STANFORD, Calif. – The LA Galaxy picked up a point on the road in another wild California Clasico match at Stanford Stadium on Saturday, but forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic said the team must correct the defensive woes that allowed the team to surrender a two-goal lead.
Ibrahimovic notched a brace, while Romain Alessandrini scored a beauty of his own for the Galaxy, but it was not enough as the San Jose Earthquakes rallied to earn a 3-3 draw. Twice Los Angeles conceded penalties that allowed the Earthquakes back into the game, and eventually gave the home team a share of the spoils.
Following the match, the Swedish striker said the squad’s team defense improve.
“Too many mistakes. It’s all about organization and the focus and the confidence, obviously. The team that does the most mistakes is often the team that loses the game," the Swede said. "And you see the mistakes we are doing, it’s simple mistakes. Basic things that should not happen. Things that, I don’t want to be too critical, but after many games, same mistakes.
“You need to be critical because when it’s bad, it’s bad. We need to look in the mirror and tell ourselves we are doing bad. And when it’s good, yeah, you give less compliments. But when you are doing simple mistakes like that, you should look back and not repeat the mistakes. But we are all human, and it can happen to everybody. But hopefully, we don’t repeat it as much as we are doing it for the moment.”
Head coach Sigi Schmid agreed that the team must tighten up.
“We’ve just got to make sure we’re better with the ball and don’t put our defense in jeopardy by turning the ball over at bad times,” he said.
