Leading 3-1 by halftime, Minnesota United conceded three goals after it in Wednesday night’s bewildering 4-3 loss at the L.A. Galaxy with playoff berths at stake.
L.A.’s 37-year-old Billy Sharp scored his team’s first three goals, which gives him six goals in six MLS games since he arrived from England in August.
He scored the game’s first goal in the 16th minute, then scored again in the 63rd and 71st minutes. He brought L.A. to within 3-2 with a flicked-on deflection with his foot, then tied it after Loons defender Michael Boxall tried to clear the ball out toward the sideline, but the ball bounced back off legs and right to Sharp for the hat trick.
Galaxy midfielder Diego Fagundez scored the winning goal in the 83nd minute with a sweeping one-touch, right-footed shot inside the 18-yard box.
The Loons played the second half without star midfielder Emanuel Reynoso, who was subbed out of the game at halftime.
They played the final 16-minutes plus without defender Ethan Bristow, who was called for two yellow cards and ejected after subbing into the game in the first half for injured Joseph Rosales.
Reynoso was subbed out of the game for veteran Ismael Tajouri-Shradi with that two-goal lead.
The Loons had countered Sharp’s 16th-minute goal and a 1-0 lead by scoring three times unanswered before halftime.
Striker Teemu Pukki scored his fourth MLS goal since arriving from England’s second division three minutes later to tie the score 1-1.
Already stopped at close range by L.A. keeper Jonathan Bond, Pukki scored with a rising one-touch volley blast that went just under the crossbar in the 19th minute.
Bongokuhle Hlongwane scored the first of his two goals after the Loons committed three successive yellow-card fouls — the first by center back Micky Tapias and the last a forearm by fellow center back Michael Boxall on Galaxy star Riqui Puig — that just kept them from playing a man down the rest of the game.
Instead, Hlongwane scored the go-ahead in the 41st minute on a 25-yard strike that deflected off former Loon Raheem Edwards and floated over Bond’s head into the open goal.
Hlongwane scored a second goal in the fifth minute of first-half stoppage time.
In that instance, Loons keeper Dayne St. Clair made two consecutive, startling close-range saves, then cleared the ball with a booming kick downfield. It quickly turned into a counterattack that ended with Pukki’s pass giving Hlongwane a gift of a tap-in goal.
Those were Hlongwane’s team-leading seventh and eighth goals in MLS play this season.
Boxall made his 200th MLS appearance Wednesday night.
Coach Adrian Heath adjusted his starting 11 by making three changes Wednesday from Saturday’s team that allowed a late goal in a bitter 1-0 home loss to Sporting Kansas City.
He put Tapias in after Tapias missed Saturday’s game because of a groin injury sustained in training two days earlier.
Heath also moved versatile Hassani Dotson up to a left-side attacking role alongside Reynoso in the middle and Hlongwane on the right side.
In doing so, Joseph Rosales returned to a left-back position and the recently acquired Bristow went back to the bench after he contributed to Sporting Kansas City’s 82nd minute goal Saturday.
Rosales didn’t last longer than 35 minutes, when Bristow subbed into the game for him after Rosales went down hard early in the game.
Rosales didn’t play last week because he didn’t rejoin training from his Honduras national team until that previous Friday. Heath decided he had missed too much in training, so he left him out of the lineup.
Defensive midfielder and captain Wil Trapp returned as well. He missed Saturday’s game because he been ill most of the week. He went back to his pairing alongside central midfielder Ján Greguš.
Those modifications put Sang Bin Jeong, Fragapane, Bristow, Ismael Tajouri-Shradi and Bakaye Dibassy to the bench as possible substitutes to start the game.
Pukki started up top at the striker spot again.
The Star Tribune did not send the writer of this article to the game. This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material.