Tired Monarchs fall 3-1 to Los Dos in Carson

Playing their third match in 8 days, the Monarchs appeared toothless against a Los Dos side that they had soundly beaten 5-0 at home earlier this season in Zions Bank Stadium. Defensive miscues quickly put the Monarchs behind as Los Dos totally dominate early play and put 2 past Andrew Putna in the 19th minute and the 15th minute.

The Monarchs squad seemed unable to mount any kind of possession and easy could have finished the first half even further behind but the home side also struggled to connect in the final third.

The second half started much as the first with nearly total domination of play by LA Galaxy II as the Monarchs with Luis Arriaga replacing Jordan Pena continued without any ral possession in the final third and only a couple of long wild shots to their credit. Los Dos added a third goal in the 68th minutes and proceeded to calmly proceed to use simple possession to an effort to see out the match,

Substituting out Maikel Chang and Jack Blake for fresh legs in the form of Luis Palma and Damian German failed to spark any kind of positive momentum an it took a bit of magic by Justin Portillo to give any life to an obviously weary team. In the 88th minute Justin put a excellent whipped shot past Eric Lopez in the Galaxy goal to deny Los Dos the shutout with the only shot on goal by the Monarchs.

With only three points out of the last 5 matches the Monarchs continue to drop in the USL Championship Western Conference and seem destined to now simply fight for a playoff sport among the closely packed mid-table rather than a chance to host a first round match at home. With only a single home match against Portland Timbers 2 next Saturday before a three game road trip that will take them across the Western Conference from Tacoma to Edinburg before ending in Reno, the Monarch will need to turn things around quickly.

As a note for RSL fans, newly signed Douglas Martinez who is the Monarchs leading scorer did not make the trip to Carson which could mean he will make a MLS debut sooner rather than later.