LOS ANGELES — A handball penalty and red card halted LAFC in their draw against the Los Angeles Galaxy, 3-3.
Heading into El Trafico, the Los Angeles Football Club won their last three matches and were undefeated in the month of July.
Going against the worst team in the Western Conference, a win was expected for LAFC to rack up an easy three points. Through the first 35 minutes of the match it looked like those expectations would be met.
Denis Bouanga scored not only the first point of the night for LAFC, but it was also his fourth straight game with a goal. The formula for a victory seemed to be in plan as when Bouanga scored a goal in the previous three games, LAFC won.
In addition to Bouanga’s goal, Javairo Dilrosun kicked in another goal at the 31-minute mark for LAFC.
“They had problems of alignment, we found a solution a few times,” said Denis Bouanga.
With a 2-0 lead and a Galaxy offense that had been anemic up to this point, it seemed sure that this match was over.
Then there was life for the Galaxy…
The Handball Penalty
At the 34-minute mark, Ryan Hollingstead committed a handball in the penalty box. This set up a penalty shot for Gabriel Pec and a chance for the Galaxy to get back in the game.
Pec easily scored the penalty goal and the Galaxy cut the LAFC lead to 2-1 at halftime.
While it was diminishing for LAFC to give up an unnecessary goal, they could still recover from this blunder.
Bouanga ran 85 yards and cut through the Galaxy defenders to set up a transition opportunity for his team. On this opportunity, Bouanga delivered his second goal of the game.
A 3-1 lead now put LAFC in full control of this game and kept this lead until the 79’ mark.
Then, LAFC started to crumble…
The Meltdown Begins
After Gabriel Pec matched Bouanga by scoring two goals of his own, the Galaxy were right back in this game.
The Galaxy dominated the ball the entire game with 62.8% time of possession.
As time kept ticking, the stamina of the LAFC defense was dwindling.
“They didn’t really do that much with the possessions in the first half, they kept it in their half and trying to change sides and we had them covered,” said Javairo Dilrosun. “As the game goes on you get tired and they attacked with their whole team. That is difficult to keep the pressure away.”
With LAFC becoming more and more exhausted, that resulted in more fouls from the team. The extra stoppage kept the game going, which continuously affected a drained LAFC squad.
Then finally, the biggest mistake of the game happened…
The Red Card Penalty
Eddie Segura was given a red card and this added an extra minute to the match. This was all that the galaxy needed to shatter the hearts of LAFC. In the final seconds of the match, Maya Yoshida notched the game-tying goal. This would be the game tying goal for good as the final result was 3-3.
From what looked like a match that LAFC had a stranglehold on this entire time, it was harmed by two major penalties.
These two penalties allowed a red-hot team to squander a two-goal lead to their bitter rivals. Not only was this an El Trafico matchup that LAFC should've easily won, it was a chance to continue their momentum against a bottom-feeder club.
The final scoreboard declares this match as a tie, but it feels like a loss and a missed opportunity for LAFC. This meltdown destroyed LAFC’s chance to continue their hopes of a win-only July.
