This Round One of the MLS 2019 playoffs was just a sad night of missed opportunities for hosts Minnesota United. With a home-crowd advantage and a good possession for the first seventy minutes of the game, the Loons just couldn’t find the finish.
As for the visitors, yeah there’s of course Zlatan Ibrahimovic which the world loves to talk about, but with Christian Pavon, Sebastian Lletget, and las night especially Jonathan dos Santos, the LA Galaxy of players stands true to its name.
Photo Credit: Kelvin Kuo-USA TODAY Sports
Minnesota did have several opportunities to score an opener and take the lead, namely a far-post miss by Loons’ Angelo Rodriguez (56’). Eventually, LA were the ones that took matters into their own hands with Sebastian Lletget scoring the first goal of the match off a deflected shot that Imbrahimovic tried to take past Minnesota goalkeeper Vito Mannone (71’).
Jonathan dos Santos then doubled the Galaxy lead minutes later, with a curled ball from outside of the box, and into Minnesota’s goal (75’). Hosts’ Jan Gregus did manage to throw the Loons a lifeline with a late goal from the penalty arc (87’), but that wasn’t enough to give Minnesota a win in their first-ever playoff game.
LA Galaxy are going to face noisy neighbours from across town LAFC for the Conference semi-finals on Friday, October 25th.
