmann; Drack, DePuy, Neal, Ferkanus; Kljestan, Harvey, Saldaña, Koreniuk; Perez, Zubak
The Galaxy grabbed a 2-1 lead in the 54th minute through an unlikely source, with defensive midfielder Carlos Harvey dribbling from the edge of the box on an angle, and then beating Rapids GK William Yarbrough at the near post.
GOAL ✨@carlosharvey03 gives the #LAGalaxy the lead with this near post beauty pic.twitter.com/LYCNONC7mM
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) April 7, 2021
But from there, Colorado really pushed to grab an equalizer, and they hit paydirt in the 63rd minute, with Jonathan Lewis’ cross from the left, and Cole Bassett tapped it in right in front of goal.
.@Jon_lewis710 has officially arrived at camp.
— Colorado Rapids (@ColoradoRapids) April 7, 2021
We're tied at 2! https://t.co/Nkk33xaRWP pic.twitter.com/tJ9OkH4CSq
Newly-signed LA Galaxy II player Daniel Aguirre entered the game for Neal in the 70th minute. Seven minutes later, Augustine Williams replaced Ethan Zubak.
The final notable play of the game was Sacha Kljestan laying out a Rapids player on a 50-50 challenge, and Kljestan picking up a fairly rare preseason red card, but he didn’t dispute the call.
To be honest, this was a pretty choppy game for the Galaxy. I think Colorado played a little more consistently throughout the 90 minutes, but the positives were that players got game minutes, we saw something closer to the full starting XI, and they got two nice goals. I’m especially impressed with Harvey’s goal, I don’t know if it was a fluke or the start of something big, but he’s not shown much propensity to score in the past.
The Galaxy will have their final preseason game, and final game in Tucson, Saturday when they face Real Salt Lake. That game is scheduled to be streamed on LAGalaxy.com for local residents once more. We’ll see how the team looks in the final tuneup.
What do you think? Leave a comment below.