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CHESTER, Pa. –The Philadelphia Union failed to deal with the second-half adjustments made by the LA Galaxy and fell 3-1 to the Western Conference side Saturday night at Talen Energy Stadium.
The Union went into halftime up a goal, but they were unable to contain the Galaxy attack once LA manager Sigi Schmid inserted Romain Alessandrini into the lineup to start the second half.
Alessandrini assisted the second and third goals netted by the visitors, while Zlatan Ibrahimovic added a goal and an assist.
“We decided to go more offensively on both flanks,” Galaxy manager Sigi Schmid said. “We’d been playing a 3-5-2 over the last month or so. It’s been a little bit of an unbalanced one. We decided to go with a very attacking way on the outside with (Chris) Pontius and Romain. Romain did a great job not only offensively for us but he also helped us out defensively and he had some key moments, so I was very, very pleased with Romain, his attitude, his professionalism coming off the bench.”
Although Schmid credited much of the second-half success to Alessandrini, Union manager Jim Curtin believed it was more of his team’s fault by committing mistakes, instead of the Frenchman making an impact that changed the contest.
“I don’t think Alessandrini changed the game a ton for them, but we kind of let ourselves down,” Curtin said. “A silly restart, giving up a goal on a corner kick. I think we have a lot to look at ourselves, not as much what they did. Their formation stayed the same, their personnel changed and that’s a good personnel change to make after we had some success on (Tomas) Hilliard-Arce in the first half. We really targeted him and went at him. They subbed him off. Fafa (Picault) did a good job (in the first half) and then we weren’t able to have enough joy on the ball in the second half.”
Like they usually do inside Talen Energy Stadium, the Union controlled the possession battle and number of chances in the first half.
With his third shot on target, C.J. Sapong opened the scoring in the 29th minute, as he re-directed Borek Dockal’s pass off the body of Galaxy goalkeeper David Bingham into the back of the net.
The goal was the first since April 28 for Sapong, who equaled his shots on goal total from the last 10 games in 45 minutes on Saturday.
“There’s relief in that moment, but there was still a game to be played,” Sapong said. “Obviously as the game went on, realized we needed another one. That was my next focus.”
Four minutes after the halftime break, the Galaxy equalized through a brilliant move energized by Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The Swedish superstar drew attention from three defenders and struck a ball through the back line to pick out a surging Ola Kamara, who coolly finished past Andre Blake.
Although Blake kept the game tied with a few key saves, including a 58th-minute diving effort on Romain Alessandrini’s free kick, the Galaxy tortured the Union defense in the second half.
Alessandrini, who came on for Tomas Hilliard-Arce at halftime, set up Ibrahimovic for a go-ahead goal in the 63rd minute. The Frenchman blew past Ray Gaddis and left a nice pass for the Swede to power home from the left side of the box.
Saturday marked the first time Ibrahimovic recorded a goal and an assist in a single game since joining the Galaxy in March.
Galaxy defender Michael Ciani added a third Galaxy goal in the 83rd minute, as his head connected with Alessandrini’s corner and finished off the contest.
With the win, the Galaxy eclipsed the 30-point mark and remained sixth in the Western Conference standings, while the Union are stuck on 24 points and remain beneath the playoff cut line in the Eastern Conference.
“It’s not the end of the world,” Curtin said. “We have to learn from it. We have to pick ourselves up and still know we are a team that does well, especially from ahead and brings us into the things we do well, which is getting in behind teams and creating chances and defending as an 11.”