Galaxy’s playoff outlook suffers setback in draw with Seattle
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The Galaxy have been hanging on the edge of the MLS playoff chase for most of the summer, losing as often as they’ve won the past four weeks.
They were less than 10 minutes from taking a big step forward Saturday but couldn’t close out, with a late goal from Paul Arriola giving the Seattle Sounders a 1-1 tie, robbing the Galaxy of a precious two points with eight games remaining.
The top nine teams in the conference advance to the postseason, and with the draw, the Galaxy (7-10-9, 30 points) are 10th in the Western Conference, trailing San Diego, which plays Sunday, on a tiebreaker. And now both time and opportunity are running out for the Galaxy since San Diego, the team directly ahead of them, and Real Salt Lake, the team behind them, have two games in hand.
The Galaxy has undergone a roster overhaul this summer aimed at making the team more competitive ahead of a late-season playoff push.
The Galaxy got the only score of the first half on Marco Reus’ penalty kick in the 44th minute. The score, Reus’ sixth of the season and third from the penalty spot, was set up when Seattle’s Paul Rothrock fouled the Galaxy’s Hirving Lozano in the box.
It was a good omen, too, since the Galaxy haven’t lost when they’ve scored first or when they’ve led at halftime.
And they didn’t lose Saturday — but they didn’t win either, with Arriola getting the equalizer two minutes after coming on for former Galaxy striker Dejan Joveljic. The sequence started with Seattle’s Peter Kingston, another second-half substitute, weaving through traffic on a long run up the right wing. He then pushed the ball forward for Jordan Morris, who collected the pass to the right of the six-yard box and pushed it across the front of the goal to Arriola, who was waving frantically as he ran alone into the penalty area. From there he had an easy tip-in.
The draw was the fourth in as many games for Seattle (7-9-7, 28 points), which is winless in its past 12 since May 13.
Morris appeared to have scored earlier in the half, getting loose on a breakaway before chipping the ball over Galaxy keeper JT Marcinkowski. But Morris was narrowly offside on the play, negating the goal.
Marcinkowski finished with seven saves.
