LA Galaxy vs. New York Red Bulls | 2018 MLS Match Preview

Dylan Butler

LA Galaxy vs. New York Red Bulls
2018 MLS Regular Season - Week 9
StubHub Center - Carson
April 28 - 10:30 pm ET
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Two teams looking to bounce back from disappointing Week 8 home defeats meet at the StubHub Center when the LA Galaxy host fellow MLS original the New York Red Bulls Saturday night.

The Galaxy dropped their second straight game in Carson last Saturday, falling to surging Atlanta United, 2-0, while the Red Bulls suffered defeat for the first tine at Red Bull Arena this year, losing to the Chicago Fire, 2-1.

The Galaxy have earned a result in four consecutive games against the Red Bulls (2W-2D). The franchise best against RBNY is five straight games (March 28, 1998-April 29, 2000), per Opta.

LA Galaxy

After that thrilling 4-3 win over LAFC on Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s memorable debut, the LA Galaxy (3-3-1) have dropped back-to-back games at StubHub Center, failing to score in defeats to Sporting Kansas City and Atlanta.

Sigi Schmid made one change to his starting XI from the squad that defeated the Fire, 1-0, the previous week in Bridgeview, with Baggio Husidic replacing Jonathan dos Santos.

Jona was slated to start his second consecutive match after returning from a hamstring injury, but pulled up with a knock to his calf midway through warmups Saturday night.

“You’ve got to talk to Jonathan [Dos Santos]," Schmid told reporters after the match. "He felt something in warm-ups and didn’t feel that he could go. It looked like he almost thought he could go. He consulted with our trainers, consulted with his brother and others, and felt he couldn’t go.”

Suspended: None
Suspended after next caution: None
International duty: None
Injury Report: OUT: F - Bradford Jamieson IV (concussion); QUESTIONABLE: F - Giovani dos Santos (hamstring), M - Jonathan dos Santos (calf)

Projected Starting XI
(4-4-2, right to left)
GK: David Bingham — Rolf Feltscher, Daniel Steres, Jorgen Skjelvik, Ashley Cole — Romain Alessandrini, Perry Kitchen, Baggio Husidic, Sebastian Lletget — Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ola Kamara

Notes: David Bingham already has three games with 5+ saves this season for the Galaxy. No Galaxy keeper in 2017 had more than five such games. … Los Angeles has conceded multiple goals in three consecutive home matches and have not scored in their last two games at StubHub Center. It is the second time since 2011 they’ve conceded 2+ goals in at least straight home games.

New York Red Bulls

For the first time in all competitions this season, the Red Bulls (3-3-0) suffered a home defeat, dropping a 2-1 result despite outshooting the Fire, 22-4. The devil, of course, is in the details for New York, which weren't good enough on the day, according to Jesse Marsch.

“What I saw was a team that wasn’t fully engaged in the way that we need them to be,” he said. “I felt if we would have been on top of our tactical details more, if our mentality would have been stronger, if we had more urgency in our play, the game would have never had a chance of slipping away from us.”

Marsch made one change to his starting XI from a 3-1 win over the Montreal Impact the previous week, bringing on Marc Rzatkowski for Sean Davis in central midfield. Bradley Wright-Phillips scored the lone Red Bulls goal, his fifth of the season, nine minutes from full time.

Suspended: None
Suspended after next caution: None
International duty: None
Injury Report: OUT: D - Kyle Duncan (ACL surgery), D - Connor Lade (ankle sprain)

Projected Starting XI
(4-2-3-1, right to left)
GK - Luis Robles — Michael Murillo, Aaron Long, Tim Parker, Kemar Lawrence — Tyler Adams, Sean Davis — Florian Valot, Kaku, Danny Royer — Bradley Wright-Phillips

Notes: Three of Wright-Phillips’ five goals this season have come in the final 15 minutes of matches, tied for the most of any MLS player. However, he has never scored in four career appearances versus the Galaxy. … The Red Bulls have conceded a goal in nine consecutive league road games (1W-6L-2D). They’ve allowed 2.3 goals per game in this stretch.

All-Time Series

Overall: LA Galaxy 17 wins, 63 goals … New York Red Bulls 18 wins, 60 goals … 8 ties
At LA: Galaxy 9 wins, 32 goals … Red Bulls 6 wins, 24 goals … 5 ties
Last meeting at LA: LA Galaxy 2, New York Red Bulls 2 (Aug. 7, 2016)