CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy haven't won in more than a month, four games in all, and haven't scored in 220 minutes, not since taking a 2-0 lead early in the second half in the first of back-to-back meetings with Seattle to close the regular season.
It's their longest winless streak since May, right before they started on the tear that brought them to the verge of the Supporters' Shield, and it's been a little more than a year since they were held without a goal in back-to-back games.
The Galaxy, who on Saturday need a victory to push past Real Salt Lake and into the Western Conference final of the MLS Cup Playoffs, presented by AT&T, appear to be in something of a slump, yes?
“I don't know,” said defender Omar Gonzalez. “I guess the numbers don't lie, right?”
Sure, things haven't gone as they've hoped these past four games, but it doesn't define them, the Galaxy say they aren't the least bit concerned.
“I think we're fine. No [concerns], not at all,” head coach Bruce Arena said, “We've just played four ‘playoff’ games in a row, and so the games are a little bit different, against teams that have taken a fairly defensive approach. Not to say that's what Salt Lake did [in the first leg of the conference semifinals, a scoreless draw], but we're fine. We're going to be fine.”
The Galaxy saw a 10-game unbeaten streak end after they surrendered a lead in a 2-1 loss Oct. 12 at FC Dallas, let a two-goal lead slip away in a 2-2 draw a week later at home against Seattle and then conceded two late goals in a regular season-ending 2-0 defeat. Robbie Keane missed the games at Dallas and Seattle, and Gonzalez was suspended for the season-ender.
Last week, they held off surging RSL to head home scoreless for the series finale (7:30 pm ET; ESPN2, get tickets here).
“If you polled the other 17 teams, they'd say they'd take 0-0 at Salt Lake any day in any week of the year,” Landon Donovan said. “We're fine. For us, the goal is creating chances, and we had a few the other night, but we weren't good enough in certain spots to create real chances. And if we do that, then we think the goals will come.”
- Get the latest Galaxy news at LAGalaxy.com
Keane agrees.
“On the day, we know what we have to do,” LA's captain said. “We have to score goals to win the game. We're certainly not too worried about that.”
The Galaxy say it's unfair to compare their output the past few games with what they were doing two and three months ago, when, as Donovan put it, “we were scoring three, four, five, six goals a game.”
“At this time of year, teams play more conservative, they play more defensively. And, naturally, we're not going to go into these games throwing caution to the wind either,” he said. “Earlier in the season, you can take chances, be more aggressive in that way. But the last thing we want to do in any of these games in open ourselves up and get countered and get goals scored on us.
“There's a lot to it. It's not as simple as not scoring goals. There's a lot that goes into it, and we're confident that we can score goals this weekend.”
