Marco Reus only needed 28 minutes to notch his first two goal contributions for the LA Galaxy.
He was the difference-maker in a two-nil win against Atlanta United in front of a sold-out Dignity Health Sports Park.
Marco Reus inspired the LA Galaxy to a 2-0 win over Atlanta United on a record-breaking night of footy.
Reus’s goal and assist helped the Galaxy become the first team in MLS to achieve 400 regular season victories in front of a sold-out crowd of 25,174, simultaneously making the Galaxy the first team to have a total attendance of 10 million fans at home.
Before coming on, Reus noticed that the Galaxy struggled, “In the first half there were several chances 1v1 where we missed the last pass or the striker was not in position.”
Joseph Paintsil has been playing out of position since Dejan Joveljic’s injury and faced another challenging performance. He makes some good runs but just seems to mistime them and as a result is rarely found in spaces where he can make the most impact.
To be fair to him, Atlanta United put up an impressive defensive performance in the first half. They looked happy to sit back and did well to absorb the Galaxy’s pressure, comfortably negating the couple of chances LA did manage to find.
On the other end of the pitch, the Galaxy caught a couple of lucky breaks to not go into the half 2-0 down. Atlanta scored twice in the first half but the assistant’s flag came up to save the electric feeling buzzing around the stadium.
The buzzing and the fans seemed to get louder and more intense in the second half. Marco Reus’s warm up routine elicited cheers and applause as the anticipation for his debut threatened to swell over.
With the game still locked at 0-0 by the 60th minute and Atlanta continuing to sit back and wait, the conditions were ripe for the German legend to come on and set the game alight.
Despite only being 60-70% to full-fitness, Marco Reus looked like 100% class during his 30-minute appearance.
His first touch was a simple pass-back to birthday boy Jalen Neal. From there, each touch seemed more threatening than the last. His first line-breaking pass in LA found Gabriel Pec in the 65th minute, who lifted his shot just high-and-wide of Brad Guzan’s goal.
Not even a minute later Reus attacked Atlanta’s back line again, this time combining with Riqui Puig. The Spaniard’s shot caught Derrick Williams in the hands inside the box and the Galaxy were awarded a penalty in the 66th minute.
Joseph Paintsil stepped up to take it but Guzan guessed right and made a good save. That miss was the fourth of the year and means the LA Galaxy have missed more penalties than they’ve scored with a record of just three scored in seven shots from the spot. Greg Vanney was firm in asserting that this trend cannot continue and suggested that a certain German newcomer might be called up on the next occasion.
Despite failing to score, the energy remained positive as it became clear that with Reus’s influence there was something in this game for the Galaxy.
Marco Reus made sure that the Galaxy would get theirs by assisting Riqui Puig for the first goal of the game and his first contribution for the blue-white-and-gold (or the black-green-and-red when wearing the Retrograde kit).
Gabriel Pec showed some classy dribbling on the touchline before squeezing the ball through two defenders and into Reus. Marco took his time and took two touches away from pressure before playing in Puig, who’s first time shot curled into the top-right corner and sent the stadium into ecstasy as their favorite players combined for the first time and finally gave the Galaxy the breakthrough in the 76th minute.
Despite getting a debut assist Marco Reus seemed unsatisfied. In the 84th minute he rushed to quickly take a free-kick deep within his own half. After some great play from the rest of the team the ball eventually found its way back to Reus inside the box. His first time shot was saved but he was sure to finish on the rebound and put the Galaxy 2-0 up and the game to bed.
With that finish Marco Reus became the first player in Galaxy history to score and assist off of the bench on their league debut. That makes three records broken on top of the three points on the night for the LA Galaxy.
During the post-match presser Greg Vanney applauded a stronger defensive showing from his side, highlighting the performances from birthday boys Maya Yoshida and Jalen Neal.
As more players get healthy and the squad becomes as complete as it can be, the future for the LA Galaxy is exciting and seems to be in their hands.
They’ll hope to continue this positive momentum in the next match away at St. Louis City SC without Riqui Puig, who will have to stay home serving a suspension for yellow card accumulation. Losing Puig doesn’t seem so awful after watching the performance from tonight’s debutant.
Marco Reus has arrived, Los Angeles.
PHOTO: LA GALAXY
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