View from the Blues, Volume 13: On the Road Again and on the Lam

Charlie Naimo's Los Angeles Blues are a snake-bitten bunch. While they have done their part winning their share of road matches, twice they have been unable to take back Titan Stadium, their traditional home grounds.

It's a sad situation, and it's only compounded by the cruel reality that they will be in a division with American sides. Apparently Puerto Rico's three teams got kicked out of the competition due to financial difficulties.

Of course, it does not help matters when you have a club called the Islanders hogging the spotlight, but that's a different story. The Blues now compete in the National Division of USL PRO.

Aside from that, the Blues were left to rue another underachieving effort at Titan, losing to the Charlotte Eagles 2-1. Compounding matters even more was Erlys Garcia's ejection in the first half, which effectively put the match out of reach for LA.

“I’m not one to blame the officiating, but I think it influenced the match a bit this time,” Naimo told LABluesProSoccer.com's Gunnar Berndt. “First of all, I’m not sure a straight red card was warranted, considering it was Erlys’s first foul and he got some of the ball on the tackle. Then we were shown three yellow cards in the game and Charlotte only got one, even though they had ten fouls more than us. I’m not saying we didn’t deserve any of the yellows we got, but it seemed like there was an imbalance there."

“Our only option is to bounce back from it in the next game,” striker Walter Gaitan said. “I certainly know what I saw from my angle, but I don’t want to comment on it because we can’t change it now. Leonard obviously knows what happened, and I think we all know what happened.”

During the break, we told each other to keep our heads up and stay positive,” defender Leonard Griffin added. “We knew that if we worked hard enough, we could fight our way back into the game. The feeling in the locker room was that we could compete with Charlotte despite the man disadvantage, and that turned out to be true. I thought we were very unlucky to come up empty-handed."

“At home, we haven’t really shown that we can be a dominant team,” Naimo concluded. “Maybe the guys are a little more focused on the road because we get to control their days and automatically have their attention, and perhaps the other reason is that they spend so much time together and grow into a tighter unit. It needs to be the same at home, because our fans deserve to see us winning.”

There was a possibility that this would set the background for a difficult weekend on the road, starting with a Friday match against the Dayton Dutch Lions. Indeed it did, as the Blues settled for their second straight draw on the road, and their second straight road draw that ended 1-1.

Jhonathan Bravo scored in the sixth minute for Los Angeles, but could not hold on to the lead, after Kolby Lacrone equalized in the 60th minute of play.

“We scored on a corner kick that was crossed in from the right,” Blues forward Tomislav Colic told labluesprosoccer.com's Gunnar Berndt. “Their defense tried to clear the ball, but we challenged hard and got it to fall to us at the top of the box. Jhonatan Bravo had a perfect touch and hit a nice shot into the upper ninety to the ‘keepers left. It was beautifully placed and absolutely unstoppable.”

“I feel like we’re getting punished for the little mistakes we’re making,” defender Cameron Dunn added. “The soccer gods really aren’t handing us any favors right now, but it’s key that we stay positive as a group. We’ll talk the last game over and make the proper adjustments before our match at Pittsburgh. I’m sure our time will come if we just keep believing in ourselves.”

Sunday's contest with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds was a different story altogether, as they prevailed 3-0. Goals from Edwin Miranda in the 17th minute, and  Chukwudi Chijindu in the 29th and 90th minutes gave the Blues a comprehensive shutout victory.

With the victory, Los Angeles is 5-2-2 (17 points), good enough for first place in the USL PRO National Division.

The Blues will be back in action on June 24 when they face the Harrisburg City Islanders at Corona Centennial High School. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. PT/10:30 p.m. ET. Los Angeles takes on the City Islanders against at Cal State Fullerton on Sunday, June 26. Kickoff is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. PT/8:00 p.m. ET.