The Galaxy struggles again at home, falling to the Houston Dynamo ahead of Wednesday's U.S. Open Cup showdown with LAFC.
CARSON — Home might be where the heart is, but for the Galaxy it is no longer where the wins are considered a given.
For the second consecutive game at Dignity Health Sports Park, the Galaxy (6-5-2, 20 points) were outplayed and handed a humbling defeat, this time suffering a 3-0 defeat to the Houston Dynamo in front of 22,471 Sunday.
Last Saturday, it was a 3-1 loss to FC Dallas. In the last two home games, the Galaxy have been outscored 6-1 and is now just 3-3 at home.
Both performances were certainly not up to Galaxy coach Greg Vanney’s expectations.
“We lacked killer instinct of any kind,” Vanney said. “I say that when we have the ball and I say that when we didn’t have the ball. This group and the message in that group is we can play nice and lose games that’s unacceptable. We have to find the ugly and the fight and the competitive side and the killer instinct to win games.”
The Galaxy went into halftime trailing 1-0 thanks to an 11th minute goal from Houston’s Sebastian Ferreira.
In terms of opportunities for an equalizer, the Galaxy had several, but were unable to get anything past Houston goalkeeper Steve Clark. Clark was credited with four saves in the first half, but it seemed like more. Several were from shots from approximately 10 yards out or fewer.
In the second half, Houston put the game away thanks to a pair of world-class goals from Tyler Pasher (58th minute) and Thor Ulfarsson (62nd minute).
“It was unacceptable,” Galaxy midfielder Victor Vazquez said. “It’s on us. It’s not on the coaches.”
With an eye on the rest of the month, including Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup round of 16 game against Los Angeles Football Club, Vanney sent out a heavily rotated starting lineup. All three Designated Players (Kevin Cabral, Douglas Costa and Chicharito Hernandez) started the game on the bench. Starting defenders Derrick Williams and Julian Araujo were also on the bench to start.
“I think guys were all a little embarrassed with the outcome,” Vanney said. “It comes down to the killer instinct. We’ve let a lot of opportunities pass us by this year. We haven’t scored a ton of goals. I think over the last few games, we’ve conceded more, but earlier in the season we defended a lot better.
“We have lot of guys who like to play the pretty game and like to pass the ball and move the ball and have some nice combinations. All of us, starting with me, need to go a step further outside of the pretty game and go to the effective game. That requires more work, more running, more sacrificing yourself in front of the goal and some of those hard stuff that is gritty. We need more of that. That’s the hump we need to get over.
“Like I said to them, a lot of guys have had opportunities through the course of this season and now everybody needs to step up or opportunities are going to start to dwindle as guys start to show what their value is for this group to be successful, not just to play, but to be successful to win games and fulfill the expectations of the L.A. Galaxy. That’s what we’re finding out right now as we go through this.”
The Galaxy’s busy month of May continues Wednesday with its round of 16 game against Los Angeles Football Club and four days later, the Galaxy will home against Austin FC.
