The clean slate that the Galaxy talked about in regards to the restart of the MLS season after the international break got off to a frustrating start.
The Galaxy lost to the host Colorado Rapids, 2-0, on Wednesday night. Their point total and minus-23 goal differential are the league’s worst, but it was another performance that saw the Galaxy lose while creating very few clear-cut chances despite dominating possession of the ball.
“Part of is, in the first half, we give up two goals and now they’re protecting a two-goal lead. I think in the second half, we make some adjustments that don’t make it easy for them to press us, though they go into this lower block and I just felt like the whole night our speed and intensity level at which we were doing things was just too slow,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said on Friday. “And when you get into the final zone and you’re trying to create, things have to be really sharp and they have to be quick and they have to be dynamic and the timing has to be right, and I just feel like on the whole night we were just a little bit slow in terms of the changes of the speed and even on the defensive side, the intensity … all of it was just a little too slow.”
The Galaxy (1-13-5, eight points) will look to get things sped up a bit Saturday night against in-state rival San Jose (7-7-5, 26 points) at Stanford Stadium. It will be the 104th meeting, across all competitions, between the teams.
“It’s a derby and the way they play the game is, it’s very combative,” Vanney said. “They want to get one-on-one, as we saw here (on May 28, a 1-0 San Jose win). They want to get after you, they want to create transitions. So, like we talk about here, we need to create moments when we’re in possession and we’re trying to create attacks where we make them a little bit late to their showing up to the pressure. We make them a little bit uncertain about, like, who maybe should be defending who in a situation. In those little uncertainties and time lapses, that’s when we can break their pressure.”
In the first meeting, San Jose scored in the 74th minute and held on for the win.
The Galaxy have managed only 18 goals so far this season and have been shut out seven times in MLS competition.
“We’ve got to be good with the ball,” Vanney said.
The Galaxy have waited for a breakout game for Gabriel Pec and Joseph Paintsil. Pec has just three goals and Paintsil only has one.
“To me, Joe seems really indecisive,” Vanney said. “I feel like since things haven’t dropped for him, haven’t come off for him, in the final action, I can see him overthinking situations almost and it doesn’t feel natural … it feels stressed and not really at the speed and at the timing that you want things to happen.
“I feel like maybe he’s overthinking and not letting the game just kind of flow through him naturally. We talked about, we need to find him on the run more and not at your feet playing one-on-one. He’s not really a one-on-one player, he’s a guy who plays and bounces off of people or he’s running into the space and we’re playing into the space and his game is at a high speed.
“With Gabe, we want to get him on the run, we want to get him moving through spaces, running into the spaces behind, allow Marco [Reus] and Diego [Fagúndez] to play you into your actions. Don’t look to create from your feet so much.”
GALAXY at EARTHQUAKES
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m.
Where: Stanford Stadium
How to watch: Apple TV+ (season pass)