LAFC heads into World Cup break with win over Sounders

Finally having a full week off, LAFC needed every day, every hour of the rest and preparation that this week provided.

Playing its last match before a month-and-a-half long World Cup break, mired in a three-match losing streak, and missing several regulars, among them keeper Hugo Lloris, LAFC found themselves in yet another defensive-minded struggle against the Seattle Sounders. However, LAFC found that one moment, and it came from Timothy Tillman, as his goal late in the second half enabled LAFC to head into the World Cup break on a good note with the 1-o win at BMO Stadium.

“Very fortunate three points tonight,” LAFC head coach Marc Dos Santos said. “We had a situation where you had a lot of the ball and a lot of the territory, and weren’t really able to turn that into anything, and it seemed that taking a few outside shots and bringing on some subs, kind of opened it up a little bit.”

After 85 minutes of yet again trying to solve Seattle’s stingy defense, LAFC finally unlocked them in the 86th minute. LAFC looked for its chance, Mar Delgado played a ball to Tyler Boyd on the right side, Boyd crossed into the penalty area, Tillman snuck past Kalani Kossa-Rienzi and one-timed a ball that beat keeper Andrew Thomas near post to give LAFC the lead, and they eventually ran out the clock for the three points.

“I think it’s just important that arrive late in the box, to have numbers in general, arriving in the box just to make a higher chance of scoring a goal,” Tillman said of the goal.

While the match was scoreless for a long time, both side did have some good scoring chances. Seattle had the game’s first real look in the 30th minute, as Hassani Dotson sent a ball forward, Jordan Morris timed his run to get behind the LAFC defense and chase the ball into the penalty area, LAFC keeper Thomas Hasal left his line, Morris quickly took the left-footed shot, but Hasal made his himself big enough and stopped the shot with his legs, and Ryan Porteous cleared the ball out of the penalty area. LAFC’s best chance in the first half came in the 37th minute, as Porteous sent a ball into the penalty area, Son-Heung Min timed his run perfectly to get behind the Sounders defense and redirected a ball off is left foot, but the ball missed the back post.

“For us, especially at this part of the season, or after a couple of game that haven’t gone our way, I think it was important for us to be able to work on some things to prepare well for Seattle.”

It wasn’t until late in the second half that both side finally started to solve each other defensively. Seattle came awfully close to a goal in the 76th minute, as Cristian Roldan sprung Morris down the right side, Morris dribbled past Ryan Hollingshead into the penalty area, played a ball inside the six and Danny Musovski redirected a ball towards goal, only to see the ball bounce off the crossbar. LAFC followed up that close call with a chance of its own in the 77th minute, as Delgado pounced on a poorly played ball from Jackson Ragen, Delgado passed for Son, Ragen briefly broke up the play, but David Martinez recovered the loose ball for LAFC, passed back to Delgado, who then passed to Son, and Son touched into the penalty area and took a shot right at goal, but Thomas made himself big, stretching out his right hand and managed to parry the ball over the end line.