Los Angeles FC head coach Bob Bradley on home tie: ‘Not good enough’
Los Angeles FC battles back
Down two-nil by the 37th minute, Los Angeles FC clawed their way back into Saturday night’s home meeting with the Vancouver Whitecaps. They were a bit unlucky not to emerge with the full three points.
Los Angeles FC settled for a 2-2 draw against a feisty and organized Vancouver Whitecaps side that very quietly is putting together some strong results in recent weeks. While the overall result was disappointing from LAFC – a draw at home against a lower quality opponent is rarely a good thing – it was still in many ways a strong result from Bob Bradley’s side.
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After a sluggish and disjointed start to the game, Bradley’s team didn’t hang their heads despite going down by two goals.
Of course, Los Angeles FC never should have put themselves in that position from the get-go.
“First half – not enough guys ready to play, not sure why, not enough intensity. Tactically in the first half, I thought we got overrun in the center of the field, so we changed at halftime, and I think that part was better,” Bradley told reporters after the match.
“Second half – we do a better job of pushing the game but there’s still too many moments where we hurt ourselves, where we’re closing down and trying to put pressure to see if we can win a ball back, and we commit a silly foul. There are times when late in the game there’s too many bad passes, so instead of now connecting three to four passes and getting forward and keeping pressure on, we’re running 30-40 yards to put out a fire.
“So, at the end not enough guys have really good days. There’s a part where you’re behind and now we have to push hard to get back into a game and so there’s some credit on that end, but overall, not good enough tonight. Not good enough.”
With the result, Los Angeles FC is now 6-5-4 (22 points) and in fifth place in the Western Conference. The Vancouver Whitecaps are 3-7-5 (14 points) and are second from the bottom in the conference.
Los Angeles FC struggles symbolic of the season
For Los Angeles FC, Saturday night was a microcosm. Sloppy plays and breakdowns led to the first half goals by the Vancouver Whitecaps. Individual talent saw LAFC battle back and settle for the draw.
In terms of pure talent, LAFC is likely among the best two or three teams in the league, as evidenced by the club very nearly winning the CONCACAF Champions League last year. But collectively, they are struggling with focus and the penchant for individual mistakes is keep them mid-table in the Western Conference.
There is every reason to believe that Los Angeles FC can and will rise above their current ho-hum form, especially under as gifted of a coach and tactician as Bradley. But right now, this club is seemingly lacking a spark and needed fire to start turning matches they dominate into three points.
“There’s not enough guys in the first half who have come in where they are sharp and alert and alive. If you don’t have guys engaged on every play; if the game is going 60 miles per hour and you could have guys that are running around and faking that 30, then you have no chance, and even if others are up to speed, you’re giving away too much and too many different moments, so the first half on that end, no, we didn’t,” Bradley said.
“We didn’t have enough guys who are fully engaged in the game. As I mentioned, I think the tactical flexibility we chose so far has been good and other games where we played three in the back, I think it’s been very hard for teams to cross – we’ve won a lot of balls — there was a little of that in the first half but not enough. I thought in the center of the field, we were second to too many [balls] and that’s the reason we changed the way we played at halftime.”
Follow Kristian Dyer of ‘MLS Multiplex‘ on Twitter @KristianRDyer