LA Galaxy Battle Sporting Kansas City to 2-2 Draw at Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday Night
September 5, 2022 – Major League Soccer (MLS) – LA Galaxy News Release
LOS ANGELES – Playing their third game in the span of seven days, the LA Galaxy battled Sporting Kansas City to a 2-2 draw in front of 20,104 fans at Dignity Health Sports Park on Sunday night. Javier “Chicharito” Hernández tallied a brace as the Galaxy extended their unbeaten run to five games.
Galaxy Run Of Form
In their last five matches played dating back to Aug. 13, the Galaxy hold a record of 2-0-3, outscoring the opposition 14-10 during that span. After scoring one first-half goal in six games played from July 8 – Aug. 6, LA has scored 11 first-half goals during its five-game unbeaten run. In his last six games played dating back to Aug. 6, Chicharito has tallied seven goals and two assists. Additionally, Chicharito has scored in three straight games played at Dignity Health Sports Park dating back to Aug. 13.
Chicharito Records 200 Club Goals
With his first-half goal scored against Sporting Kansas City, Javier “Chicharito” Hernández tallied his 200th career goal in club competitions. In 62 games played (53 starts) across all competitions with the Galaxy, Chicharito has tallied 34 goals and five assists.
Julián Araujo Joins 100 Club
Julián Araujo (21 years, 22 days) became the youngest player in LA Galaxy history to appear in 100 matches (89 starts) across all competitions for the club, after logging 85 minutes in the against Sporting KC. In four seasons (2019-Present) with the Galaxy, Araujo has tallied 18 assists and one goal in 100 games played (89 starts) across all competitions.
Goal-Scoring Plays
LA – Chicharito (Víctor Vázquez, Riqui Puig), 4th minute: From just inside his own half, Riqui Puig advanced the ball to Víctor Vázquez in the Galaxy’s attacking third. Vázquez took a touch and slipped a pass in behind the Kansas City backline to Chicharito, whose shot from the right side of the box was powered into the far corner of the goal.
SKC – Johnny Russell (Penalty Kick), 67th minute: After LA was whistled for a handball inside the box, Johnny Russell’s penalty-kick attempt was parried off the post LA Galaxy goalkeeper Jonathan Bond and into the back of the net.
SKC – Felipe Hernandez (William Agada), 76th minute: Cutting in from the left wing, Felipe Hernandez’s shot was deflected off the knee of a Galaxy defender and into the top corner of the goal.
LA – Chicharito (Penalty Kick), 88th minute: After Kévin Cabral was fouled inside the penalty area, Chicharito stepped up to the spot and blasted his shot into the top left corner.
Postgame Notes
Following the draw against Sporting KC, the LA Galaxy remained in eighth place in the Western Conference standings, three points behind the seventh place Portland Timbers (10-8-12, 42 points) with two games in hand.
Sunday’s match marked the 67th MLS regular-season meeting between the Galaxy and Sporting KC, with the all-time series tied 26-26-16.
In 33 matches played at home in league play against Kansas City, LA holds a 17-8-8 record.
The Galaxy extended their unbeaten run to five matches (2-0-3) dating back to Aug. 13, outscoring the opposition 14-10 during that span.
In 18 games played across all competitions at Dignity Health Sports Park in 2022, LA holds a 9-6-3 record.
In his last six games played dating back to Aug. 6, Chicharito has tallied seven goals and two assists. Additionally, Chicharito has scored in three straight games played at Dignity Health Sports Park dating back to Aug. 13.
With his goal scored in the first half against Sporting KC, Chicharito logged his 200th career goal in club competition. (Manchester United: 59 goals, Bayer Leverkusen: 39, LA Galaxy: 34 goals, Deportivo Guadalajara: 29 goals, West Ham United: 17 goals, CD Tapatio: 11 goals, Real Madrid: 9 goals, Sevilla FC: 3 goals)
The brace marked Chicharito’s seventh career multi-goal game for the LA Galaxy in league play.
In three starts for the Galaxy dating back to Aug. 28, Riqui Puig has tallied one goal and two assists across 270 minutes played.
Puig finished the match with 82 completed passes (95% pass accuracy).
Víctor Vázquez recorded his third assist for the Galaxy in league play this season.
Gastón Brugman finished the match with a team-high seven possessions won and recorded 78 accurate passes (94% pass accuracy).
Uruguayan National Team defender Martín Cáceres made his LA Galaxy debut, logging five minutes as a second-half substitute.
Next Game
Up next, the LA Galaxy travel to face Nashville SC at GEODIS Park on Saturday, Sept. 10.. The match on Sept. 10 kicks off at 12:30 p.m. PT and features a national television broadcast on Univision.
