SANDY, Utah — Rayan Raveloson scored for the third consecutive game to help the Galaxy rally for a 2-2 tie with Real Salt Lake on Wednesday night.
Julian Araujo played a high ball to the center of the area and Raveloson, at the top of the 6-yard box, scored on a header to make it 2-2 in the 77th minute. The 24-year-old Raveloson, who signed with the Galaxy (8-5-1, 25 points) on May 20, has three goals in four career MLS games.
“He has wonderful patience when it comes to crossing situations,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said of Raveloson. “His timing, his patience to kind of hold his run and read where the ball is going to go and get to the ball. And obviously, his athleticism, jumping ability and heading technique are on display when he’s in those moments. … That’s three in a row I think which has been really helpful for us during this stretch as we look for goals in different ways, obviously with Javier (Hernandez) out, we are looking for goals in different types of ways.”
Araujo was just as impressed with his teammate.
“It’s crazy. He’s in the box more than some of our forwards are (laughs),” he said. “I saw that Sacha (Kljestan) was overlapping me and the left back kind of took a step back kind of toward him, so I knew I didn’t have an option to play him. As soon as he took a step back, I saw three of our white jerseys in there and I was just hoping that somebody was in there. I knew Rayan (Raveloson) was coming in, so I just wanted to play it to his head and he got his head on it and did what he does.”
Defender Aaron Herrera played a low cross to the center of the box and Albert Rusnák put away a first-timer to give Real Salt Lake (4-4-5, 17 points) the lead in the ninth minute. Maikel Chang scored his first goal of the season – the second of his career – to make it 2-0 in the 25th.
Víctor Vázquez blasted a rising right-footer into the net to cut it to 2-1 in the 33rd minute.
RSL has conceded 16 goals – 12 in the second half – this season.
Anderson Julio’s header for Salt Lake late in stoppage time bounced off the crossbar.
Javier “Chicharito” Hernández, who is tied with Seattle’s Raúl Ruidíaz with an MLS-best 10 goals this season, and Sebastian Lletget did not play for the Galaxy.
“We conceded two goals early and put ourselves in a hole, and to be fair to the group, I thought the latter part of the first half we really outplayed them,” Vanney said. “The second half I felt was fairly even back and forth, kind of an open game, especially as we started to make adjustments just to try and get more numbers in front of the goal. I’m proud of the effort the guys put out there, the compete level and the bounce back after what was a tough start, and not playing great in the last game. They came back and really stood up for themselves tonight.”
Never stopped fighting
Highlights from a hard-fought draw in Utah. pic.twitter.com/g4pGMoULRR
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy) July 22, 2021
