After a thorough shellacking at the hands of an on-point Columbus Crew (read up on our tactical takeaway if you haven’t), the LA Galaxy have scant few days to find their footing and get a result on the second leg of their road trip — this time against Western Conference rivals the Colorado Rapids.
“You can tell, in the first half, they jumped on us. They had a game plan and stuck to it.” So said Gyasi Zardes, minutes after the Galaxy’s 4–1 loss to Columbus. The game marked a rough start to LA’s stretch of away games — but also perhaps a wake-up call as the team heads to Denver.
“They jumped on us. They had a game plan and stuck to it.”
—Gyasi Zardes, after Columbus
What can LA expect from Colorado? Here, there’s hope: the Rapids have hit a particularly rough patch, giving up eleven goals in four straight losses. But that’s not to say the boys in burgandy have nothing going for them — scope that Dillon Serna wonder-goal if you think LA’s going to get away with sloppy defending in Denver.
The Galaxy’s back line have a handful in Serna, they have Rapids’ lead-scorer Deshorn Brown to track, and they may need to do all that while getting Todd Dunivant up to speed. The Galaxy vet came on for Robbie Rogers after the latter suffered a quadriceps injury against the Crew — and if Rogers isn’t back to full-strength it’ll be Dunivant lining up from the very start on Wednesday.
Robbie Rogers’ status is a big question, as it could force LA to drastically rework their formation. That could be an opportunity for some improvement, though, as Corner’s resident tactician Sean Steffen pointed out on Twitter:
.@Scatterfelt I would just play a staggered diamond against Colorado. It takes 0 subs to change it back to old system pic.twitter.com/CGjnSSnPNx
— Sean Steffen (@SeanSteffen) August 19, 2014
Or maybe Rogers makes the start (as LA’s own pregame press release suggests). Regardless, LA’s recent slump has fans begging for changes. On Wednesday head coach Bruce Arena has a good chance to either prove his current system can work, or that he’s planning the next one.
Can LA right the ship? Can recent-resigning Alan Gordon make an impact? Or is Colorado finally geared up to break their losing streak? We’ll find out — Wednesday at 6 PM.