It’s not all glitz and glamour in Los Angeles right now.
The Los Angeles Galaxy drew with the 11th place Colorado Rapids at home Tuesday night thanks to a late 82nd minute goal from Rapids rookie forward Niki Jackson. Galaxy goalkeeper David Bingham got a hand on the deflected shot, but he seemed to get a late jump on the shot and wasn’t able to stop the floater as it went right over his head into the back of the net.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was not happy with Bingham’s effort.
“Second goal should not go in. Basic things,” the forward said. “Be on your toes and be ready when the ball comes. Basic things we make look difficult and it cannot happen.”
LA Galaxy head coach Sigi Schmidt also questioned the defensive effort of his team after blowing a lead two separate times during the game.
“We need to hold on the lead,” Schmidt said. “We can talk tactics if we want, but when there’s one player forward and he’s playing against four defenders and he drops off and gets the ball in a pocket…I don’t know what the tactics are there. Do we need six back there?”
The Galaxy are in the midst of a three-game winless streak. They kicked off August with a road loss to the Rapids, and followed up that poor performance with home draws two weeks in a row against bottom-of-the-table Western Conference opponents Minnesota and Colorado.
As things stand currently, the Galaxy are in fourth in the Western Conference, good enough to host a home game in the knockout round of the playoffs. Despite their +6 goal differential, they’ve allowed 42 goals so far this year, more than any other team in playoff position as of this writing.
“Everybody talks about the playoffs…the way we play now we don’t even deserve playoffs,” Zlatan said.
“It’s very irritating because we make basic things look very difficult. This should not happen,” Ibra continued. “These mistakes happen where my son is training, but there you learn basic things. We just have to work hard and keep going because I feel a big confusion on the field.”
Zlatan doesn’t solely blame the defense, though. The Swedish forward hasn’t scored at all during the Galaxy’s three game winless streak. His last goal came during his hat trick performance against Orlando City on July 29, a game that required two late Zlatan goals to give LA the 4-3 win.
“Two games and not even one clear chance. I don’t know. I’m trying to run in the space and get the balls,” Zlatan said. “I don’t know what it is. It is what it is. I’m trying but I don’t get clear chances.”
The Galaxy’s schedule only gets harder. They face red-hot Seattle twice, as well as current playoff-position teams LAFC, Real Salt Lake and Sporting KC. The Galaxy will also play host to the Vancouver Whitecaps, who are fighting for a playoff spot as they sit just below the red line in seventh place.
LA have to come together and figure out their issues if they hope to hold onto a playoff position, but there is lots of work to be done according to Zlatan.
“This is the moment when you show everybody that you want to be in the playoff,” he said. “This is the game you kill.
“This opponent is not better than us, but they are better organized. They played better than us and they want to play. They are on their toes and they are in the field and playing. We are doing everything opposite.”
The Galaxy travel to CenturyLink Field on Saturday to take on the Seattle Sounders.
Don’t need to really add anythinto what Zlatan said.
Go Sounders