LA Galaxy (11-11-6, 39pts) vs. Sporting Kansas City (8-15-6, 30pts)
Sept. 4, 2022 – Dignity Health Sports Park (Los Angeles)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
LA Galaxy 1 1 2
Sporting Kansas City 0 2 2
Scoring Summary:
LA: Chicharito (Vázquez, Puig), 4
SKC: Russell (penalty kick), 67
SKC: Hernandez (Agada), 76
LA: Chicharito (penalty kick), 88
Misconduct Summary:
LA: Edwards (caution), 47
SKC: Walter (caution), 84
Lineups:
LA: GK Jonathan Bond; D Julián Araujo (Martín Cáceres, 85), D Séga Coulibaly, D Derrick Williams, D Raheem Edwards; M Mark Delgado (Kévin Cabral, 85), M Gastón Brugman (Douglas Costa, 71), M Riqui Puig, M Víctor Vázquez (Sacha Kljestan, 59), F Dejan Joveljić (Samuel Grandsir, 71), F Javier “Chicharito” Hernández ©
Substitutes Not Used: GK Jonathan Klinsmann; D Chase Gasper, D Kelvin Leerdam; M Efraín Álvarez
TOTAL SHOTS: 11 (Chicharito, 4); SHOTS ON GOAL: 5 (Chicharito, 3); FOULS: 11 (Gastón Brugman, 4); OFFSIDES: 6; CORNER KICKS: 2; SAVES: 3
SKC: GK John Pulskamp; D Andreu Fontas, D Nicolas Isimat, D Logan Ndenbe, D Kayden Pierre; M Roger Espinoza (Felipe Hernandez, 64), M Erik Thommy (Uri Rosell, 73), M Remi Walter; F Johnny Russell ©, F Daniel Salloi (Khiry Shelton, 89), F William Agada
Substitutes Not Used: GK Kendall McIntosh; D Robert Voloder, D Kaveh Rad; M Cam Duke; F Marinos Tzionis
TOTAL SHOTS: 15 (William Agada, 5); SHOTS ON GOAL: 5 (Five players tied, 1); FOULS: 10 (Kayden Pierre, 3); OFFSIDES: 1; CORNER KICKS: 1; SAVES: 3
Referee: Ramy Touchan
Assistant Referees: Kevin Klinger, Ian McKay
Fourth Official: Greg Dopka
VAR: Carol Anne Chenard
Weather: Mostly Sunny, 88 degrees
Attendance: 20,104
All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial
LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY
On his thoughts of Javier Hernández and what follows:
“I mean, we grinded until the end and had an opportunity to wrap the three points at the end. He buried one before. He stepped up and he made a decision. It was the wrong decision. The wrong decision. He knows that. He knows how I feel. He knows how his teammates feel. It is what it is. We’ve just got to keep moving forward, and we lost an opportunity there in the end. But again, we gave up two goals just by letting guys just to run behind us. It’s nonsense. Like, this has to stop. We’re just not aware of guys who are in our back side, and they just drop the ball behind us and we give up two goals. And these are types of mistakes whether it’s the choice on the PK, or the not recovering and dealing with guys behind us that we have to get tightened up. Right? This is so imperative. So, it’s a grind of a week. You play two on the road in the Eastern Conference. You come to the third one at home. It’s hardly an advantage against an opposition who’s rested the whole week. So, you know it’s going to be a battle. It was shaping up to be a really warm day, and actually I think we got a break in terms of the weather. We set up in a way where we wanted to have possession of the game, we wanted to control the ball. I thought we rushed in attacks. I thought we were barely stable in the first half rushing attacks. I think our legs started to get heavy as we the game started to progress. But in the end, at the end of 90 minutes, we had an opportunity to take three points, which, we need to take.
On the formation he went with and what he did and didn’t get from it:
“Yeah, we, you know, we went… wanted to control the middle of the field. We thought, when we went there, we were too open to the middle of the field, and they were able to hurt us. You know, we had our most reliable players, I think, in possession, more or less, out on the field and we expected it to be an extraordinarily hot day. And we wanted to keep the ball, we wanted to overload the middle of the field at times. It’s why we scored the first goal. To be honest, because they didn’t know how to deal with the guys in the positions that we had them. I just thought as the game progressed, we started to crowd ourselves up a little bit too much, instead of opening up space for each other and then I thought just because the game was a little slow at that time, we were a little bit too casual in our possessions and if we would have been able to keep them a little bit sharper, I think we would have been in positions to hurt them. So, I wanted to look at Dejan [Joveljić] and Javi [Javier Hernández] together and talk, but I didn’t like it in just a flat 4-4-2, so we did a little bit more of an overload at the middle of the field to see how it was, which, in my opinion, we should have created more chances. There was more… I think there was more opportunity there for us, than we allowed ourselves to take advantage of, for a couple of reasons, which, I’ll share with them. But, in the end, I thought, again, considering the third game in a week, expectation to be very hot. I thought the first half we were fairly controlled through most of it.”
On Derrick Williams and Sega Coulibaly’s partnership in the backline, and how it has evolved as seasons have gone on:
“Yeah, I think they have grown together. I think they’ve found some comfort together as a pair. But for me, it’s not just about those two, it’s about all four. I feel like in the last couple of games, we’re making mistakes in our outside backs positions that have cost us points. You know, and again, it’s about our whole, our line, our whole group. Not just two guys or three guys, it’s got to be about four guys and then it’s got to be about the support that they have in front of them. And I thought by and large it was manageable outside of the few plays we didn’t manage.”
