Bob Bradley always provides an honest assessment of his team’s performance. And given LAFC’s success out of the gate, it’s usually been done with glowing terms.
Not on Saturday.
Bradley ripped into his team following a 2-0 El Trafico defeat to the LA Galaxy at the Banc of California Stadium.
“We were terrible,” Bradley said in his blunt opening statement. “I take responsibility because we didn’t look like ourselves, we never found any rhythm. The game had no tempo, we weren’t dangerous and we just looked like we were second best throughout the day.
“Throughout our history we’ve always had a way to push games, play a certain kind of football and today we didn’t come close. We had so few guys who played in the way they normally play.”
Bradley lamented another goal conceded by LAFC on a set piece — Ethan Zubak’s opener following a corner taken shortly. But his disappointment wasn’t limited to that first goal.
“In all ways we were poor,” Bradley said. “That’s a difficult thing to say in a big game.”
Bradley pulled no punches when it came to an individual assessment of star Carlos Vela, who left the match early in the second half with what Bradley thinks could be an MCL injury.
“Carlos didn’t play well at all today. He wasn’t active, he wasn’t dangerous,” Bradley said. “He looked like somebody who hasn’t played a game in a long time.”
Bradley said his team knew the Galaxy would be looking to avenge a 6-2 defeat at the MLS is Back Tournament in which Guillermo Barros Schelotto said his team gave up in the second half. And LAFC, he said, were excited to step back on the field, to be back home, even if their passionate support was absent.
The 3252 weren’t the only thing missing on the day, according to Tristan Blackmon.
“We didn’t show up,” the fullback said. “it’s a derby match and we just didn’t show up, we didn’t win second balls, we didn’t get into the attacking third enough with clear cut chances and we gave up two goals … We should have done better.”
It’s fair to say training ahead of LAFC’s next game against Real Salt Lake Wednesday (9:30 pm ET | MLS LIVE on ESPN+, on DAZN in Canada) at Rio Tinto Stadium will be very interesting.
“We’re going to find a way to push ourselves out of it,” Bradley promised. “We’ve been a good team, a team that has played at a high level and a day like today is not acceptable for any of us.”
