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Sounders crush Galaxy at StubHub Center

Call it a drubbing, a demolition, an annihilation or whatever word you choose.

The Seattle Sounders thrashed the LA Galaxy on Sunday afternoon 3-0 at StubHub Center to jump back into the top six of the Western Conference. The attacking trio of Jordan Morris, Nicolas Lodeiro and Clint Dempsey had their way for the majority of the match against the porous Galaxy, who dropped their third home game of 2017.

Seattle began to benefit from the attacking onslaught in the 29th minute, when a wide-open Nicolas Lodeiro crossed over to Clint Dempsey, who was also in space. Dempsey easily nodded in the opener from the right post.

The Sounders were celebrating their second strike six minutes later, as Joevin Jones’ cross deflected off the boot of Ashley Cole and into the back of the net.

The home side played so poorly in the opening 35 minutes that Curt Onalfo was forced into a change in the 38th minute to provide stability in midfield by bringing in Baggio Husidic for Emmanuel Boateng, a move that shifted Jermaine Jones further forward.

Jordan Morris banged in the third Sounders tally of the opening stanza on a beautiful counter that ran from right to left. The United States international sent in his shot from the left side of the box to hand the Sounders a comfortable halftime cushion.

The first concrete chance for the Galaxy came in the 52nd minute off the boot of Giovani dos Santos. Stefan Frei failed to clear a cross from the right wing and the ball dropped right to the Mexican. However, dos Santos bounced his shot wide of the right post, an attempt that perfectly summed up the Galaxy’s performance.

Dempsey had a pair of opportunities to add a fourth in the 58th minute after Morris burned through the Galaxy back line and dropped the ball off for his American teammate. Dempsey clattered his shot off the post and scuffed the attempt produced by the rebound.

The Galaxy tried to challenge Frei for the remainder of the second half to create something positive, but that wasn’t the case for Onalfo and company.

LA will try to rebound against another struggling side, Philadelphia, on Saturday night. Seattle returns home to play New England on Saturday.

Man of the Match

All three stars in the Seattle attack shined bright on Sunday, with Dempsey providing a goal and an assist. The presence of Will Bruin sucking in defenders from the forward position allowed all three to thrive from the start.

Moment of the Match

For 27 minutes, the Galaxy held things together against Seattle’s pressing attack, but the first goal from Dempsey broke their backs. From that point on, the Sounders continued to have their way at StubHub Center.

Match to Forget

Everyone involved with the Galaxy will hope to recycle their memories from Sunday as soon as possible, especially the central midfielders. Offseason acquisition Joao Pedro had a rough outing as the Sounders easily worked through the middle of the park for 90 minutes.

Comments

  1. I love the tweet where someone joked that Zlatan was faking injury so he wouldn’t have to play for the Galaxy.

    Bwahahahahahaha

    Reply
    • For real… I don’t know if Bob is the answer, but it looks increasingly likely that Curt will not make it through the entire season unless they have a major turnaround…

      Reply
      • Did you see the pained look on Onolfo’s face in his post-game presser? He looks for all the world like a man who’s quickly figuring out he’s about to be unemployed, and instead of worrying about his job, he’s thinking things like “how am I going to pay my mortgage? How am I going to feed my kids?”

        Galaxy are trrrrbul. Robbie Keane must be having quite a laugh right about now.

  2. LA isn’t good
    Big shocker.

    The only question going into the game was whether Seattle was. They will be fine.

    Reply
  3. I’ve seen a lot of Galaxy games over the last 15 years or so. The first half was the most pathetic I can remember. Their defense was carved up like a Thanksgiving turkey.They were lucky that Seattle was happy to just kick the ball around and use up time, or it could have ended up 5 or 6 to nothing.

    Reply
    • no heart, pretty simple. those guys do not play like they care about each other at all. rudderless at the helm right now in that respect. the Galaxy area a team that does not believe.
      Onalfo must be experiencing some sleepless nights. Bob Bradley would be an excellent choice imo, if he wanted it

      Reply
  4. We where poor all afternoon. Our defending was lax, our midfield is non existent and there is no link up play between the forwards and the midfield. It’s super easy to put all this on gio dos santos but it isn’t all his fault. He needs to be closer to the goal to be effective and he can’t do that if he has to dope down to the midfield to get a touch. A lot of this is not only on Onalfo (I still don’t understand why he doesn’t sit jao Pedro. It’s obvious he isn’t adjusting to the speed of play or physicality of the league) but on Pete Vagenas as well. The handling of the aj de la Garza and Leonardo transfers was done sloppy at best with no one coming in to replace them

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    • Also, Zardes had to spend a fair amount of his time in or near his own box to help out on defense. He was one of the Galaxy’s best defenders, it seemed to me. That’s pretty b ad when you have to rely on one of your forwards for your D. The Galaxy look unorganized and seemed to come into the game flat as well–no spark, no fire. They sat back and let Seattle attack them and the Sounders didn’t disappoint, almost attacking at will in the first half.

      Reply

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