CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy’s Mike Magee doesn’t remember much about last season’s hard-earned 2-2 draw with Vancouver Whitecaps FC at BC Place, site of Saturday’s rematch (4 p.m., Time Warner Cable SportsNet, Time Warner Cable Deportes, KTLK 1150 AM, KWKW 1330 AM, LIVECHAT). He wasn’t there because of an injury and missed most of the game on television.
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He did, however, watch Jose Villarreal’s wonder strike in the 87th minute that gave the two-time defending MLS Cup champions a draw with the Whitecaps.
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Just don’t ask him to relive any other moments from that July 2012 night.
“I remember Jose’s goal, and that’s it,” he said. “Sometimes I don’t watch the games when I’m not there. They’re hard to watch.
“As a player you want to play. Sometimes you watch, turn it off and put on another show. Then you put it back on to see what’s going on, and you get frustrated because you want to be out there.”
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He’s expected to be there Saturday, however, for the first game of a three-road road trip that also will take the Galaxy to Philadelphia on Wednesday, May 15 and New York on Sunday, May 19. The Galaxy don’t return to The Home Depot Center until Sunday, May 26 when they host Seattle Sounders FC.
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The Galaxy (4-2-2, 14 points ) are tied for fourth in the Western Conference with the San Jose Earthquakes. The Whitecaps (2-4-3, 9 points) are winless in their last seven league games are tied for eighth place in the West with Seattle.
The Galaxy had been looking forward to the three-game, nine-day swing, but didn’t exactly get the kind of send-off they had been hoping for last Sunday in a 1-0 loss to the Houston Dynamo.
Landon Donovan, who missed a penalty kick in that game, said there was a sense of lingering disappointment throughout training this week.
“I think we all knew we could have played better, and that’s the frustrating part,” he said. “We’re a better team than we showed on Sunday.
“Houston did a good job. Not taking any credit away from them, but we can do better than that.”
They’ll get their first chance in Vancouver, where they will face a team that has not lost at home this year in all competitions, collecting a 2-0-2 record in the league against BC Place while also beating FC Edmonton in the Canadian Championship.
“A good team,” Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena said of the Whitecaps. “A lot of talented players with a lot of speed. This is certainly going to be a big game for them.”
For the Galaxy as well.
“The way we played (Sunday) was terrible,” Donovan said. “We knew we had to get three points because we were going on the road and we know how hard it is to get three points in this league. We missed out on a big opportunity.
“Now it makes this next game much more difficult.”
