As for the match I’ll just focus on a few key points to the match (I’m writing this on my iPhone today in between my two jobs). LAFC has their usual starting 11, to begin the match, with only 17 dressed players instead of the usual 18. Now I watched the game at the Empire Boys watch party so I was not able to hear any audio from the match, but I’ve been told the only supporters you could hear was the 350 LAFC supporters who traveled to Sandy, Utah to cheer on the black and gold, awesome job to all those supporters.
The first half was scoreless, but one significant event that did occur in the 17 was that Walker Zimmerman who was playing in his first game back from yellow cards suspension, received a very tick tack yellow card. Yes it should have been a foul, but in my opinion it was not worthy of a yellow card at all. This would come back to hurt both Walker Zimmerman and the team as in the 48 minute of the match Walker would recurve his second yellow card of the match equaling in a red card, putting LAFC down a man for the remaining of the match, also resulting that Zimmerman will miss the next match on Wednesday night at the Banc against the San Jose Earthquakes.
This completely changed the dynamic of the game and strategy of how LAFC will play the rest of the match, for the time being. Now for myself and for most of the LAFC faithful we would had been happy with a 0-0 draw, being down a player on the road. But then in the Diomande made a perfect pass to Vela, to give Vela a breakaway and a great scoring chance when he was pulled down by RSL defender Aaron Herrera, getting a red card, making it even 10 on 10, and also being that it occurred inside the box, Carlos Vela was rewarded a PK. And Carlos Vela, being Carlos Vela, buried the ball in the top left corner of the net past Nick Rimando, giving LAFC a 1-0 lead in the 64 minute.
As I mentioned earlier Zimmerman’s red card completely changed the dynamic of the match, but now the same thing can be said when Aaron Herrera recurved his red card, evening the playing field to 10 on 10, and after this LAFC just started attacking and pressuring the RSL defense.
In the 68 minute Lee Nguyen came into the match for Diego Rossi. Lee Nguyen could easily be a starter on any other club in the MLS, but we have so much depth in the midfield we get to have him coming if the bench and the the scarf said on Defenders of the Banc in their latest podcast, he is kind of our version of the NBA 6th man, so I guess he’s our 12th man. As much as I feel he deserves to start, it was awesome to have a player like Lee Nguyen coming off the bench. In this match he did not disappoint, right away he gave LAFC scoring chances. Then in the 82 minute he assisted in a goal by Diomande, speaking of Diomande he could have easily had a hat trick, including hitting a post in the first half. This goal made it 2-0, this pretty much sealed up the victory for LAFC.
This victory for LAFC was very significant being that, they became the first club to clinch a playoff spot in MLS this season. This victory also gave the club 58 points for the season surpassing their point total from last season of 57 points. Now to one of the most impressive stats of the season, LAFC now has a goal differential of a plus 42, that’s incredible. The club that’s the most close to them is Atlanta United at a plus 15, which is good, but LAFC is at a plus 42, meanwhile Cincinnati is a minus 35. Well I hope you enjoyed this, as I wrote this on my phone. Please for me on Twitter and Instagram at TheLAFCPunk on all platforms.
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