Galaxy Needs Good Home Run
Mirror, mirror on the wall....
Terrific home records. Terrible road records. All this and more means a deadlock at the top of the MLS Western Conference between the Galaxy and the San Jose Earthquakes. The teams are separated by the narrowest of margins: a plus-three goal differential puts San Jose in front.
Tonight at the Rose Bowl, the Galaxy will play its final regular-season home game, and the first of a pivotal home-and-home series with the Earthquakes.
The back end of the series--which will determine home-field advantage for the playoffs--will be a week from today at San Jose.
“It should be one of the biggest games that we’ve played in L.A. in the regular season,” Galaxy Coach Sigi Schmid said.
The Galaxy, unbeaten at home (8-0-1) since June 8, is at a disadvantage. The consistent starting lineup of the last 10 games will be disrupted because of the suspensions of defenders Alexi Lalas and Ezra Hendrickson. The resurgent Lalas is the team’s second-leading scorer behind league leader Carlos Ruiz.
Schmid said defender Craig Waibel will be in the back in place of Lalas. Sasha Victorine and Adam Frye may replace Hendrickson.
One continuing thread of the Galaxy season has been the ability to score the late goal. They have scored 16 of their 42 goals after the 75th minute, the highest total in the league ahead of Colorado (15).
Another constant has been Ruiz, who has 22 goals and one assist for 45 points and is trying to become the first Galaxy player to win the league scoring championship.
