CARSON, Calif. – Coming into Saturday’s game, it didn’t seem very likely that Omar Gonzalez would be the architect of the LA Galaxy’s success against Sporting Kansas City.
But after playing 90 minutes on Wednesday in the US national team’s 2-0 friendly win over Mexico in San Antonio, Gonzalez came off the bench late for the LA Galaxy on Saturday and scored an unlikely winner at the end of second-half stoppage time to give his team a last-gasp 2-1 win over Sporting Kansas City at StubHub Center.
All in all, not a bad week for LA’s star defender.
“It feels good, to come in 15 minutes, score a goal, can’t ask for more than that from a sub,” Gonzalez told reporters. “And I’m just extremely happy because these guys worked their butts off tonight. It was a battle.”
The winning goal, which came off a corner kick sent in by Juninho in the 94th minute, was a play in which Gonzalez joked, “[I] closed my eyes, stuck my leg out and [it] ended up going in.”
He then clarified: “I just wanted to get it on frame, and I really did just stick my leg out.”
Given the midweek exertions of Gonzalez and teammate Gyasi Zardes, who also played the full game for the USMNT against Mexico, LA head coach Bruce Arena’s plan heading into Saturday’s game was to bring the pair off the bench. While Arena noted that Zardes was likely to get about 25 minutes against Sporting, “[With] Omar, we were going to hold, thinking that we may use him at the end of the game.”
And in the end, the Galaxy managed to not only keep Kansas City from grabbing a winner, but they got the go-ahead goal themselves, something Arena believed his side merited.
“When you play hard and you hang in there, sometimes you know you get a little bit lucky, and the ball bounces your way. We’ve been on the short end of those a few times, so I think these things balance out.”
For Gonzalez, the objective now is to follow up his three-win week with another strong showing against the New York Red Bulls next Sunday (5 pm ET, ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes).
“I think [our momentum] carried on from Seattle. A good win against Seattle, a great win against Mexico and now to this, where we win it in stoppage time. It just feels really good. It’s been a great week for me personally, for the guys, and now we look to go to New York and keep the momentum going.”
