LAFC ROLLS TO WIN, AWAITS BALE’S ARRIVAL
Cristian Arango and Diego Palacios scored three minutes apart in the second half as Los Angeles FC pulled away for a 2-0 victory over the New York Red Bulls on Sunday at home.
MLS-leading LAFC improved to 10-3-3 with its fourth shutout of the season and capped a momentous weekend of activity. Co-President and General Manager John Thorrington
confirmed after Sunday’s match that the club has signed
Welsh forward
Gareth Bale
along with reaching an extension with Carlos Vela.
The 32-year-old Bale is expected to move stateside in the next two weeks after spending most of the past nine years with Real Madrid.
Bale will be eligible to make his LAFC debut after the secondary transfer window opens July 7. The club’s first match after the window opens is against archrival LA Galaxy on July 8.
Thorrington left open the possibility of Bale making his debut in the rivalry game commonly known as El Trafico, but that they want to assess his fitness and match readiness first.
“With our sport science team and coaches understanding how to manage a player, like Gareth, who, whether you call them a thoroughbred racehorse or Ferrari, whatever your analogy is, they do need extra attention and, care and management in order to put them in a position to succeed,” Thorrington said. “That is certainly our intention here, and we’re confident that we will be able to do that.”
New York (7-5-5) started 52-1 on the road, but has dropped three straight away from home — without scoring.
Arango scored in the 67th minute, less than three minutes after coming into the game. The midfielder just stayed on onside when he took a touch pass from Vela. Red Bulls defender Dylan Nealis got caught out of position, allowing Arango to have a wideopen chance at goal as he put a right-footed shot in from the center of the box.
Arango has five goals this season and has scored in three straight MLS matches.
“We understood that we have the ability to change games with our bench. And we did once again,” LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo (Mt.
Carmel High graduate) said. “That was the plan going into this match and turned out that way, Very rarely do things actually work out the way we think but today they did.”
More MLS
Defender Daniel Lovitz
scored early, Hany Mukhtar
followed with his third brace of the season and Nashville rolled to a 3-1 victory that extended D.C. United’s league winless streak to six games.
Cory Burke’s goal lifted the Philadelphia Union (7-1-8) to a 2-1 victory over visiting New York City FC (8-4-3). Burke’s game-winner came in the eighth minute of secondhalf stoppage time to put the Union ahead 2-1. The victory gives Philadelphia sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference with 29 points to 27 for NYCFC.
WNBA
Courtney Williams scored 17 points, Alyssa Thomas
added 15 and Connecticut (13-6) held Atlanta to one field goal in the final seven minutes, defeating the Dream (8-10) 7261.
Courtney Vandersloot
scored 18 points, including a buzzer-beating 3-pointer, to help the Chicago Sky (13-5) edge the Minnesota Lynx (514) 88-85. Chicago inbounded in the frontcourt with 7.6 seconds to go. Vandersloot attempted to drive the right side, was stopped and handed off to Emma Meesseman, got the ball back and hit the winning shot from about 25 feet.
Horse racing
Flightline, the undefeated 4-year-old colt, will be pointed to Del Mar’s Grade I Pacific Classic on Sept. 3, trainer John Sadler told Steve Andersen of The Daily Racing Form. The $1 million race is run at 11⁄4 mile on the main track. The winner receives a fees-paid spot to the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on Nov. 5. Del Mar opens July 22.
Locally
Kyle Vassell scored twice to lead the San Diego Loyal (84-4) to 5-0 victory over Indy Eleven (6-6-3) at Torero Stadium in USL Championship action late Saturday night. Thomas Amang put the Loyal up 1-0 in the 29th minute with Vassell following in the 42nd and 52nd. Mechack Jerome was credited with an own goal in the 60th minute and Tumi Moshobane scored in the 85th minute.