We had two season debuts and one home debut in the three substitutions Bob Bradley made against RSL.
Javi Pérez and Niko Hämäläinen logged their first minutes in Black & Gold, while Adrien Perez got his first regular season minutes at Banc of California Stadium after coming in as a substitute last week at NYCFC. And all of them looked the part.
When you insert players like that, you hope the lessons of training have stuck and that they can get past the moment and just play. After the match, Hämäläinen said he thought he was playing it too safe initially and decided he needed to carry the ball more to put the RSL defense under pressure. That willingness to influence the match worked out well for LAFC because his dribble created the assist that won the match.
Javi Pérez's ability on the ball in deep areas gave LAFC another option to recycle play, switching the point of attack with RSL down to 10 men - he also gave Zimmerman the freedom to step up into the attack and we all know how that worked out. And Adrien Perez was industrious in his pressure of the backline as a substitute for Adama Diomande.
Javi Pérez and Niko Hämäläinen logged their first minutes in Black & Gold, while Adrien Perez got his first regular season minutes at Banc of California Stadium after coming in as a substitute last week at NYCFC. And all of them looked the part.
When you insert players like that, you hope the lessons of training have stuck and that they can get past the moment and just play. After the match, Hämäläinen said he thought he was playing it too safe initially and decided he needed to carry the ball more to put the RSL defense under pressure. That willingness to influence the match worked out well for LAFC because his dribble created the assist that won the match.
Javi Pérez's ability on the ball in deep areas gave LAFC another option to recycle play, switching the point of attack with RSL down to 10 men - he also gave Zimmerman the freedom to step up into the attack and we all know how that worked out. And Adrien Perez was industrious in his pressure of the backline as a substitute for Adama Diomande.
