The final 10-game sprint is here for the Galaxy.
However, this season, things will look a little different. Including Wednesday night’s meeting with the Colorado Rapids, the Galaxy have 10 regular-season games remaining, but at least two games in the Leagues Cup tournament.
“I felt like the early part of the season, because we were playing one game a week, I felt like that was going a little bit slower,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “The last month, month and a half, you’re always preparing for a game that’s coming up. … I felt like it’s been moving.
“Right now it’s kind of weird to think we have 10 (regular-season) games left. We always talk about the last 10 games, which are important to your standing and your form going into the playoffs, but as I said to the guys, we have these two games and then a tournament and then we come back for eight games.”
The Galaxy (12-5-7, 43 points) will go into their Leagues Cup break with a pair of important Western Conference clashes, first against the Rapids, who have moved up to fourth place and then on Saturday, another home match against the fifth-place Portland Timbers.
“It’s an important week … two (games) at home,” Vanney said. “So anything and everything at home is of added importance always. Two teams that have found pretty good form since the middle of the season and the last five to 8-10 games, these two teams have been finding some clarity as to who they are and how they’re going to be successful. They’ve been committed to it.
“For us, it’s just getting back to focusing on ourselves and what has made us successful. Making sure we’re defending close together, we’re taking away the space in between our lines, we’re taking away the depth and we can set ourselves up for some transition attacking and then when we do have possession, we are using the ball with an intent and purpose to get behind the opposition to create goal-scoring chances and make them have to make plays inside of their box.”
The challenge for the Galaxy will be scoring, with Dejan Jovelic (12 goals) again sidelined with a hamstring issue. The Galaxy have been shut out four times and three have come without Joveljic. Miguel Berry has started in his place and has scored just one goal.
“Miguel is a very energetic player and because of having so much energy, I feel like at times he’s moving in a lot of places that he doesn’t necessarily need to be,” Vanney said. “Sometimes I think he could be a little bit more patient and make his movement off of the defender’s movements, when the strong-side center back tries to release, boom, he’s going through. Sometimes he’s too far away from the play because he’s already setting up for what might look like a goal-scoring action, but we’re not there yet.
“We have to continue to get him to be thinking in the game, not necessarily about three moments down, but actually where he needs to be in that moment and being a little bit more disciplined. That’s one of the reasons why I think he’s pretty good at coming in late to games because he brings a lot of injury, power and he runs and the game is a little more open. I think he’s been effective in those scenarios. In the starting scenarios, it’s a more calculated role of which sometimes I think he needs to process that calculation a little bit more. It’s not just making runs and getting on the end of things. There’s some calculation because his positioning will determine what a defender can and can’t do sometimes.”
When: Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Dignity Health Sports Park
How to watch: Apple TV+ (season pass)
