SANDY, Utah—Being down a goal at halftime in their first road game of the season, the LA Galaxy found some things to build on. They just had to change everything first.
“We played better," said winger Romain Alessandrini. "We played side-to-side. We kept the ball. Everything changed.""
Helped by a red card to RSL’s Kyle Beckerman, LA grew into a more dangerous team in the second half, scoring two goals in the span of six minutes to come away with a 2-1 victory, their first points of the season.
LA found one shot in the first half, but turned that into eight chances in the second with improved passing. Alessandrini found a wide-open Dave Romney for the equalizer on a corner kick in the 69th minute. He added his second assist minutes later as his cross provided Emmanuel Boateng a good look at goal which the speedy midfielder put away for the game-winner.
“I was ready for the rebound on the opposite side, and he hit the perfect ball across,” Boateng said.
Alessandrini had lined up on the right side for the first time this season. Thought his second assist came from taking advantage of a missed chance to clear for Salt Lake, LA became more dangerous when they were able to string together passes against the undermanned RSL.
“Their mentality coming into the game was to spread us wide,” Boateng said. “As soon as we started connecting our passes it helped tremendously.”
With the gift of the first half red card, the Galaxy became the aggressor thanks to RSL only wanting to push forward on the counter attack.
“They sat back and we just decided we’re going to keep attacking them,” Boateng said. “When they got the ball they would just kick it out wide. You could tell they were getting a little scared of the chances, so we kept pressuring them and got goals off the chances.”
Being able to take advantage of the situation, even on the road down a goal, was a good sign after two defeats to start the year.
“We know what we can do. We know what we have done. We believe in ourselves that we can turn it around and hopefully today is a good indication that we’re going to do that going forward,” Boateng said. “We can build from here.”
