CARSON, Calif. – LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena was looking at a tape of last Saturday’s 1-1 tie with the Colorado Rapids and was somewhat surprised.
He said his worst fears were realized after the Galaxy fell behind against a team that clearly had adopted a defensive posture. But super-sub Alan Gordon came off the bench in the second half to score the equalizer and enable Arena not only to breathe a sign of relief but, in some ways, like what had seen.
“In the last 15 minutes we positioned ourselves to get three points,” he said as the Galaxy (3-2-4, 13 points) prepared for a difficult stretch of games this week that includes visits to Real Salt Lake (2-2-4, 10 points) on Wednesday (6:30 p.m., Time Warner Cable SportsNet, Time Warner Cable Deportes) and FC Dallas (5-2-2, 17 points) on Saturday.
“That says a lot about the team.”
Striker Robbie Keane has been out for a month with a strained groin, but the Galaxy have gone 2-0-2 in his absence and likely will be without him on this trip as well. The Galaxy will be face a Real Salt Lake team coming off a 1-1 tie at home with San Jose. But in its previous match at Rio Tinto Stadium, RSL was routed 4-0 by New England.
“It’s never easy when you play Salt Lake,” central defender Omar Gonzalez cautioned.
Arena said he has been impressed with how his club has responded to early-season adversity, most notably Keane’s injury.
“We haven’t lost a game in a month, and we’re talking about a funeral here?” he said with a grin after training Monday. “We’re doing OK, that’s all I can say.
“Maybe we’ll start losing a lot of games and we can say we really have some issues.”
Arena continues to preach patience as the Galaxy deal with inconsistency and injuries that have prevented him from fielding a steady lineup.
“The season’s young,” he said. “The greatest team in the world in MLS is the New York Red Bulls; they haven’t won in three games. They have two points in three games. We have five points in three games.
“The point is this stuff is changing all around. Columbus last week was great, this week they lost. This is the nature of our league, and it starts to become more obvious where the teams are in August and September, not now.
“Form does matter, but results do as well. You can get an argument if you told me Chelsea’s form is no good. I would say you’re pretty stupid. That’s the argument right now that Chelsea doesn’t play attractive soccer. They’re lifting trophies.”
Gonzalez said form does matter, but it’s not the only thing that does.
“As you’re picking up points, I guess it’s not an issue,” he said. ”It’s when you’re losing it becomes an issue. The question now is how do we turn the one point into three?
“We just have to be a bit sharper. I think there’s been a lack of energy. I think other teams have been coming at us with more energy than we’re meeting them with. We knew it was going to be the case from the beginning of the season that teams were going to come like that. Now it’s just a matter of putting in the work.”
Added defender Dan Gargan, “I think we’re doing enough to get something out of games. We just need to do more to get more out of games.”
REAL SALT LAKE vs. LA GALAXY
RIO TINTO STADIUM, Sandy, Utah
May 6, 2015 (Week 10, MLS Game #88)
9:30 pm ET (MLS LIVE)
One of the fiercest rivalries to spring up over the last few years is renewed when Real Salt Lake play host to the LA Galaxy on Wednesday evening at Rio Tinto Stadium. The teams have met three times in the last four years in the MLS Cup Playoffs, the Galaxy rolling to a conference semifinals victory last year. Real come into the game after putting an end to a long goalless drought in a 1-1 draw with the San Jose Earthquakes last Friday evening, while the Galaxy havenít lost in four games after their 1-1 home draw with the Colorado Rapids last weekend.
- It took an own goal, but Real Salt Lake put an end to their goalless streak at 387 minutes – the longest in MLS this season – in their 1-1 draw with the San Jose Earthquakes on Friday evening. It was RSL’s first goal since April 5, when they defeated San Jose 1-0 – it’s the second-longest goalless drought in the club’s history.
- The Galaxy extended their undefeated streak to four games with a second consecutive tie with their 1-1 draw against the Colorado Rapids on Saturday evening at StubHub Center.
- The teams have met three times in the last four years in the MLS Cup Playoffs. The Galaxy have advanced on two occasions, including in last year’s Western Conference Semifinals, when they took the series after a 5-0 win in the second leg at StubHub Center. The teams also met in MLS Cup 2009, RSL winning in a penalty shootout.
- The teams evenly split their regular season series a year ago. They split the two matches at StubHub Center, each team winning by a 1-0 scoreline; they played to a 1-1 draw in the lone game at Rio Tinto Stadium.
REFEREE: Jose Carlos Rivero. AR1 (bench): Fabio Tovar; AR2 (opposite): Jeremy Hanson; 4th: Tyler Ploeger
MLS Career: 42 games; FC/gm: 26.8; Y/gm: 3.8; R: 12; pens: 20
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SUSPENDED: none
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: RSL: Kyle Beckerman … LA: Dan Gargan
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: RSL: Abdoulie Mansally, Luke Mulholland … LA: Juninho
DISABLED LIST: LA: Brian Perk (season-ending injury)
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: none
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (28 meetings): Real 11 wins, 45 goals … Galaxy 11 wins, 42 goals … Ties 6
AT SALT LAKE (13 meetings): Real 5 wins, 23 goals … Galaxy 3 wins, 19 goals … Ties 5
RETURN MATCHES: 5/27: LA Galaxy vs. Real Salt Lake, 7:30 pm PT; 9/19: Real Salt Lake vs. LA Galaxy, 7:30 pm MT
LAST YEAR (MLS):
3/8: LA 0, RSL 1 (Plata 80)
3/22: RSL 1, LA 1 (Saborio 19 - Keane 34)
7/12: LA 1, RSL 0 (Zardes 20)
- The teams have met three times in the last four years in the MLS Cup Playoffs. The Galaxy have advanced on two occasions, including in last year's Western Conference Semifinals, when they took the series after a 5-0 win in the second leg at StubHub Center. The teams also met in MLS Cup 2009, RSL winning in a penalty shootout.
- The teams evenly split their regular season series a year ago. They split the two matches at StubHub Center, each team winning by a 1-0 scoreline; they played to a 1-1 draw in the lone game at Rio Tinto Stadium.
- The RSL win at StubHub Center in the season opener on March 8 was the Galaxy's last defeat in any competitive match in Carson.
- Coaches record: Bruce Arena vs. RSL: P19 W7 L7 D5 … Jeff Cassar vs. LA: P3 W1 L1 D1
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