Los Angeles FC struggle in home loss
It was a night to forget for Los Angeles FC in what has to be considered one of the most difficult matches that Bob Bradley has coached in MLS.
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LAFC was on the wrong side of a 4-1 home loss to Sporting Kansas City on Wednesday night, a match where the home team was down 3-0 by halftime. Even with the up-down and uneven performances by Los Angeles FC this year, the result – especially at home – was shocking.
This was a team that clearly wasn’t up to play against one of the best sides in MLS this season.
“Yeah, it’s never good to drop points at home. So when you sum up everything in the first half of the season, that’s certainly an area that isn’t good enough,” Bradley said after the match.
“And so our ability at home, two games — two games recently where we got behind not just by a goal but by multiple goals. I mentioned at the beginning that you can take the initiative in the game; we didn’t tonight, but you can.
“That doesn’t guarantee that you’ll score first. And so if somehow you give up the first goal, your ability as a team to respond immediately at that moment and make sure that there’s areal push to get to 1-1 but in a way that doesn’t allow the other team that chance to take it to two. And so that’s an area that we’ve talked about.”
What made the result frustrating was that Los Angeles FC controlled much of it yet still managed to come up short. In recent weeks, it seemed like LAFC’s season of struggles was turning but Wednesday night was a splash of reality for those optimistic takes.
Los Angeles FC dominated, but…
Possession (55 percent), shots (21:9), corner kicks (5:4) and crosses (12:9) all tell the story of a match where Los Angeles FC were the better side. But despite 21 shots, Bradley’s side managed just a single shot on goal whereas Sporting Kansas City mustered five shots on frame.
Simply put, Sporting Kansas City was more efficient and Los Angeles FC wasn’t.
Los Angeles FC is 6-6-5 on the year with 23 points and in fifth place in the Western Conference.
“They won some balls in the midfield. They attacked very quickly from there, so some transition in some moments. They came at us fast. You know, it’s also a game where they had five shots on goal and four goals. So you know, it’s not a game where it’s just coming at us the whole time but in transition in some key moments, they attacked quickly,” Bradley said.
“In those moments, sometimes it’s that we are not good enough with the ball. It’s sometimes they have done well to close us and press us and win the ball and go quickly. And then our ability just to defend in transition. I think the third goal was an example of where they didn’t do that part well enough.”