CARSON, Calif. – The New England Revolution have been a thorn in the LA Galaxy’s side as of late and now in the midst of a seven-game unbeaten run, the Galaxy are looking to return to winning ways against the Eastern Conference side.
Since 2010, the LA Galaxy are 2-5-0 against the Revolution having conceded 11 goals while scoring just four. Although the Revs have been successful against LA in recent years, they find themselves in the middle of a midseason slide with 7-8-2 record with losses in their last five contests.
The Revolution’s visit to StubHub Center on Wednesday (7:30 p.m., Time Warner Cable SportsNet, Time Warner Cable Deportes), will be a reunion of sorts for Galaxy goalkeeper coach Matt Reis who spent a decade with the Revolution from 2003 to 2013. During that time, Reis was a teammate and player for current Revolution head coach Jay Heaps, who took the reins in 2011.
“The last couple of years, they’ve done a good job in bringing in a lot of young talent into New England,” said Reis. “They’ve got a good young team that was hot for a little while and now they’ve cooled off. They’re going to come out firing and with a lot to prove,” said Reis. “They have a lot of dynamic attacking talent and a lot of interchange.”
It was during Reis’ final years with the Revolution that Heaps began to transition the venerable side that reached three MLS Cup finals from 2005 to 2007 into a young energetic team led by the dynamic attacking talent of Diego Fagundez, Kelyn Rowe and Lee Nyguen.
The mobility of all three and their tendency to drift throughout the midfield has caused LA problems in the past, most notably in their 5-0 defeat at Gillette Stadium in June 2013 that featured goal from all three attackers.
“It’s always going to be a challenge for the back four and the midfield to deal with a front three that runs and stays up high when they have possession,” said midfielder Kenney Walker. “It’s going to take a lot of communication and all of us staying on the same page from our forwards to the back line. It’ll be a good test to see where we are as a team.”
Not only will LA need to stifle a Revolution side eager to return to winning ways, they’ll also be doing it on short rest after their 1-0 victory over Real Salt Lake on Saturday. The Revolution match may be the first of a two week; four game swing, but Walker believes that it will serve as an important test for a team in the formative stages of their season.
“We need to have composure as a group and make teams defend us rather than counterattacking and going on the attack for a few minutes and then defending for longer,” said Walker. “It’ll be interesting, but I think that everybody is ready to play and hopefully we perform well and get the three points.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog LAGalaxy.com/Insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com
