The Los Angeles Galaxy will try to rebound from a costly referee decision when they butt heads Monday with one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference in visiting CF Montreal.
The Galaxy (7-6-3, 24 points) fell 3-2 at Minnesota United after going down a man when Kevin Cabral was sent off in the 25th minute for making what appeared to be accidental contact with the head of Minnesota goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair.
A later red card to Douglas Costa means the Galaxy will be without two regularly used wide midfielders on Monday as both serve red-card suspensions.
LA nearly pulled off a late comeback, with Marky Deldago converting a penalty early in the second half and Dejan Joveljic scoring in second-half stoppage time.
Joveljic has now scored four of his five goals in LA’s last three regular-season games.
For Galaxy coach Greg Vanney, the game showed the difference between when his team is locked in and when it isn’t.
“We will not always perform perfectly,” Vanney said. “Some guys will make mistakes, but the level of intensity and the work and concentration on the details that we talk about during the week have to be present because we can be a very, very good team when we do that and we can be a very vulnerable team when we don’t, and that’s been too often.”
Montreal (9-6-2, 29 points) rarely has that problem. The club’s 2-1 win at Seattle on Wednesday lifted them to the top of the East standings heading into weekend play.
And they’ve gotten contributions from all over the roster while winning nine of their last 13 games. Most recently, Mason Toye scored both goals in his first start to lift Montreal to its fourth victory on the road.
Toye’s emergence after recovery from shoulder surgery comes at a good time with playmaker and leading scorer Djordje Mihailovic missing the last three games with an ankle injury.
“I’m really, really happy to be a part of this club,” Toye said Wednesday. “Just knowing that they still had confidence in me for when I made my return, that was great for me to continue to press and continue to work hard every day to try to get back as quick as possible.”
–Field Level Media