Photo by Gary A. Vasquez/USA TODAY Sports
By MAEK EDWARD HORNISH
Carson, Calif. – Gyasi Zardes was the lone regular first choice player to be slotted in to the Galaxy’s starting lineup for their opening match of the 2015/2016 CONCACAF Champion’s League. He would be all the starters the Galaxy would need.
Zardes scored in the 4th minute, assisted on two more, and generally menaced the overmatched back line of TT Pro League champion Central FC all night long en route to a 5-1 victory in the Galaxy’s CONCACAF Champions League opener. In fact, Zardes almost had much more; he had two goals waved off for offside.
Zardes created the opening goal of the evening with a flawless cross that fooled CFC goalkeeper Jan Michael Williams and fell to Alan Gordon, lurking on the far post. Â Gordon easily headed home to give the MLS Champions the early lead.
It might have been all the Galaxy needed on the night, but Belizian referee Christopher Reid whistled Galaxy goal keeper Brian Rowe for a penalty in the box, and Central striker Ataulla Guerra converted the ensuing penalty kick to briefly make a game of it.
“The ref said I grabbed the forward’s leg… I think?” said Rowe after the match. “I’m not quite sure what he saw. I made the save, I ended up with the ball after the play. So it’s frustrating, but the guys did a great job fighting back.”
After numerous breakaway opportunities for LA in the ensuing half hour, all of which were flagged for offside, the Galaxy finally broke the deadlock when Zardes sent in Raul Mendiola with a long ball over the top. The flag stayed down, and Mendiola juked the hapless Central goalkeeper and slapped the ball home to give the Galaxy the lead for good.
For many of the 13,625 fans in attendance, however, there was only one story. Mexican national teamer Giovani Dos Santos made his Galaxy debut in the 57th minute to a standing ovation, and scored his first MLS goal in the 72nd, when he corralled a deflected Oscar Sorto cross and neatly rolled it under the wrong-footed CFC goalkeeper to extend the Galaxy lead and open his account in Los Angeles.
“I feel happy to score my first goal for the club,” said Dos Santos after the match. “For my first game, I think everything was perfect.”
Zardes stroked home a penalty kick in the 55th, after Alan Gordon was hauled down in the box, and Ignacio Maganto added a tally to close out the scoring on the evening.  For the Galaxy it was another in a long run of offensive outbursts – they have now scored thirty goals in their last six in-competition matches at home.
“That’s good. Â That means we’re scoring goals,” said Alan Gordon, who wore the captain’s armband for the Galaxy for the first time. “But there’s still a game on the weekend. Â We gotta do it again. You can’t get complacent. You gotta keep pushing it.”
The game was marred by the inconsistent refereeing so common to CCLÂ early-round matches. Â The first penalty call, on Rowe, was hotly contested, and the second penalty was called by the assistant referee, who appeared to overrule the referee.
The most significant call of the night was in the 37th minute, when the Central goalkeeper came well off his line to contest a ball in the air and went forearm first into the side of Raul Mendiola’s head. The referee appeared prepared to allow play to continue, and it was again the assistant referee who made the foul call and then could be seen to advise the referee to show the Central keeper a yellow card. Â Mendiola was stretchered off the field in a full head restraint, but eventually walked to the locker room under his own power. His status remains unknown.
“Welcome to CONCACAF,” shrugged Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena, when asked about the officiating. “We just try to make the players aware of it, to just try to keep our sanity. Â It is what it is.”
Central FC has only been in existence for three years, and is playing out of season. Â Nevertheless, head coach Ross Russell felt reasonably pleased with his side’s performance.
“Galaxy was just a little bit sharper than us tonight.” said Russell in the post game press conference. “We did a good job maintaining for about 65 minutes, and then it all broke loose.”
Central FC will resume CCL group play on August 27th in Guatemala City against Comunicaciones.
The Galaxy continue in CCL group play when they host Comunicaciones on August 18th. Â Before that, however, they will welcome Seattle Sounders to the Stub Hub Center this Sunday for a nationally televised matchup.
Oscar Sorto did not play in this game, I think you are looking at Rafa Garcia.
