Columbus hands the LA Galaxy its second consecutive 2-0 loss

The LA Galaxy stumbled against the Columbus Crew on Wednesday night. With this 2-0 loss, the LA Galaxy are now winless in its last nine league games.

It only took 17 minutes for this game to turn into a disaster for the Galaxy. Defender Ashley Cole received an early red card after an apparent foul just outside the penalty box. There appeared to be some contact between Cole and Columbus’ Federico Higuain, but not really enough to warrant a red card.

Referee Sorin Stoica even got a second look at the foul through video review. He still decided to give Cole a red card. The Galaxy played the remainder of the game with 10 men.

About three minutes after the red card, Jonathan Dos Santos committed a foul near the edge of the penalty area. Stoica decided to use video review again to get another look at the foul.

Afterwards, he decided to reverse his call and award a penalty kick to Columbus. Galaxy goalkeeper Jon Kempin managed to keep his team in the game with a big save on Higuain’s penalty.

Moments later the Galaxy found the back of the net. In the 26th minute, defender Daniel Steres hit a header into the goal off of a corner kick. Unfortunately, the Galaxy didn’t get much time to celebrate.

After more video review, Stoica ruled that midfielder Joao Pedro was the last person to make contact with the ball before it went in. Pedro wasn’t onside when he hit it, so the goal did not count.

With the first half winding down, it seemed like the Galaxy would hold onto a draw before the break. But then in the 45th minute, Columbus’ Ola Kamara collected a pass in the middle of the box and shot it past Kempin for the 1-0 lead. The assist came from Pedro Santos.

Second Half

During the second half, the Galaxy struggled to get much offense going. With only 10 men, the Galaxy had to spend most of the half defending.

Even after Romain Alessandrini entered the game off the bench in the 66th minute, the Galaxy only managed to get off four shots in the second half.

In the 78th minute, the Crew earned another penalty kick opportunity. Just like before, Kempin managed to make the save to deny Columbus a second goal.

Just when it seemed like the LA Galaxy would only lose by a goal, Columbus managed to break through again. Midfielder Justin Meram managed to score in stoppage time after a great pass from Kekuta Manneh. The Crew would go on to win 2-0.

Analysis

It was another bad night for the Galaxy. The early red card really deflated the team. After going down 1-0, the Galaxy never showed any real signs of coming back. Guys like Gyasi Zardes and Alessandrini provided little to no spark on offense.

The only excellent performance of the night came from goalkeeper Jon Kempin. He made several huge saves for the Galaxy throughout the night, including two penalty kicks. Even though it was only Kempin’s second league start, he looked like a veteran out there. He may end up taking the starting spot from Brian Rowe after this performance.

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With the playoff window getting smaller something has to give for the Galaxy. Either somebody steps up or the team will continue to tank. With San Jose coming into town on Saturday, the Galaxy have to play better than they did against Columbus to pull out a positive result.