Preview: Kansas City Wizards vs. LA. Galaxy
May. 23, 2008
Saturday's match between the Los Angeles Galaxy and the Kansas City Wizards will be a clash of two teams seemingly heading in opposite directions.
After a slow start to their season, the Galaxy have clawed their way to within one point of first place in the Western Conference. By contrast, Kansas City started well, winning their first two games, but have slipped to second from the bottom in the East.
The reason for the contrasting runs can be summed up simply by the difference in offensive output. Los Angeles is enjoying a plethora of attacking options, which has them boasting the best offense in the league, as they tend to try and outgun opponents rather than shut them down. Kansas City , on the other hand, has only managed four goals in their last six games, and relies heavily on the defensive side of the ball to keep them in games. This weekend at The Home Depot Center, something is going to have to give.
"They have a tough defense, we have a good offense. It's going to be exciting. I'm pretty confident that we can break down any defense in the league. I think we've shown it," said Alan Gordon. "We need to make sure that we're tight defensively, that's the most important thing for us, because we're the worst in that category. We know the goals will come, we've got to keep it solid at the back."
Two areas the Galaxy will need to focus on in order to stop the Wizards offense is on set pieces and on the counterattack. Kansas City center back Jimmy Conrad is currently the team's leading scorer with three goals, all coming from deadball situations. Aside from that, the Galaxy will need to focus on recovering quickly when they lose possession.
"When teams come here, of course they're going to be a little more defensive than when they play at home. The only thing we have to concern about is when we attack," said Galaxy head coach Ruud Gullit. "Sometimes players have to think about when we lose the ball what are we going to do. We work very hard on that, and every week it gets better."
The difficult thing for the Galaxy will be to not get frustrated if the goals don't come early. Kansas City has a great defense, and isn't likely to commit to many numbers forward. There are very few secrets in MLS, so Los Angeles will need to remain patient to avoid any drastic mistakes.
"In this league you know everyone so well, and we know what they bring," said Chris Klein. "They have a good attack and any defense that's anchored by Jimmy (Conrad) is going to be tough to break down."
Los Angeles will be trying to accomplish two things this weekend. First, they could move into first place in the West with a win. A win would also help this team solidify a somewhat spotty home record so far this season.
"We have a home game, and now our focus has to be on taking care of our business at The Home Depot Center," said Klein. "Any good teams does well at home and we have to establish our dominance here."
A win against Kansas City this weekend will go a long way towards making that a reality, and will help establish the Galaxy as a legitimate contender in the West as the season approaches the one-third completed mark.
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The Galaxy opened their stadium, the Home Depot Center on June 7. But in order for their home to be ready, the team had to play a record 8 games to start the season and failed to win a game. In fact, the Galaxy finish the season without a win away from home the whole season. After the season's final game, the Galaxy had the final playoff spot in the West. In their aggregate series with the Earthquakes, they seemed well on to vindication for the MLS Cup loss 2 years earlier as they held 4 goals to 0 lead midway through the 2 nd game. A thing happened as the Earthquakes scored four unanswered goals to force a tiebreaker. In that session, the Earthquakes' Rodrigo Farina score to send the Quakes onto the next round.
In 2004 Looking to return to the top, the Galaxy would go through a mediocre 1 st half of the season before 3 straight wins over the summer. But from July 14 on, the Galaxy won only 2 more games, one in September and one in October. The Galaxy had a record of 11-9-10, good enough for 2nd in the West and the playoff, remaining the only club in MLS to have a playoff spot in every year of league in the playoffs, the Galaxy withstood an early challenge from the Rapids to win the aggregate goal series, 2-1, scoring 2 times in Game 2. In the conference final, the Galaxy's season would come to an end in Kansas with a 2-0 loss to Arnaud and the Wizards.
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