CARSON, Calif. - The problems continue unabated for the LA Galaxy. Not only are they wallowing at the bottom of the Western Conference, but now they have to try to move forward without two of their leading goal scorers, Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane, who are with their respective national teams.
READ: Donovan added to USMNT roster
If there ever was a time to see what kind of character the Galaxy have left, now is that time, starting with Wednesday's game against the San Jose Earthquakes (7-2-3) at The Home Depot Center (7:30 p.m., KDOC, KWHY, lagalaxy.com/gamedaylive).
"It's always difficult when you lose players," David Beckham said Tuesday. "But we have to realize we can't rely on individuals and can't rely on the talents of Robbie and Landon or whoever steps out of games.
"Last year one of the reasons we won a championship is we had a lot of strength and depth, a lot of character throughout the team. We had a lot of character with the players that actually weren't starters. That's one of the reasons we won the championship. We have to instill that in our team now and get moving."
The Galaxy will be taking on an Earthquakes team that has been one of the league's biggest surprises. San Jose trails only Real Salt Lake in the Western Conference standings. They are led by Chris Wondolowski, who has an MLS-leading 11 goals, though he will be unavailable Wednesday after being called up to the U.S. National Team. The Earthquakes also have gotten solid seasons from Steven Lenhart (4 goals), Alan Gordon (game-tying goals in each of the last two games), Steven Beitashour (5 assists) and goalkeeper Jon Busch, who had three shutouts and a 1.08 goals-against average.
Beckham, however, isn't concerned so much about the Earthquakes as he is about the defending MLS Cup champion Galaxy (3-6-2). He admitted it's almost at the stage in which he is genuinely worried about what's gone wrong.
"It's getting to that point now, yeah," he said. "It's not been good for a while now. I said it last week, the only way we can get ourselves out of this is hard work on the training field. I stick to that. That's the only way we can get through this.
"Teams go through difficult times, but it's too much now. We can play bad and have the effort, but sometimes it's not the effort, either. We need to get that back into the game and start working. Then the run that we're on will change."
Veteran forward Pat Noonan, who made his first start of the season in last Saturday's 1-0 loss to Chivas USA, said he isn't worried. Yet.
"We're 11 games in, we could be a month from now and people will have forgotten how slow of a start it was," he said. “All it takes is a winning streak . . . three, four, five games or an unbeaten streak and all the confidence turns to your side and you start playing, getting those bounces and getting those leads instead of giving up that one goal on that one chance.
"We've got 23 games left, that's a lot of games. You win a couple of games in this league, and we can go from last to fifth just like that. There shouldn't be any panic and there shouldn't be any worry because there's a lot of games left and this team is more than capable of turning it around."
