CARSON, Calif. – LA Galaxy coaches and players insist there will be no fallout from Wednesday’s 7-0 debacle at the hands of Manchester United at the Rose Bowl. They are adamant they have moved on from that shellacking and are ready to proceed with the second half of the MLS season.
They’ll find out Monday if they can back up such talk. The Galaxy (7-4-6, 27 points) take on none other than the high-flying Seattle Sounders (12-4-2, 38 points) at CenturyLink Field (7 p.m., ESPN2).
“I think everyone’s excited for Monday,” Landon Donovan said.
Emotions were similar last Wednesday when they faced English Premier League powerhouse Manchester United, which was bringing in a new coach (Louis Van Gaal) and a number of new players. The end result was forgettable, to say the least.
And meaningless, the Galaxy’s Robbie Keane insisted.
“As far as I’m concerned it’s gone anyway,” he told reporters after training this week. “It’s no reflection of how we’ve been doing and the hope is that the players forget about it.
“After all, what’s the point? We didn’t win anything, we didn’t lose anything. We lost the game, but we couldn’t get any points from it so in that respect it didn’t really matter.”
Said head coach Bruce Arena, “We don’t really worry about these exhibitions on the positive or negative side. The game is to entertain people, not to decide how good you are or how bad you are.”
The Galaxy, who are expected to welcome back central defender Omar Gonzalez from a sprained right ankle on Monday, will be taking on a Seattle side that is six points clear of Real Salt Lake in the Western Conference and three ahead of the East’s Sporting Kansas City in the race for the best overall record.
The Sounders are led by the dynamic Clint Dempsey, who has nine goals, and Obafemi Martins and Gonzalo Pineda, each of whom have six assists. Stefan Frei is a solid presence in goal, where he has six shutouts and a 1.33 goals-against average.
The Sounders also haven’t lost at home since a 2-1 defeat to Columbus on March 29 and have won six in a row at CenturyLink Field, including a 2-0 win over Portland on July 13 in front of a crowd of 64,207.
The Galaxy haven’t won in Seattle since a 1-0 victory in 2011, but Donovan is confident he and his teammates can respond to the challenge.
“We’re certainly not proud of what happened (Wednesday),” he said, “but it’s gone and it has to be that way. We think we understand very clearly what happened and why, and the game in Seattle is going to look a lot different.”
