Busy Galaxy earns another game with Open Cup victory
Depth was a worry for the Galaxy even before the first whistle blew this season. Then came a rash of injuries that sidelined nine starters for multiple games, doing little to ease that concern.
Now comes arguably the biggest test for the team’s battered roster: a run of seven games in 20 days, beginning with Wednesday’s 3-1 victory over Orange County SC in the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup.
Jack McBean’s penalty-kick score in the 36th minute at the StubHub Center proved the difference, coming after an exchange of goals from the Galaxy’s Jose Villarreal and Orange County’s Roy Meeus in the first 26 minutes.
Ari Lassiter added an insurance goal in the 73rd minute for the Galaxy, who are unbeaten in seven games dating to April 23.
And the Galaxy’s reward for the win?
Another game squeezed into the schedule, for the fifth round of the Open Cup on June 28.
“These games are important,” Galaxy coach Curt Onalfo said. “You have to utilize your roster for the next 21/2 weeks … and guys have to step up.”
In a nod to the upcoming schedule and in an effort to give playing time to bench players he’ll need over the next three weeks, Onalfo started only three regulars Wednesday, then subbed on one more late in the second half.
That proved to be more than enough.
Villarreal gave the Gal-axy the lead in the 17th minute, surprising Orange County keeper Charlie Lyon by pulling up about 25 yards from the goal and unleashing a wicked shot that bent over Lyon’s outstretched arm.
“That was a world-class goal,” Onalfo said.
Orange County needed only nine minutes to get that back, with Meeus, a Belgian defender, scoring from the top of the 18-yard box on a designed play. But that was as close as the United Soccer League club, the second-tier affiliate of fledgling Los Angeles FC, would get despite the fact it outshot its MLS opponent, 16-13.
The U.S. Open Cup, the oldest domestic tournament in the country and one open to teams from the top five tiers of the U.S. soccer pyramid, hasn’t been kind to the Galaxy. They’ve advanced past the quarterfinals once in the last 10 years and haven’t won the tournament since 2005.
Their difficulty with the tournament hardly sets them apart, however, because six MLS teams lost their fourth-round games this week.
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