5 takeaways from LAFC’s 5-3 comeback win at Montreal Impact

So, Los Angeles Football Club was down 3-1 at half … no big deal.

Montreal Impact’s Ignacio Piatti drilled in a hat trick in the first half … no big deal.

The LAFC offense and defense looked stagnant against an Impact team that came into the game with a minus-8 goal differential … no big deal.

Getting four unanswered goals in the second half led LAFC to a 5-3 come-from-behind win at Montreal Saturday, giving them a 2-0 mark in Canada this season.

So, on that note, here are five takeaways from a heart attack of a game:

Perhaps some work on penalties?

I know it isn’t as easy as you might think to connect on a penalty kick, but LAFC’s first two of the season leave a little to be desired. Marcos Ureña’s saved attempt was … well … bad. The second one that subsequently put LAFC up was taken by Carlos Vela – for some reason. Even that attempt was weak at best. Luckily, Evan Bush only got a slight hand on it and it still went in to put the Black-and-Gold up 4-3. All of that said, perhaps a little time practicing from the spot might not be a bad idea.

Still defensive struggles

Both Walker Zimmerman and Laurent Ciman are strong defenders, but the first half showed they are still not in sync. Both are going to be key components to the defensive line and both need to continue working together in order to start reading each other on the pitch. When that happens … watch out!

Road warriors

So, the road swing is finally over and LAFC came out of the trip winning four of their six matches … something many people didn’t think would happen. If they came into the home opener against Seattle with maybe one or two wins, by some metrics that would have been lucky. Instead, LAFC are 4-2-0 and in the top three of the Western Conference. Not a bad way to start the season!

Ureña will score

Yes, he missed the penalty and he won’t likely live that down for a while. But, with Vela, Diego Rossi, Omar Gaber and Latif Blessing immediately backing him up, it won’t be too long before the Costa Rican international will find the back of the net. I mean, really, with the explosiveness of this offense, it won’t be surprising to see nine starters record goals over the course of the season.

Comeback kids

Many of us were having minor coronaries over the course of the first 60 minutes of this game, but the Black-and-Gold managed three unanswered goals in the second half and an own-goal thanks to Jukka Raitala in the 57th minute led to the biggest win in the club’s history to this point. LAFC had to respond after Piatti drilled a hat trick in the first half and LAFC seemed out-of-sync on both sides of the ball. The message here … don’t ever count LAFC out of a game, regardless of how far behind they might be.

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