The MLS regular season is coming to a close, and we still have ongoing battles for the playoffs in both conferences. That final spot to make the playoffs in the western conference is currently held by LA Galaxy, but they’re hanging on by a thread. Real Salt Lake have the same amount of points with the goal difference favoring LA Galaxy. As we covered yesterday the Vancouver Whitecaps are closing the season on a high note, and they’re hoping to make a push for the playoffs, but they are still 3 points behind the Galaxy with one fewer game to play. The stars have aligned for LA to punch their ticket to the playoffs.
They get to play the worst teams in the conference, and Real Salt Lake who they are directly competing against to make the playoffs in the first place. Might we add that Real Salt Lake has yet to win a game this month? Even though it’s likely that they’ll make the playoffs, could they surprise a few teams during the tournament?
Galaxy Need To Find Some Type of Defensive Consistency
We have to go back to July 24th to find the last game that LA Galaxy played in which they were able to keep a clean sheet in league play. They also beat Chivas 2-0 at the beginning of August, but that was a friendly game. Even last Saturday when they beat Colorado with ease they still gave up a goal with the final score being 4-1. If you look at virtually all of their games this season almost none of them have a zero in the box score. That’s great offensively, and perhaps it makes the team a good watch. You pretty much know for a fact that the game will not end 0-0 when Galaxy is on the field.
Still, the fact that they haven’t found defensive consistency means that the team is constantly involved in high scoring games. If you want to think of this dilemma in a positive manner, the way that this team plays means that virtually no team wants to see them in the playoffs. They are fully capable of blowing a game to San Jose, the worst team in the conference a week removed from beating Austin who are fighting for the top spots in the conference. They had some very bad games throughout the summer months. This has a lot of people questioning how committed some of their players are. A bad run in the summer in LA, we can think of a couple of reasons for that.
What Should The Team Do If They Can’t Sneak In?
We’ve established that the LA Galaxy is capable of beating anyone in their conference if they get in. There’s no denying the fact that the team is loaded with offensive talent. It’s not even dependent on Chicharito exclusively for goals. Although it must be acknowledged that Javier’s effectiveness in front of goal has helped the team stay in the hunt. Even though his penalty kick conversion rate is downright awful. You live and die with a striker like him, but he’s not the issue. He’s worth the big money they pay him.
For years though, we could even go back to the David Beckham days, LA Galaxy have loved to spend on offensive talent. Douglas Costa is the most recent example of this. While, leaving the back end of the team hanging on by a thread. They need to even out this roster a bit more with players within the salary cap allowance that can make contributions on the back end. If not, early playoff exists, or missing the playoffs entirely are going to continue to be in the team’s future.
