Recap: Loons fall flat in 3-0 loss to Galaxy

Minnesota United hoped to leave their mark on the LA Galaxy’s last home game of the year, but ended up putting in one of their worst performances in a disappointing loss.

United was deployed in a 4-4-2 formation again as Kevin Molino, Francisco Calvo, and Michael Boxall returned from international duty. Manager Adrian Heath started the promising partnership of strikers Christian Ramirez and Abu Danladi.

Minnesota looked fairly up for it in the opening minutes, exposing opportunities through counter attacks. It was the Galaxy, however, who opened the scoring, with Romain Alessandrini perfectly aiming a low shot past Bobby Shuttleworth in the 11th minute.

The game continued on a downward spiral for the Loons when Jonathan dos Santos’ header hit the cross bar twice. The assistant referee did not initially rule it a goal, but a VAR review overruled the decision, making it 2-0.

United continued to sloppily defend for the rest of the half. The best attacking opportunity fell to Ethan Finlay after a beautiful solo run from Ibson, but the Duluth native sent his shot right at goalkeeper Clement Diop.

Heath made a full switch to a 4-2-3-1 at the break, exchanging Collen Warner for Collin Martin and Miguel Ibarra for Molino, with Finlay moving to the number 10 role. The Loons had some great attacking chances, especially a couple of dangerous crosses from fullback Jerome Thiesson, but solid defending from the Galaxy repeatedly denied Minnesota.

Johan Venegas came on for Finlay with a little more than ten minutes to go in a desperate attempt to make a comeback. The remainder of the game didn’t go to plan for United. Alessandrini scored his second of the game just before the whistle blew on a solo counter attack.

Minnesota’s last game of the year is again in California, away to the San Jose Earthquakes.