Galaxy give up 6 goals, take fifth loss in a row

Three goals mark an outburst for L. A. but team’s playoff hopes continue to fade.

If the Galaxy hope to qualify for next month’s Major League Soccer playoffs, they’re going to have to pick up the pace. Because with a month left in the regular season the team is stuck in the Western Conference cellar, four points out of the eighth and final postseason spot.

And they did nothing to close that gap Wednesday, with Felipe Mora and Jeremy Ebobisse each scoring twice to lift the Portland Timbers to a wild 6- 3 win at Dignity Health Sports Park, extending the Galaxy’s winless streak to six.

Diego Valeri and Larry Mabiala also scored for Portland while Julian Araujo, Ethan Zubak and Cristian Pavón scored for the Galaxy, who have lost f ive straight games.

Although the three goals the Galaxy scored Wednesday totaled one more than they had scored in their previous f ive games combined, they also gave up six goals for the second time this season. They are winless in their last six games.

With defender Rolf Feltscher and midfielder Jonathan dos Santos away on international duty and forward Javier “Chicharito” Hernández at home with his wife, who gave birth this week, Galaxy coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto moved teenager Araujo to right back and Zubak up front in place of Hernández — and both moves paid off with goals.

Araujo’s score, his first in MLS, came on a 25- yard strike in the 34th minute, halving a 2- 0 deficit and waking a team that seemed to be a step behind the Timbers for most of the f irst half. Zubak’s goal, his second in MLS, came 10 minutes into the second half and halved another two- goal deficit.

But the Galaxy went to sleep after that one, with Portland scoring twice in the next eight minutes to put the game away.

Mora opened the scoring for Portland in the 14th minute, taking a feed from Yimmi Chará on the edge of the penalty area and redirecting it in for his f ifth goal of the season.

Ebobisse doubled the Portland advantage, lining a free kick into the top left corner from about 19 yards before Araujo got the Galaxy on the board, running on to a loose ball in space, taking two touches, then skipping a long right- footed shot inside the left post on a bounce.

After Valeri scored for Portland less than two minutes into the second half, lifting a soft right- footed chip over goalkeeper David Bingham, Zubak nodded in a Pavón cross to make it 3- 2.

That was as close as the Galaxy would get, however, with the f inal bright spot coming on Pavón’s goal in the 70th minute. That score ended a f ive- game goalless streak — his longest since coming to MLS — while giving him a goal and assist in the same game for the f irst time in more than a month. Pavón leads the Galaxy in both categories.

Although the Galaxy have been stuck in neutral for the last f ive weeks, their remaining schedule, while exhausting, offers them a path back into the race for a playoff berth. The team will play eight times in the f inal 29 days of the regular season, but only three of those games will be against teams that currently have a winning record.

And half the remaining games will be at home. Saturday’s scheduled match at Colorado could upset those plans, however. A COVID- 19 outbreak has forced Colorado to postpone its last three games, including Wednesday’s match with LAFC.

If Saturday’s match is also postponed, the Galaxy could f ind themselves playing four times in a week to make it up.