CARSON — If the Galaxy discovered their path to survival before Major League Soccer’s World Cup break, they appear to have lost it since the season resumed.
After coming out of the league’s seven-week pause with a 3-0 loss to rival LAFC on Friday, the Galaxy’s struggles continued Wednesday night with a 3-1 defeat against visiting St. Louis CITY SC in front of 17,322 at Dignity Health Sports Park.
St. Louis scored twice in the first half and the Galaxy (5-7-5, 20 points) made their situation even more difficult when Emiro Garces picked up his second yellow card of the match, leaving the Galaxy a player short for more than 40 minutes.
St. Louis (6-6-4, 22 points) opened the scoring in the 42nd minute on Lucas McNaughton’s header off a free kick. The second goal came early in stoppage time when Marcel Hartel scored. St. Louis’ build-up began after Marco Reus appeared to have been fouled at midfield, losing possession of the ball. However, after a brief review, the goal stood, sending the Galaxy to the halftime locker room in a 2-0 hole.
Garces picked up his first yellow card in the aftermath of the goal and then early in the second half, he was sent off after receiving the second.
Reus was eventually subbed off in the 59th minute and walked gingerly back to the locker room.
St. Louis put the game away in the 69th minute when Simon Becher split a pair of Galaxy defenders and chipped the ball over Galaxy goalkeeper JT Marcinkowski for a 3-0 lead.
Galaxy midfielder Troy Elgersma snapped the shutout, when the Redlands native scored in the 86th minute for his first MLS goal.
Help is on the way for the Galaxy attack with Tuesday’s acquisition of forward Kyōgo Furuhashi, who is signed to a contract through 2030-31. He has yet to arrive as he awaits his visa. Until then, the Galaxy have to keep things simple, something Coach Greg Vanney alluded to after the loss to LAFC.
However, the message must have gotten lost.
“I said to the guys, we do have to be very stingy defensively,” Vanney said after the LAFC game. “Which I felt like we were doing a better job of … at the end of the first half of the season, I thought we were very stingy defensively.
“We were pragmatic when we needed to be. We were doing a good job, so again, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing or when you’re playing, if you give up soft goals, it makes the game really difficult. It doesn’t even matter who’s on the field, it just means that you’re making the game difficult for you. So, we as a group and the guys that are out there need to keep building toward the identity of who we are, where we’re going, being stingy on the defensive side and as guys get fit that are here, they’ll step into roles that hopefully can continue to make a difference. But we don’t have time to wait for anything, we just have to keep pushing forward.”
The Galaxy head to San Jose on Saturday night for another edition of the California Clasico against the Earthquakes, the final stop in a stretch of three games in nine days.