After a frustrating first leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarterfinals, the Galaxy return home with a chance to advance.
How much of a chance is the big question.
The Galaxy lost the first leg 4-2 against Toluca. Normally, two road goals would have a team sitting in the perfect situation. Wednesday, the Galaxy have to not only score at least two goals, but also try to keep Toluca off of the scoreboard, because a road goal by the Mexican club could seal the series.
“If we would have been able to get a draw or win (in the first leg), it would have been amazing or if it were 3-2, I think it would have been a really, really good result,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “Getting 4-2, it is still a satisfactory result and now we’ve got to work on it. It’s still 90 minutes here, it’s a long game. We were able to score two goals on the road, so it’s going to be able balance and efficiency.
“They’re a good team. They’re going to have their fair share of the ball. They have some very good attacking players. We still have to defend with effectiveness and efficiency to allow ourselves to get on the ball, to allow ourselves to create goal-scoring chances. We’ve got to play a balanced game and try to score one goal at a time and not try to get back two goals in the first 15 minutes.”
Toluca, which also defeated the Galaxy in the Campeones Cup last year, rested 10 starters in the Liga MX game Sunday against Queretaro. Paulinho scored a hat trick in the first leg for Toluca.
“Very good player, very clever player, really intelligent about how he’s moving around the field,” Vanney said. “How he takes up positions, his anticipation and then in and around the goal. We’ve got to be very aware of where he’s at.
“One of the things we’ve talked about with our guys is just being more aware, active eyes, active feet, be more aware, make more physical contact with them so that we’re feeling him, not just allowing him to move freely and flow freely around the field. And certainly when we’re in the box, we need to have more accountability with them. I felt like a couple of goals, I think we overplayed the situation and he gets a little fortunate on the deflection and things like that, but that also shows a great goal scorer’s ability to anticipate situations. So we have to be mindful of him and try to minimize service. They had a lot of the ball, which gives them a lot of time to move around the field.”
The Galaxy will receive a boost with the return of Joseph Paintsil (quad), who has been sidelined since March 7.
“It’s not going to be the same game because playing a game at 9,000 feet and playing a game at sea level are two very different games,” Vanney said. “In Toluca, I felt we needed to be more patient because I didn’t think that physically we could get out and extend ourselves as frequently as we could probably at home.
“We’ve got to choose our moments wisely. We’ve got to be aggressive in the moments that we can and we recognize that situations are beneficial for us and we’ve got to be patient and clever about when we are going to sit on our block. We’ve got to better at getting on the ball and play in possession and create some things out of our possession, not just in transition.”
TOLUCA FC at GALAXY
When: 6 p.m. Wednesday
Where: Dignity Health Sports Park
How to watch: FS1, TUDN (Spanish)