Exiled Scotland man sees impressive record blown apart as bizarre own goal crowns calamitous night
Scotland international suffers a difficult night in title clash.
Scotland international Ryan Porteous scored a bizarre own goal as his Los Angeles FC side suffered a damaging 4-1 defeat to MLS Western Conference title rivals San Jose Earthquakes at the BMO Stadium.
In their first home defeat of the campaign, LAFC went into the game in third place and just two points behind San Jose. However, they were undone during a chaotic eight-minute period at the start of the second half, with ex-Hibs man Porteous at the centre of the action.
Yet to concede a goal at home this season, the hosts lost their impressive clean sheet record in the 53rd minute when Beau Leroux intercepted on the halfway line to allow Timo Werner to break, and his cross was blasted home from a tight angle by Ousseni Bouda to fire San Diego into the lead.
The visitors doubled their lead just three minutes later when a heavy touch from Porteous allowed Werner to burst clean through on goal, and the German international made no mistake, placing past Hugo Lloris to put his side into a commanding lead just 11 minutes after the restart, with Porteous booked for a foul shortly afterwards.
Porteous’ calamitous night was sealed just two minutes later when he inexplicably tapped home Jamar Ricketts’ cross beyond his own goalkeeper under no pressure. This put Bruce Arena’s side, who brought on former Dundee United midfielder Ian Harkes from the bench, into a 3-0 lead before the hour mark.
Los Angeles reduced the deficit on 74 minutes when San Jose scored an own goal themselves as Reid Roberts deflected home Mathieu Choiniere’s cross into his own net. However, another error from Porteous saw the home side's hope of getting back into the game evaporate with just ten minutes to play.
Losing a 50/50 ball with Jack Skahan deep into his own half, the 27-year-old was left flat-footed as San Jose completed the scoring on 80 minutes, with Bouda grabbing his second of the game as the visitors broke on the hosts again.
“It was our worst game this season defensively,” blasted head coach Marc Dos Santos after the game. “When we pressed, we were disjointed. We were not close to each other. We were very static as a team. I've been here a lot of times praising us, but today it wasn't good. I felt that San Jose was fresher than us."
The result leaves Los Angeles in third place in the MLS Western Conference on 16 points. They trailed second placed San Jose, and league leaders Vancouver Whitecaps, by five points after back-to-back league defeats.
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