90 minutes of play, 1 shot on goal. This goes with 0 shots on goal in Guatemala and 2 shots on goal against Comunicaciones at home before they went down a man. That's 195+ minutes against full 11 man opposition, 3 shots on goal, 0 goals. This is a pretty significant problem. With Atlanta and Sporting KC coming up the next two games its a problem that needs to be fixed ASAP.
What we saw in this game wasn't just a failure to have a pure goal scorer (though that would certainly have helped). We only seemed to have one strategy, get it out to Esteves on the left and cross it in. Once that became obvious it was very easy for LAFC to just sit in the box and clear balls all day. Our midfield felt non-existent most of the match which reduced the pressure on the LAFC defense allowing them to do that.
On the other side of the ball things weren't great. A stupid play by Abubakar gave up a PK (to Kellyn Acosta no less). Danny Wilson sleeping on the offside trap let Vela get through with a free run at Yarbrough. Then the third goal was ridiculous. A long outlet punt from the LAFC keeper went three passes and in the net, without a single Rapid getting within playing distance of the ball. Now a nod has to be given to Vela for his great shot, not many re going to pick up the upper corner from that distance and angle, but Trusty gave him far too much space an nobody put any pressure on the ball before that.
All in all, not a good performance from much of anyone. Some of it may be due to tired legs, all four teams who played in the CCL last week lost and went scoreless, but at least those other teams racked up a CCL win in exchange for it. Fraser has work to do, and fast. It would also help if we went out and traded for Gyasi Zardes or Ola Kamara this week.
Man of the Match: Jack Price. This is really an award for not having a bad game more than rewarding a good one. He was at least trying to drive the team forward in the second half. Though his free kicks are still rusty so far this season.
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