LA Galaxy II post 2nd win of season, over Monterey Bay FC

LA Galaxy II faced a new opponent for the first time on Saturday, hosting USL Championship expansion side Monterey Bay FC, and came away with the 3-1 win at Dignity Health Sports Park.

It was the second win of the season for Los Dos, who are still trying to figure things out under new coach Yoann Damet, but a mix of debutants, Galaxy first team players and journeymen posted a good result over old Galaxy coach Frank Yallop’s current team.

The scoring opened in the 39th minute, as Los Dos forward Michael Salazar took a feed from Duhaney Williams and stroked it home to make it 1-0.

Williams then got his debut goal for Los Dos and first as a pro in the 58th minute, following up on a heavy touch by beating Monterey Bay GK Dallas Jaye off a cross to make it 2-0.

Monterey Bay narrowed the deficit in the 68th minute, as Seku Conneh speared in a header off a nice cross into the 6-yard box to make it 2-1, Los Dos GK Eric Lopez giving up his first goal of the season. But Monterey Bay’s comeback attempt stalled when Hugh Roberts picked up a red card with just under 10 minutes left in regulation.

Preston Judd, coming off the bench for this game, tallied an insurance tally to ensure three points on the night for Galaxy II. His strike in the 86th minute on a field-long breakaway was an impressive strike by the forward to make it 3-1.

While they’ve already lost three times in six games to begin the season, all is not lost for Los Dos in the standings, far from it. They currently sit in 8th place in the Western Conference, just below the playoff line, and are keeping competitive in these early weeks. With wins against Monterey Bay now and Rio Grande Valley FC, who sit below them in the standings, the next objective for Damet’s team will be to start picking up points on some of the contenders in the conference. If they can do that, they may be able to get back in the playoff reckoning and maybe even some postseason soccer this year. But, there’s a lot of games left to play, so we’ll see how the Baby G’z do in the weeks to come.

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