SANDY, Utah -- The LA Galaxy Reserves fell 1-0 to the Real Salt Lake Reserves on Sunday.
Brian Perk made his first start since undergoing sports hernia surgery on March 16 and put in a solid performance making six saves in the process. LA controlled the game early on, but Real Salt Lake quickly took control of the match and broke through in the 75th minute when midfielder Sebastian Velasquez beat Perk.
Chances were limited for the Galaxy, who struggled to generate offense providing little test for former Galaxy goalkeeper Josh Saunders, who was not called on to make a save. In the 75th minute, John Stertzer forced a turnover and found Velasquez alone on the 'keeper,who slotted it past Perk for the game's only goal.
"I thought our defensive shape was very good for the 75 minutes. We weren't very sharp with the ball in the first half, which forced to have to defend. I thought to start the second half, we were sharper, we kept the ball a little bit better and hit a wall physically towards the end of the game. We need to see the film to see if the goal was offside, but there were three breakaways in a short period of time so those kind of things can't happen," Assistant coach and Reserve League head coach Curt Onalfo told LA Galaxy Insider. "But fatigue played a big part of that, it's just our second reserve game on the road in altitude so that part we have to learn from. We got three academy players [Drew Murphy, Raul Mendiola and Nathan Smith] some valuable experience for them and we're bringing guys along like Gyasi [Zardes] and Kenney Walker back from injury. From that stand point, it's okay, obviously we're disappointed that we didn't get the result, but it's something that we can build on as we to our next reserve game"
LA return to Reserve League action on May 7 against USLPro side Los Angeles Blues at The Home Depot Center.