Did you even watch the game Maek or did you just copy your article from a (bad) source? Sorto wasn’t even available much less starting… smh
explosive team is this Galaxy squad at home but their road performances will define them as champions or not
Does Gio look offside on his goal to anyone else?
same for mendiola. when Gordo takes his touch, mendiola is inan offside position.
there were also three breakaways for the Galaxy that were wrongly flagged as offsides too. Just a pathetic officiating performance from the ref and from one AR in particular (the bald guy)
Watched have the game and I keep being impressed by Lleget. The way he plays and his strength- I’d guess he were a 28 yr old vet rather than than a 22 yr old. How could this guy fit in with the NATS? He doesn’t have ideal speed to play as a winger. I’d almost compare him to Dempsey without his scoring brilliance but he passes better with more vision. Does he have the potential to be America’s version of a 10?
He’s pretty quick…Not adjusted to the league yet, but he is learning quickly
Maybe not as an outright winger, but Lletget, with his attacking prowess, could be a shuttler that caused absolutely havoc in the final third. Pair him with a back that could overlap (Fabian or possibly Yedlin, depending on which side he is on), and it could be interesting.
One thing he does very like Dempsey at Fulham, he brings the ball to the top of the box from the left and is usually able to juke his man and cut inside for either a shot or through pass for a forward. Although I’m a fan of Zardes, I would say that right now Lletget looks smoother and more polished and maybe a better player than Zardes. Zardes does have more athletic ability, however. Klinsmann should really call in Lletget for the January camp, if not sooner, for a look.
Worst refereeing performance ever!!!!
Didn’t see the game last night, but didn’t have to – there’s no way that it was worse than the Geiger performance in the Mex/Pan game
both horrific. as for your no way point, debatable, and since you don’t have the knowledge of watching last night’s game, pointless
our region has some SERIOUS officiating issues, and always has. They are just more apparent to everyone know because of TV, the internet, etc. The Mex-Panama game once again revealed this all too clearly, as did the Galaxy-Central game last night
Keeper deserved a red for hit on Mendiola…Went Rowdy Piper on him
Yikes. Mindbogglingly bad. The PK….. just a horrible call. Rowe cleanly, clearly beats the player to the ball going away from goal. Not a difficult one to make by any stretch. 2 pretty basic offsides calls taking away clear breakaway scoring chances. The GK with a full speed rugby tackle, takes out Mendiola w/ elbow to head with no attempt at ball… wasn’t even going to whistle! Calls after fact when stretcher is brought out. Phantom calls whistled all over, others obvious calls ignored. How about the ending? 5-1 game +2 added… 90+2… whistle blows… end game? No. Lets stop the game, check on the cramping Central player, stretcher him off… blow the final whistle a few minutes later. Actually felt bad for the wide eyed, way out of their depth crew from Belize. Not so much for CONCACAF allowing it. Shots of Arena sinking deeper and deeper into his chair waiting for it to end, hopefully w/ no injuries were priceless.
You must not watch much CONCACAF. Also, early days of MLS could be pretty excruciating, too.
At least the calls weren’t going to change the outcome of the game because of the wide disparity in talent. I have seen much worse where a game is literally handed to the other team. My favorite hair pulling incident was with a US qualifier in, I think Costa Rica. Greg Berhalter was standing still, with his arms tight to his side, just inside the box along the end line while playing LB, a ball hit him squarely in the chest and they other team was awarded a PK that won the game.
While it’s true that Bruce Arena has brought in the older veteran stars, look at the goalscorers from the CCL game:
Alan Gordan 33
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Gyassi Zardes 23
Nacho Maganto 23
Gio Dos Santos 26
Raul Mendiola 21
Youth is served !!
Plus they have Lletget, Jamison and Villareal, all young and all promising. And Haji Wright used to be in their system and he was the most prolific scorer for the U-16’s.
Is Haji-Wright seeing time with Cosmos?
Looks like he just made his debut two weeks ago and played about 30 minutes.
Imagine the final score if Galaxy played their starters, Keane, Gerrard, etc. Gadzooks
The PK was soft…This should have been 5-0
No way is Gadzooks a starter. Slow of thought, plodding runs off the ball, poor holdup, in air, no first touch, and lazy.
Welcome to CONCACAF!