CARSON, Calif. – The World Cup break offered a weary LA Galaxy team a nice respite but arrived just as Sigi Schmid's team was finding its form, and they'll get an idea in Saturday's Stanford University showdown with California Clasico rival San Jose (10 pm ET | UniMás, Full TV & Streaming Info) whether the three-week break from Major League Soccer action came at the best or worst time.
The aim is to pick up where they left off, with a comprehensive 3-0 StubHub Center romp over streaking Real Salt Lake, and use a new two-forward alignment to surge into the second half of the campaign with a bit of momentum.
There's brimming confidence within the group after Zlatan Ibrahimovic netted his sixth and seventh goals of the season and Ola Kamara his sixth to spark LA (6-7-2) to their third shutout victory in five outings. It seems the Galaxy might have turned their corner.
“I think we have a better idea of how to play with each other,” Schmid said following Wednesday's training session at StubHub Center. “Zlatan's been here now awhile, and I think everyone understand how we need to use him. Obviously, we've got a 6-foot-5 center forward, so maybe there's times we need to swing the ball a little bit more than we have in the past. From that standpoint, I think it's better."
The Galaxy struggled through the first two months or so of the season after an offseason rebuild and start-of-the-year injury crisis left the team chasing chemistry. Ibrahimovic's arrival in late March shook things up further, and LA struggled to make the most of their assets until successive 1-0 wins in late May at Montreal and at home against San Jose ended a stretch in which 13 goals were surrendered in five losses over six games.
A switch from the 4-2-3-1 alignment to a 3-5-2, with Kamara joining Ibrahimovic up top after a spell on the left flank, had the Galaxy playing their sharpest soccer of the year, culminating in the win over RSL.
“It just seemed like every game, when dropped behind in every game, whenever we switched to a 3-5-2 or switched to two strikers, we became more successful,” said Schmid, whose team is eighth in the Western Division but just three points out of fourth place. “And it seems like when we have three in the back, defensively we're a little more solid. Those are things we have to look at as we go forward.”
Since the June 9 victory, the Galaxy dropped a fifth-round U.S. Open Cup meeting at Portland, then took a week off. Everyone enjoyed the break, but it didn't allow the team to build off the RSL performance.
“A lot of guys got away,” winger Chris Pontius said. “You've got to take advantage of those whenever you get them, not only for the body, but mentally. We've got [Mexico's Giovani and Jonathan Dos Santos] in the World Cup and a couple guys injured as well, so it gave us time. The break came at a good time.
“But our last game was arguably our best game, so you'd like to think that maybe you could continue on [from it]. But still I think it's better overall that we get that break and get away. It's nice going in with a win, though. It makes the break a little easier.”
Schmid said that “time will tell whether it was a good time or not” for a brief holiday, but several players needed a rest and “it's good in the middle of the season for the guys to get away for four or five days.”
Now they'll try to step back into the groove.
“It's never been a question of talent with our team,” Pontius said. “It's been a question of just getting the pieces to gel together, and I think we found something [against RSL]. I don't think everything is solved, but that's the beauty of the season: There's ebbs and flows of it, and that last game, if we an continue that positive note, I think we'll be good.”
LA play three games in eight days – with home games against D.C. United on the Fourth of July and Columbus on July 8 – before trekking east for matches at New England and Philadelphia and their first trip to crosstown rival LAFC's new Banc of California Stadium on July 26.
“There's still a lot of points out there, and we've got to go after points,” Schmid said. “We've got to win season series with teams – that's one way of getting into the playoffs, This is our second game with the Quakes, and we want to make sure that we win that season series, and if we keep doing that with every season series, that will go a long way towards getting us into the playoffs.”
