Galaxy and San Diego FC forced to settle for 2-2 draw

CARSON — This late in the season and with as many teams as there are fighting for playoff positioning, a point can be viewed as a good night’s work.

After a hard 90 minutes, on the final stop of a three-game week, the Galaxy put in a heavy work rate and escaped with a 2-2 draw in front of 21,264 at Dignity Health Sports Park, Saturday.

“I think we would have liked to have gotten the six (points) out of the two home games, for sure,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “Looking at the results around the league, for me, when we got the last five-10 minutes of the game, I was, in my head is to make sure we take one (point) because that one point puts us four ahead of some, seven ahead of others …that’s a huge point.

“It means teams need two games to try to catch up to us and sometimes you have to just have to be mindful of the context of things and I thought it was as important for us to protect ourselves as it was to try to go for it at the end.”

The game ended a three-games-in-seven-days stretch that the Galaxy started horribly last Sunday with a 6-2 loss against St. Louis CITY SC. Wednesday, the Galaxy got back on track with a 2-0 win over the Portland Timbers.

The draw moves the Galaxy (10-11-10) to 40 points in the Western Conference and keeps the club in eighth place, one of the two play-in spots. The Galaxy are two points behind seventh place Seattle (42) and four points ahead of 10th-place Real Salt Lake, who they’ll meet in the final game of the regular season, Nov. 7.

The Galaxy had a late corner kick opportunity and a free kick, but neither struck fear into San Diego’s defensive shape. Reus had the final free kick from approximately 30 yards out that was fired wide.

In the short history between the two teams, San Diego has dominated the Galaxy, winning all three games before Saturday, with a 7-2 goals advantage.

San Diego entered the game on a seven-game winless streak, since defeating the Galaxy on Aug. 29 in San Diego. On Wednesday, San Diego drew with Houston 3-3.

The first half was wild to say the least.

João Klauss opened the scoring in the fourth minute. In the eighth minute, San Diego earned a penalty and Anders Dreyer converted to make it 1-1. Klauss again found the back of the net in the 12th minute, but video review showed Galaxy defender Emiro Garces was in an offside position, therefore nullifying the goal.

The Galaxy finally had their second goal in the 17th minute on Erik Thommy’s distance blast that settled inside the near post. However, the lead only lasted until the 39th minute when San Diego’s Gabriel Pirani scored off a deflected rebound to make it 2-2 heading into halftime.

“I thought we started quickly, we got so many chances early to me that it almost seemed like from sort of the middle of the first half to the end of the first half, when we were getting the ball, we were trying the big ball,” Vanney said. “And what that was doing is just giving them back the ball.

“I remember two instances specifically, I remember us hitting a ball that we didn’t need to hit and giving it back to them and then we went and defended for maybe five minutes, like for a long time and when you’re in your third game in six days, you don’t want to be in that (defending) posture) for this amount of time because you’re just expending energy, protecting yourself.”

In the end, Klauss’ disallowed goal proved to be the difference between a Galaxy win and draw. San Diego dominated possession throughout the night, but the Galaxy had more shots on target (9 to 5), but San Diego had a wide advantage in xG (expected goals (2.05 to .50).

San Diego goalkeeper Pablo Sisniega was credited with seven saves

The Galaxy will be back in action Sunday at BMO Stadium against LAFC, the first of their final three games in the regular season. After Sunday, the Galaxy will host Austin FC, Oct. 31 and then conclude the regular season, Nov. 7 at Real Salt Lake.

“Every single game is going to feel bigger,” Vanney said. “I would love to be able to say we’re safely in it (the playoffs), but I actually want our mentality to be that we are fighting for every moment because I thing you’re better off going into the playoffs with that mentality.

“For me, keeping tension in our body, feeling like every game is important, feeling like every game is important is OK, but we got to make sure that we’re taking points from these games.”

San Diego is in 12th place on 34 points and still has four games remaining this season: Oct. 24 home against Seattle, Oct. 28 at Vancouver, Oct. 31 at St. Louis CITY SC and Nov. 7 home against Sporting Kansas City.