Coming off an away draw at Seattle last weekend felt like a victory for the Black and Gold, playing one of the top four teams in the conference. They remain at the top of the West for the time being, but the Galaxy are hot on their tail just two points away from tying LAFC on points from 22 to 24.
With the Galaxy losing to the New York Red Bulls, LAFC could have seen themselves a full three points ahead, but had to settle for the draw instead.
The first 15 minutes of the game were scrappy, with neither team able to get decent possession on the ball, leading to sporadic momentum shifts for both teams.
One of LAFC’s best chances on the night came from a Christian Ramirez attempt. Carlos Vela stayed dangerous for the Black and Gold the entire night, blistering past Chicago’s defense on multiple occasions. In the 18th minute, Vela scorched through the right wing, finding an open Christian Ramirez in the box ,who struck the ball straight to Chicago’s keeper from just a few yards away.
Perhaps their best chance of the entire night came in the 28th minute when on an LAFC corner kick, the ball nearly found itself in the back of the net on multiple occasions in the span of a few seconds, after attempts from Jordan Harvey and Christian Ramirez seemed to ricochet off of the goal line due to the massive amount of Chicago bodies in the box.
It was nearly all LAFC for the entirety of the first half. Amazingly, Chicago was able to get out of the half unscathed.
Neither team fared much better in the second half.
LAFC thought they broke the deadlock in the 53rd minute when a beautiful pass from Mark-Anthony Kaye found Steven Beitashour making a run in behind the defense, sliding the ball past the Chicago keeper before being called for an untimely offside.
Seconds later, Chicago almost found themselves on top, missing a chance similar to the Christian Ramirez chance from the first half and lifting the ball into the atmosphere.
LAFC’s last good chance came off of a Carlos Vela corner that nearly found the head of a leaping Walker Zimmerman, but the ball was slightly too high for him to put a good effort towards goal and the ball bounced non-threateningly off his head and out of play.
Though only collecting one point from the match, LAFC still played very attractive football in a match that at the very least could be considered entertaining simply from the amount of chances they were able to create. LAFC had a whopping 22 shots with five on target throughout the match The only thing missing from LAFC play however, was the finishing of the final product.
