Galaxy looking for first win of season against Red Bulls
Los Angeles has only one loss, four draws in season's early stages
Related
- Coastal powers clash when LA meets NY
- Galaxy In Focus: Red Bulls preview
400K|800K
"I think it would be what the doctor ordered," Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena said with a grin.
The Galaxy are 0-1-4 after their third come-from-behind tie of the season last weekend in Colorado, but they aren't even close to the longest winless streak in club history. That occurred only a year ago, when Los Angeles went 0-6-6 from June 21-Sept. 13, 2008. There also was a 10-game drought in 2006 and an eight-game slide to open the season in 2003 while The Home Depot Center was being built.
Nobody on the Galaxy is worried, although players grudgingly admit to a little frustration.
"I think that's a great word to describe it," midfielder Eddie Lewis said. "We're not discouraged or anything like that, but we felt we put ourselves in position to get three points a couple of times now and came up short.
"At this point we're happy with the progress of the team and the development of some of the players, but we just want to win. We need to get our first victory and get things going in that manner."
Arena, who will be facing his former team on Saturday, traces the Galaxy's early-season struggles to several factors. First is injuries. Last year's second-leading scorer, Edson Buddle, made his season debut only a week ago after he recovered from a strained quadriceps muscle. Starting left back Todd Dunivant was out until April 8 because of microfracture ankle surgery. Starting goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts has missed two games with groin and shoulder problems.
There also has been a constant reshuffling of the lineup. Starting central defender Gregg Berhalter hasn't even been with the team for a month and was ejected in his first appearance. Holding midfielder Dema Kovalenko also missed one game after getting red-carded.
"It's going to take a little time to get a little coordination with our group," Arena said. "That's never done early in the year."
Arena, however, said he has seen some progress despite the Galaxy's record. He also said it's about time the club gets something positive for its resolve.
"I've seen in this league some of the worst efforts rewarded with wins," he said, "and we've had consistently some pretty good efforts. Some of the top teams in the league right now with the most wins have not played well. Sometimes I've seen teams play very well and not get three points. (Last) weekend the Red Bulls positioned themselves perfectly for a win against D.C. United and blew it.
"People 99.9 percent of the time judge a team's performance on whether they win or not. We don't do that, but there's no question a win's in order for this team."
Landon Donovan, who has either scored or assisted on all of the Galaxy's six goals this season, said it's getting more and more important to have a victory.
"We need to know what it feels like more than anything," he said. "We need that momentum. This is a week we all have circled as saying we need to win."
The Red Bulls, also struggling with a 1-4-2 record, are 14-12-5 all-time against the Galaxy, including an impressive 8-1-5 in the last 14 regular-season matches. The Red Bulls also haven't lost to the Galaxy since a 1-0 decision on July 4, 2006 at The Home Depot Center.
New York is led by former Colombian international Juan Pablo Angel, who has 33 goals in 47 games since joining the club in April of 2007. He also had the game-winner in last season's meeting in Carson, a 2-1 victory on May 10.
Donovan said the Galaxy need to play a "complete game."
"We do that we win," he said. "We've played five pretty good games, but we haven't played a complete one. We're not far away, but there is that little difference."
Larry Morgan is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