LA GALAXY FORWARD JAVIER “CHICHARITO” HERNÁNDEZ
On the last penalty kick and what went through his mind:
“My instinct today was wrong. You are not going to believe it. It is not an excuse, but Sacha [Kljestan] came, because he is a penalty taker too, so he asked me, ‘do you want to take it?’ And I said ‘yes, of course.’ And he said, ‘where are you going to shoot it?’ I think he was thinking about that, like probably a panenka. But I said, ‘same side, don’t worry. I got this. Don’t worry.’ Honestly I didn’t think about the panenka in the last two weeks, at all. That’s why I shot the first one the way I shot it. And then my instinct was that he did a pretty good move, and my instinct just saw it before and I didn’t think. My instinct did. Sometimes I score goals like that, I see the goalkeeper and I don’t think which side. I just see it, the space or something. So that’s exactly what happened. And of course the consequences are we didn’t get the three points. It’s a bittersweet moment as well because I scored two goals. It’s difficult to feel this because you scored two goals, you play a good game, you didn’t lose at your place, but you draw. You came back, something that we were lacking in the past a lot. When they were upfront and we came back now twice, against Toronto and now against Kansas. But yeah, I rather feel this and be brave enough to take the chance and see what happens, than not take them. Like I said it to the fans, to everyone over here, I am not going to play the victim. I am sorry, of course I am sorry. It’s a very key play. It’s like if I had a one versus one at the end of the game and I miss it. It’s the same, just this is a penalty, it’s more obvious. I scored two goals and we draw. We did a pretty good effort. It wasn’t that bad, but in the end it’s a mistake, I feel responsible that we couldn’t get the two points that we lost to get the win and I need to keep working, keep giving everything and we did a very good game. We don’t need to let them score twice in our place. We need to have a stronger fortress in a way. Sorry that it was a long answer but I wanted to explain that because definitely, most part of my career, I saw that I scored 201 [career club goals], and I would tell you that 190 of my goals were pure instinct of in that moment what I see. It’s like today as well, when I have the touch, I was thinking first post, but then I saw the goalkeeper moving a little bit and I just decide to cross it. Then in the penalty that’s what happened. I didn’t plan it, it was my instinct, I did a huge mistake and I’ll take the responsibility.”
On whether these plays in the game make a player overthink things:
“[Shakes his head no]. That’s why I am telling you that my instinct took over, I don’t know, in Mexico we say ‘me jugó una mala pasada’ [it played a trick on me]. It like, I live from my instinct, I trust my instinct. My instinct has been a huge part of my career and today and another times, I just listen to it and sometimes, most of the times, it’s correct and this time, the goalkeeper did a pretty good fake move because it wasn’t like he was just there standing up. He did like a fake move more to the left. So yeah, it was a very good decision from him and a very bad decision from me. I wasn’t overthinking it at all.”
On Riqui Puig giving this team an extra dimension it didn’t already have:
“I think we did with Victor [Vazquez]. I think Victor [Vazquez], Douglas Costa, and Efrain Alvarez are the kind of players that can have that number 10 kind of vision sometimes. But yeah, Riqui [Puig] is an amazing player, we know, but my speech and in the way that we think is going to be the same. He is [23 years old], he comes from Barcelona, he’s been playing in one of the best teams in the world, one of the best league sin the world as well. We want him to be relaxed, committed, free and happy. He is not going to be the one, no one is going to be the one, you can see it as well last season with New York City FC when they were champions, even though that everyone was in a very top level, as Valentín Castellanos was on fire, you saw everyone, of course he was a very key factor but it depended on everyone over there. Maxi [Moralez] as well and everyone in that team. Apart from [Lionel] Messi and sometimes Cristiano [Ronaldo], I’ve never seen a player who can play against 11 and do everything by himself. That’s the same with Riqui. He is already a key player for us, but yeah, we’ll see how far he can get. How far and how good he can show like everyone else.”
On scoring his 200th and 201st club career goal:
“You know what, apart of that milestone and that number, what I am very grateful for is how this situation happens in my life and I take it in a moment where everything shall pass. I scored my 200th goal and my 201st, and then I miss my first panenka penalty. And I could have had a hat trick but I scored a brace, and it’s like, that’s life. There’s gray moments. That’s something very important for me to take, knowing my life has gray areas. I scored two, and I missed the most important play of the game, then we get a point, but it’s in our home so it’s not that great. There’s gray areas, I think that’s a good way of saying it because scored two goals. Without the other two goals we couldn’t draw. Yeah I am sorry, it’s a very huge and big responsibility but as well, there is no heroes here. If I would have scored a hat-trick I wouldn’t be here sitting saying ‘yeah viva Chicharito’, no, no, no. If I score, if I don’t score, it doesn’t matter, we want points. We get points, we draw which is a positive, but of course in our place we should and we have to get every single point, every three points.”
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