LA Galaxy II - 7 (yes, that's Seven), Las Vegas Lights FC - 2

I know this is a few days later than usual. But in my defense, when the choice is between (a) swim and barbecue over a memorial day weekend, or (b) re-live a 7-2 shellacking by writing about it, you can kind of understand the delay.

But, as much as I think we should all just pretend it didn't happen, it did, so here are my three takeaways.

1. Free Reign in the Penalty Box

In this game, the Lights actually took almost the same number of shots that the Galaxy did (14 to 16). But, there are shots, and then there are shots, if you take my meaning. The problem this weekend was not the amount of shots that the Lights allowed, it was the quality of shots they allowed.

The worst shots to give up (and the best shots to take), are shots off the foot in the area in immediately in front of the goal - in about a semi-circle area encompassing the six yard box out to the penalty spot. These are "high-percentage" shots, meaning if you're getting a shot off from there, there's a good chance it'll hit the back of the net (at least relative to shots from other area of the field.

If you want to sum up the problem this match, look no further than this map:

The black dots are LA Galaxy II touches, while the blue dots are Lights touches. As you can see, the Lights let the Galaxy get on the ball five times in this prime area. Four of those touches were goals. (The Lights only got two touches in that area on the other side, one of which was Diego's first goal).

If you want to keep the opposition out, you can't let them pick up the ball in that zone. But that's what they did.

2. Center Back Problem?

Neither of the two Lights center backs covered themselves in any glory this match.

Usually when a goal is conceded, there are mistakes made on multiple levels (someone misplays a ball here, someone gets a bad read there). But in this game, the straight truth is that on alot of the plays, there was one glaring error that made up 90% of the mistake.

For the first goal, the LA forward (Zubak, he'll come up again), cleverly peels off of the back of our center back Jaime, who completely loses him. There are no other players close to Jaime - his one job is to keep track of Zubak, and he doesn't, and that's the first goal.

For the second, there's a breakaway - but it's being managed alright. The man with the ball is being closed down, and the runner down the middle is being tracked by Huiqui. The ball is crossed on the ground, and Huiqui is in the right spot at the right time - and makes a complete mare of the clearance. Instead of putting his foot through it, he seems to misjudge it's path, it bounces around through his legs, and get put in.

I'm really not going to go through all of the goals, but I will point to the one in the 87th minute where, again, the LA forward finds himself completely alone in the six yard box. (I mean completely, there is no Lights defender within 5 yards.

Long story short, the center backs need to be aware of the opposing forwards, and in this game, for whatever reason, our defense repeatedly lost focus.

3. Under Pressure

Before I write this section, I want to be clear - I am not calling for the coach or technical director to be fired because of this result.

But even with the benefit of a few days removal from the disappointment of the game, it does not look good.

The team just lost 7-2.

The game before that, the team lost to an amateur club that is two divisions below our own.

The results for the last nine games in all competitions reads DLDDLWLLL. The solitary win came against an amateur club.

That is all very bad. In fact, in other leagues in other countries, any one of those things standing alone could cause the coach to lost their job.

Here, of course, the Las Vegas Lights aren't Real Madrid - so nobody expects them to win every game. In that way, the management can probably consider themselves fortunate that at the end of the day, we are talking about a lower division club in the fifth most popular sport in the country (with no relegation, I might add).

So, while I don't expect the owner to start chopping heads any time soon, I do expect there to be some major changes in the roster, tactics, and lineup. Even if it's unlikely that the coach will get sacked mid-season, he needs to start turning things around if he wants to be considered as the long-term man for the job.