LA Galaxy Player Ratings vs. Portland Timbers

This game was over the minute Derrick Williams committed his horrible tackle, so it’s hard to give ratings for a team that didn’t do much in the first half, and then were deservedly overrun in the second half.

The player ratings don’t really matter except for Williams costing the team, and Bond bailing the team out left and right.

For the only half with coherent soccer, the Galaxy didn’t have many attacking ideas, with both Lletget and Alvarez quiet compared to week prior, and Chicharito being starved of the ball. Carlos Harvey was a good defensive addition that helped last week, allowing the team to play higher up the pitch. This team today had possession, but no end result, with numerous crosses and passes off target when LA actually forayed into the final 18.

The Williams red card is a big one. It was such a bad tackle he will likely sit for multiple games. This is devastating for his partnership with Steres, and their duo in front of Bond. We’re going to see DePuy and Steres again, or Gonzalez (please no), and that makes Galaxy stomachs churn. Strap in, it’s going to be a bumpy ride for several weeks.

Oh, and the Galaxy lose Sebastian Lletget to the national team next week. Yay?

Player Ratings

Excellent

• Jonathan Bond - nice save in the 33rd minute, stopping a hard hit shot. Followed it up by an even better leg save in the 34th minute after a defensive clearance went wrong. Another save in the 41st minute after laying out his own man. Felt like four saves in a row in the 55th minute. Man of the Match (even in a 3-0 game that could easily have been 6-0)

Good

• Julian Araujo - lovely ball into Steres to start the game that nearly resulted in a Williams goal. Could have been called for a handball in the box in the 14th minute. Emergency clearance to end the half, and another one to start the second half. Only one of the defense that could say he had a decent game.

Okay

• Chicharito - sent in a nice cross in the 54th minute toward Cabral. Sent in another pass seconds later for Kljestan that was ultimately blocked. Couldn’t do much after the Galaxy went a man down.
• Kevin Cabral - nearly got on a ball in the box in the 27th minute with his speed. Need more of this, and less of the standing around trying to take a curled shot into the right corner.
• Jonathan dos Santos - let his man get by for a shot in the 55th minute.
• Samuel Grandsir - after not being accurate, removed with an injury two-thirds of the way through the first half.
• Sacha Kjlestan - goalbound shot blocked in the 54th minute.
• Ethan Zubak/Adam Saldana/Cameron Dunbar - late subs after the game was over.

Poor

• Sebastian Lletget - not much going his way today.
• Efrain Alvarez - wasn’t on target today.
• Jorge Villafana - lovely strip of Valeri in the 23rd minute in the box. Kept Ebobisse onside in the 33rd minute for a shot. Then his clearance in the 34th minute deflected straight to a wide open Timber, forcing a save out of Bond. Then decided to stand around and watch on Portland’s first goal. Maybe nerves in facing his old team?
• Daniel Steres - lost his man on Portland’s first goal. Ball watching along with DePuy for the second. Nearly made up for it on a free kick in the 62nd, sending in a shot that was saved. I’m not going to mention the penalty, which should never have been given. VAR, please grow some eyeballs.
• Nick DePuy - ball watching on the second goal.
• Derrick Williams - deserved red card on a horror tackle, I don’t even know what he was aiming for. This was devastating for today, but more importantly for the several games he will miss on suspension. This is awful for a defense starting to gel.

What do you think? Leave a comment below.