Galaxy tie Tigres in CONCACAF Champions Cup, hope Maya Yoshida’s injury isn’t serious
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Less than four months after winning their sixth MLS Cup, the Galaxy are off to the worst start in franchise history. And every time they appear to be rounding a corner, they wind up turning into oncoming traffic.
Consider Tuesday’s CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinal playoff with Mexican club Tigres UANL, which ended in a scoreless draw: Goalkeeper John McCarthy registered the team’s first clean sheet of the season, the offense was dangerous at times and the team didn’t back down when a frustrated Tigres got physical late in the game.
All in all, it should have been a good night.
But the team, already riddled with injuries, may have suffered another loss late in the first half when center back Maya Yoshida sat down on the field because of an injury to his left hamstring.
Anders Dreyer scores twice for San Diego FC in the expansion team’s MLS debut in a 2-0 victory over the defending champion Galaxy.
Yoshida was limping noticeably as he left the stadium a couple of hours later. He is scheduled to have an MRI to determine the severity of the injury, and coach Greg Vanney is hopeful his captain’s decision to take himself out of the game early limited the damage.
“He started to feel like he was getting tight. And so he sat down as a pro instead of trying to push it,” Vanney said. “Nothing significant. We’ll kind of assess and see what that looks like. I think he escaped anything bad.”
Yoshida led MLS in minutes played last season. If he misses more than the final 60 minutes of Tuesday’s game, he will become the 10th starter from last season’s championship team to be unavailable for multiple games because of injury or a trade.
And that spoiled what was arguably the Galaxy’s best performance in a season in which they have won just once in nine games in MLS and Champions Cup play.
After losing to San Diego FC, an MLS expansion team, in their season opener, the Galaxy know successfully defending their MLS Cup title will not be easy.
“Being able to get the shutout is important. Not giving up the away goal is huge in these things,” Vanney said. “It’s a good result. Also us playing clean for 90 minutes is important.”
The second leg of the two-game quarterfinal playoff will be played Tuesday in Monterrey, Mexico. With away goals serving as a tiebreaker, the Galaxy could advance to the semifinals with a draw. The Galaxy haven’t gone beyond the quarterfinal round of a CONCACAF tournament since 2012.
