LAFC can’t finish chances once again
LOS ANGELES >> No team in MLS expects to score more than the Los Angeles Football Club.
This isn’t an observation about LAFC’s playing style under coach Bob Bradley; it’s a statement of fact that jumps off the stat sheet when compared to the number of goals the team has actually produced through 27 regular-season games in 2021
Wednesday night at Banc of California Stadium, LAFC again created plenty of chances, and, again, goals were hard to come by.
Because LAFC continues not to do what they set themselves up for — they are No. 1 in the league with 1.83 expected goals per 90 minutes but entered the contest ranked ninth in goals with 38 — the Black & Gold dropped three points for the third time this year to the Portland Timbers, 2-1.
Goals from Portland midfielder Yimmi Chara to wrap the opening half, and Dairon Asprilla in the 59th minute were good enough to top LAFC for the second time in 11 days.
Danny Musovski finished his third goal of the season for LAFC in the 56th minute, briefly getting his side back in the game before Portland went ahead near the hour mark.
Desperate to avoid a third straight loss as the playoff race threatens to get away from them, LAFC fielded a team without a designated player while Brian Rodriguez’s hamstring issue lingers and four players who weren’t on the roster at the start of August.
Goalkeeper Jamal Blackman and forward Michee Ngalina played their first minutes for LAFC, joining defender relative newcomers Sebastien Ibeagha and forward Cristian Arango in the starting 11, which also included Eduard Atuesta for the first time since the Colombian mainstay was sidelined with an ankle injury during the club’s recent losses in Portland and San Jose.
Atuesta’s calming presence was apparent through most of the opening half, as the new faces fit in well enough for LAFC to appear sharp during several sequences.
But the streaking Timbers, unbeaten in the past seven (6-0-1) games, abated LAFC’s pressure.
Unlike LAFC,
Portland
made the most of its chances, finishing its lone shot on target in the opening half that sent the home side to its locker room down 1-0 when Chara beat Blackman at the far post.
The Timbers improved to 12-1-1 on the year when scoring first, and kept LAFC winless (0-5-1) when trailing after 45 minutes.
Bradley made three changes at the break, including the goal scorer Musovski, but Portland (13-10-4, 43 points) maintained its defensive shape and refused to allow LAFC to stretch its backline with 14 shots — four on target — throughout the match plus nine minutes of stoppage time.
Following Wednesday’s slate of MLS action, LAFC (9-12-6, 33 points) are four points behind seventhplace Minnesota, which has a game in hand over Bradley’s team, and sits ninth.