Galaxy rout Santos Laguna to reach Leagues Cup quarterfinals

CARSON —  The Leagues Cup tournament is the best way for the Galaxy to save their disappointing season.

The champion, runner-up and third-place winner all qualify for next year’s CONCACAF Champions Cup. Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said during the week that “we look at the game as a big game in our season,” considering how poorly the first half of the season had gone.

Thanks to a late-night 4-0 rout of Santos Laguna at Dignity Health Sports Park, Thursday, the Galaxy remained alive in Leagues Cup, finishing third, booking a spot in the quarterfinals, which will be played Aug. 19-20. The top four teams in both the MLS and Liga MX standings qualified for the quarterfinals. The Galaxy will host Pachuca.

“What I encouraged them to do was get off to a good start, set the tone,” Vanney said following Thursday’s win. “There was one team out tonight, who was playing for something tonight and we wanted to see that in our energy, in our intentions.”

The game kicked off at 8:56 p.m., the latest start time for a Galaxy home game in its history. By kickoff, the only thing the Galaxy needed was a win by two or more goals to secure a quarterfinal spot.

It didn’t take long for the Galaxy’s first goal, thanks to Joseph Paintsil’s tidy finish inside the near post in the game’s first minute. The Galaxy continued to create numerous chances after that, but failed to increase their lead until the 39th minute.

Mauricio Cuevas, who assisted on the opening goal, put another low cross into the front of goal and this time Matheus Nascimento was on the other end for the tap-in for the desired two-goal lead. After that, things began to unravel for Santos Laguna. First, Choco Lozano picked up a second yellow card and was ejected. Moments later, the Galaxy made it 3-0 on Maya Yoshida’s goal, taking full control of the night.

“I think maybe the best first half we’ve had all season,” Vanney said. “It was just a couple of final touches away from probably being four or more in the first half, that’s good some of the attacking was …the chance creation, the movement, the running, I thought it was all excellent. Getting the goal on our first possession set tone for the night and gave us a lot of confidence.”

Then, as the final whistle blew to end the first half, Santos’ Ramiro Sordo picked up a red card, giving the Galaxy a two-man advantage for the rest of the night.

The second half resembled a passing and possession exercise for the Galaxy, with the two-man advantage.

Nascimento capped the scoring in the 74th minute for the 4-0 lead.

The Galaxy won their opening game of the tournament, defeating Tijuana 5-2. They earned a point for a 1-1 draw against Cruz Azul, but lost the shootout, which would have put them on five points entering the final Phase One game.

The Galaxy will return to league play Sunday against the Seattle Sounders.

The opening game of the doubleheader saw Cruz Azul defeat the Colorado Rapids in penalty kicks.