Juan Agudelo scored late and nearly nabbed an improbable equalizer, but Steven Gerrard's stoppage-time strike ended a furious second-half comeback effort from the New England Revolution and secured a 4-2 win for the L.A. Galaxy on Sunday at the StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.
After Robbie Keane scored twice (13th and 45+1 minutes) and Giovani do Santos (24th minute) built a three-goal lead for Los Angeles at halftime, Agudelo followed up Kelyn Rowe's 67th-minute goal with an acrobatic effort in the 70th minute to pull the Revolution within one. In the 83rd minute, Agudelo came within inches of putting the match on level terms when he headed a shot off the bar.
The close call didn't deter the Revolution, who stretched the Galaxy defense in the final 10 minutes in search of a third goal before Gerrard settled matters in stoppage time when he coolly evaded Je-Vaughn Watson and buried the insurance goal in the 90+3 minute.
New England was forced to finish the match shorthanded after center back Jose Goncalves exited the match in the 77th minute with an injury, which came after coach Jay Heaps had already used all three of his substitutes.
With the loss, the Revolution fall to 1-3-7 (9 points), their worst start in club history. The win allowed the 5-1-3 (18 points) Galaxy to stretch their league-best unbeaten streak to seven (4-0-3).
Quick analysis: Talk about a tale of two halves. After falling into a three-goal canyon at halftime, the Revolution managed to climb their way up and nearly get back on level terms with the Galaxy after Bruce Arena curiously took Keane out of the match in the 60th minute. Heaps made a head-scratching sub of his own when he subbed off Lee Nguyen at the same juncture. With each team's best player off the pitch, the game became a free-for-all, and the Revolution came back to life on the back of Rowe's and Agudelo's goals. The guests continued to press for the equalizer until Gerrard's stoppage-time effort, which put an end to any hope of getting an improbable road result. While the spirited comeback was impressive, Sunday's match showed that the Revolution continue to struggle on defending crosses, and keep allowing opportunities in front of goal to fall by the wayside. Unless these issues are corrected, the one-win Revolution will only find it all the more difficult to right the ship on a season that's starting to slip away from them.
Stat of the match: Sunday's match was the first time the Revolution conceded three goals before halftime since a 4-1 loss at New York on July 11, 2015.
L.A. unkind to the locals: With Sunday's loss, the Revolution have dropped their last three at the StubHub Center, including the 2014 MLS Cup final. Their last road win at L.A. came in March 2012.
Two tweaks to the XI: Heaps made two changes to the lineup after last week's draw to Orlando City, with London Woodberry stationed at left back and Agudelo getting the nod up top. Woodberry's first start of the season on the left comes after Donnie Smith injured his right hamstring in the waning minutes of the draw to Orlando while Agudelo's return to health gave him the edge over rookie Femi Hollinger-Janzen.
Larentowicz, Lletget face familiar outfit: Sebastian Lletget, whose discovery rights were once held by the Revolution, got his first opportunity face the side that sent him to the West Coast nearly a year to the date after the trade. On May 6, 2015, Lletget's MLS rights were acquired by the Galaxy from the Revolution for allocation money. He has scored seven goals and added four assists in 27 games for L.A. Meanwhile, Jeff Larentowicz, who played in New England from 2005-2009, played against his former team for the first time in a Galaxy uniform after playing the past three seasons in Chicago.
Back home to face the Fire: The Revolution return to action on Saturday at Gillette Stadium, where they'll meet the Chicago Fire for the first time in 2016. Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. Last year, the conference foes split the regular season series 1-1-1.