View from the Blues, Volume 10: More Island Hopping

Charlie Naimo's Los Angeles Blues continued their 2011 USL PRO season with the third of four straight road games in the Caribbean, a Wednesday night contest with Puerto Rico United.

According to a number of players, some holes needed to be fixed after their 2-1 win over Antigua Barracuda FC.

“Antigua came out flying and we came out really flat, which may have had something to do with it being our second game in such a short time while it was the season opener for them,” Blues left back Mike Randolph told LABlueProSoccer.com's GUnnar Berndt.

“No matter what the reason was, we didn’t play well. We were very lazy and they got a quick goal as a result. After they scored, they kind of sat back and that made it tough for us to play good soccer.”

“Their goal came as a result of a bit of a defensive lapse on our part," added defender Leonard Griffin. "Their forward did well to finish, but we also made it possible by getting caught on a through ball.”

“We came out and played extremely sloppy, but then we started the second half with a major push for possession,” Naimo said.

“Walter Gaitán was a big part of the win, not just because he scored two goals. We started him at forward, but when it wasn’t going well in the first half, he just took it upon himself to drop into the midfield, get a lot of touches and that way dictate the tempo of the game. That helped us settle down and it transferred over into the second half.”

Once the Blues established solid possession, it was back to work at the office.

“The guys showed a lot of heart and character to fight and come back from a goal down, especially considering it was on the road,” said striker Chukwudi Chijindu. “It was difficult because Antigua always kept nine players behind the ball and tried to counter. But we stuck with our game plan, which was to be patient and find the seams to create opportunities.”

Josh TUdela, Erlys Garcia, Akeem Preistley and TOmislav Colic picked up injuries in the match with Sevilla FC but were available for Thursday's match.

“It will be important for us to get those four back into the lineup, so the next two days are about maintenance and getting everyone healthy,” Naimo said. “The guys worked extremely hard to come from behind and get a result against Antigua, but more travel and increasingly tired legs will make it even harder for us in Wednesday’s game.”

“I don’t know much about Puerto Rico United, but I’m sure it will be difficult given that it’s our third game of a long road trip and we now have targets on our backs because we’re 2-0 on the season,” Randolph added. “I hear their field is really hard artificial turf, but I also feel like we’re prepared for anything.

"We just need to work on our composure on the ball and our urgency to get open when a teammate has it. We failed to do that early in the Antigua game and it made it much harder on us.”

Cautious optimism was an intangible the players would bring with them.

“We know the field is artificial turf, which isn’t ideal for us, but it’s going to be the same for both teams,” Chijindu said. “We just have to try our best to adapt to it and do whatever it takes to get the win.”

Colic earned a brace in the 29th and 59th minutes as the Blues raced to a 3-0 lead near the hour mark en route to a 4-2 victory over Puerto Rico United.

“We’re very happy with the result, especially considering we’ve played three games in six days,” Tudela said on the win. “It’s pretty incredible to me that we were still able to pull off the win despite all the travel and tired legs. I thought we played very well as a team against Puerto Rico United. There were a couple of instances where we lost our composure, but that’s part of the game and we did a good job recovering from it.”

Mike Randolph added a goal in the 41st minute and Akeem Priestley, who was instrumental in the first Colic goal, scored in the 83rd minute to put the game out of reach.

Puerto Rico were down to 10 men after Hector Ramos, who scored a brace in the 66th and 78th minutes, was sent off in the 90th.

“We were disappointed about letting in those goals because we felt like we didn’t do enough to make Puerto Rico earn them,” Randolph said on the margin. “They came more or less from our defense not being focused and aggressive enough and could have been prevented if we had just kicked the ball out, double-teamed their player or simply not let the ball bounce.”

Naimo, however, saw a different reason for the comeback.

“We may have played our best soccer of the season early in the game,” Naimo told LABluesProSoccer's GUnnar Berndt. “We established great possession and made them chase the ball. But after our third goal, we didn’t really keep our foot on the gas mentally.

"The guys kept working hard, but we didn’t stick to our game plan. We kind of deserted our possession game and had too many players going forward. It seemed like everybody wanted to score.”

There were two things missing from the match for LA, two intangibles that would be necessary for their Saturday contest with River Plate Puerto Rico.

“We need to keep working on our discipline and our mental focus," Naimo said. "It’s a ninety-minute game, not a seventy-minute game. Overall I’m not disappointed at all tonight, but if I had to point out something negative, then I would say that there was no reason for us to make it a game. There was no reason to be sitting at three-nothing and let ourselves slip mentally.”

“We let in two sloppy goals that came from simple lapses in concentration,” said defender Cameron Dunn. “We were up in the game and then we took our foot off the pedal and got punished for it.

"We responded well by coming back and scoring the next goal, but we just can’t afford to do that against such quality opposition. We know we’re better than that and that we need to put together a full ninety minutes of consistent focus.”

Naimo appalauded the reaction to the second goal by Ramos.

“We quickly scored our fourth and they never really created another chance,” Naimo said of the second half. “They had a lot of shots on the stats sheet, but most of them were from far away and they didn’t really get in behind our backline. (Blues goalkeeper)

"Oscar Dautt rarely had to come up big today while their keeper was a lot busier. So I’m not going to complain about our performance too much. Instead, we should also acknowledge that Puerto Rico had some good players – especially (double goal scorer) Ramos, who was very tough for us to handle, very athletic and strong."

“We know River Plate Puerto Rico is a quality side, so we expect a good game,” Dunn added. “I feel that if we stick to our game plan and execute in the final third, we’ll put ourselves in a great position to be rewarded. It’s still early in the season, so getting quality scouting reports is not easy. We just have to come ready to battle, it’s as simple as that.”

Both teams played to a 1-1 draw. Cesar Rivera scored early in the first half for the Blues, who conceded the equalizer to River Plate's Eloy Matos in the 59th minute.

It was a wild affair, with the match ending in 10 vs. 9. Four yellow cards and three red cards were issued..

Next up for the Blues is a match with Antigua Barracuda FC at Titan Stadium in Fullerton, California. Kickoff is scheduled for Sunday, May 1 at 5:00 p.m. PT/8:00 p.m. ET.