A good outing for the Los Angeles Galaxy on a Friday night in Major League Soccer saw the home side beat the Montreal Impact by a 2-0 score line. Newcomers to the team, Romain Alessandrini and Jermaine Jones were the protagonists of this story while referee Armando Villarreal will have a lot of explaining to do to Montreal's head coach Mauro Biello as to why he sent off Marco Donadel.
The Galaxy start off strong
The first real chance of the game came in the 10th minute when a great pass by Giovanni dos Santos found Emmanuel Boateng at the byline and the midfielder then cut the ball back to an unmarked Jones in the six yard box. The former US international could not get enough accuracy on his shot and ended up sending the ball straight into goalkeeper Evan Bush's grateful hands.
The ease that the Galaxy were finding gaps in and around Montreal's defense eventually told as in the 15th minute, some good work by Boateng play found Alessandrini alone at the top of the box. The Frenchman then placed his shot towards goal and a slip by Bush allowed the ball to roll easily in and give LA the lead.
Montreal's attacks were limited by the number of times their attackers were caught offside as the Galaxy backline held their line but when they did manage to get some offense going, Clément Diop was on hand to make some good stops.
Things went from bad to worse for the Impact as the first half wore on. First the lost the services of defender Hassoun Camara to an injury in the 35th minute and in the 44th minute, after Jones went down clutching his face, the referee gave Donadel a straight red card for appearing to elbow Jones in the face. On watching multiple replays, it seems as though the referee got this one wrong and Donadel barely made any contact on Jones. Either way, the task became much harder for Montreal as they headed into the half-time break.
The second half is all about the Galaxy
Playing with an extra man on the field allowed the Galaxy to keep pushing Montreal back as they tried to find a second goal to seal the game. Alessandrini tested Bush early in the second half but the goalkeeper was in a good position to gather the ball well. Matteo Mancosu almost gave the Impact a glimmer of hope in the 53rd minute after latching onto Patrice Bernier's good through ball. Mancosu had the pace to beat the Galaxy defenders near him and took aim from a difficult angle only to watch his shot sail narrowly wide.
Apart from that, it was all one-way traffic as Dos Santos came close and Daniel Steres was saved the embarrassment of an own goal by Bush who got down quickly to stop the goal from Steres' deflection. It took the Galaxy until the 74th minute to find that second goal they had been pushing for. Gyasi Zardes broke quickly from midfield and found Jones who had been running alongside him on the counter. Jones then skipped by a last ditch tackle by a Montreal player before slotting the ball past Bush to give LA a 2-0 lead. It was nothing more than Jones had deserved after a sterling game for the home side tonight.