When the Los Angeles Galaxy face the Colorado Rapids on Saturday night at The Home Depot Center, they will not only be looking to end a three-game losing streak. They will also be trying to win their first home game of the season in five tries.
The Rapids and Galaxy are currently tied for third place with seven points apiece in the Western Conference. Colorado has a game in hand on Los Angeles, making this weekend's game that much important for the Green and Gold to maintain an advantage in the standings.
While Saturday's game will be the first matchup between Los Angeles and Colorado this season, two players on the Galaxy have already seen the Rapids this season.
Kyle Martino and John Wolyniec suffered a 3-1 loss at the hands of Colorado while with the Columbus Crew in Week 2 of the 2006 season. Now, as members of the Galaxy, both players have insight in how to break down a Rapids defense that has given up just six goals in their last five games.
"They get a lot of guys behind the ball quick," said Wolyniec, who will be trying to open his Galaxy account this Saturday. "If we're going to go forward we have to go forward fast."
One player whose return should help the Galaxy cause this weekend is Herculez Gomez. Gomez is expected to play this weekend after suffering a mild knee injury in training that kept him out of last weekend's 3-0 loss to Real Salt Lake. Gomez knows that the history between the two clubs runs a lot deeper than this year's standings.
"They're definitely coming in extra motivated," said Gomez. "We knocked them out of the Western Conference (Championship); Jovan has a personal vendetta to settle. It's going to be a tough game."
Gomez was referring to Jovan Kirovski, traded late last season to the Rapids from the Galaxy. Kirovski so far this season has found the back of the net four times, tied for second best in MLS.
And while the Rapids attack will be mainly intact, the Galaxy offense is struggling to find their way without Landon Donovan, the focal point of their attack who will be absent while with the U.S. national team for the World Cup.
But the Rapids have a key absence of their own due to the upcoming World Cup -- as their contribution to the U.S. team is Pablo Mastroeni, who anchors the defensive midfield for the Rapids.
"They're a much different team without Pablo in there. He's the backbone of that team so we have to take advantage of that," said Martino. "We need to go at the area in the middle of the field that he'd left a bit of a void in."
Martino will be the player most responsible for trying to exploit the Colorado midfield. If he can accomplish that, and the Galaxy back four can hold together, Los Angeles fans just might finally have something to cheer about on Saturday night.
Greg Daurio is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
