After conceding six goals and registering a fifth straight defeat to leave them rooted to the foot of the Western Conference, the LA Galaxy did not shy from the need for urgent remedies.
The latest painful loss for the Galaxy came via a 6-3 defeat at home to the Portland Timbers on Wednesday night as the visitors ran away with a game that had only one goal in at halftime. After shipping four goals in the second half, and six in total, there is little searching needed to figure out what lessons need to be learned.
"I don’t think it’s going to be too difficult," Galaxy defender Daniel Steres said after the game. "When we look back at some of these goals we gave up tonight. I think those lessons will be pretty easy to figure out. At least on the field, it seemed like they were simple mistakes between one-two-three whatever four guys. I think we’ll be able to learn those lessons, but that what we have to do we have to move forward. We got another game; we got three more games coming up. We’re going to have to train and figure these things out on the field and I don’t think we are going to drive ourselves crazy but we need to get it right. We can’t waste any time not getting it right anymore.”
For the previous four defeats, much of the focus had fallen on the team's attacking woes, with just two goals scored in that span. While they were without Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez following the birth of his second child, this time around scoring, was not the problem.
“This one felt a little different," Steres added. "This one was mistakes by us. We gave them the first – I don’t even know what was – first six shots that they had, they scored five of those on easy mistakes by us, really, or just lack of communication, whatever it was. So that’s on us. But the game overall, I don’t think was a bad game."
Highlights: LA Galaxy vs. Portland Timbers
It is a much different picture for the Galaxy from just a few weeks ago when they emerged from the MLS is Back Tournament by going on a run of four consecutive wins. But such is the openness of this season that the Galaxy are only four points off a playoff place with seven games remaining. There is still much to play for.
“Of course everyone’s head is down a little bit but we’ve got to find a way to claw ourselves out of this hole that we’re in a little bit right now," said veteran midfielder Sacha Kljestan. "If you look at the table, if you could run two-three games in a row with wins, it puts us back in a playoff position. MLS is like that sometimes. So we just have to refocus ourselves for a game again in a few days and try to get on a winning streak here. We’ve got to do everything we can.”
The sentiment was echoed by head coach Guillermo Barros Schelotto.
“We have to fix them because we have a lot of games left and we have the aspiration to add points and be able to win and get ourselves in a playoff position," he said.
