Galaxy Has Company in Pursuit of Top Spot

Moments before the Galaxy’s game against the Burn in Dallas last Saturday, a slip of paper was passed around the Cotton Bowl press box.

“Today’s high of 102 degrees marks the 30th consecutive day of triple-digit temperatures,” it read, noting that at game-time it was still 101 degrees.

Too hot for soccer, certainly, but no hotter than Major League Soccer’s Western Conference race, which was thrown wide open when the fourth-place Burn upset the then-second-place Galaxy, 1-0, while first-place Colorado lost and third-place Chicago won, overtaking Los Angeles.

Now, only four points separate the four teams, with eight games remaining in the regular season.

Any loss becomes doubly important.

“It might come down to the last day of the season to decide who plays who in the playoffs,” said Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid, whose team plays host to San Jose tonight at the Rose Bowl.

“Our big goal right now is that we want to get ourselves into the habit of [realizing that] you can’t win all your games, you’re going to lose some games, but we never want to lose more than one in a row.

“So we want to come back against San Jose. We want to win that one.”

Not that the Clash, clinging to the faintest of playoff hopes, wants the victory any less.

“Every game now is critical,” San Jose Coach Brian Quinn said.

Had the Galaxy won in Dallas, it would have been tied for first place. Instead, it is in third.

“It was a setback,” said midfielder Danny Pena, whose play in defensive midfield continues to be a key to the team’s success. “But we need to move forward. We have another good opportunity against San Jose to get three points.

“It’s going to sting for a few hours or for the next day or so, but we’ve got to put this game behind us and focus on San Jose.”

The Clash, which defeated the New York/New Jersey MetroStars on Saturday, 2-1, has more than able players in forward Ronald Cerritos and winger Eddie Lewis. But San Jose is inconsistent away from Spartan Stadium.

The Clash is 5-7 on the road, the Galaxy is 9-3 at home.

Finishing has been Los Angeles’ problem on and off all season. It might easily have won on Saturday had Cobi Jones, Mauricio Cienfuegos, Carlos Hermosillo and others been on target in their shooting.

“I think our passing was off a little bit [in Dallas],” Schmid said. “There were times when we played the final pass behind Cobi a little bit or into his stride [instead of just ahead of him]. That’s something that we have to work on, making that final pass better.”