CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy head into their CONCACAF Champions League first leg match with Liga MX side Santos Laguna on Wednesday with one objective.
Win at home.
Los Angeles are historically dominant at StubHub Center across all competitions, and the CCL is no different. All-time, the Galaxy are an impressive 11-3-1 at StubHub Center in Champions League play since 2008. In LA’s last 10 CCL matches at home, the Galaxy hold a formidable 8-2-0 record.
Heading into Wednesday’s clash with the Liga MX side, the Galaxy believe that holding serve at home is critical to the team’s chances to advance to the next round.
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“You’re more comfortable in front of your fans where you play half of your season. We’ve had a pretty good record here and only lost a few games across all tournaments,” A.J. DeLaGarza said. “It’s good that we’re at home first, I think because we want to get off to a good start and put them under pressure...Against Santos, it’s important to get a shutout and then a couple of goals on top of that. We know how dangerous they can be at home, as well. We’ll take however many goals we can get.”
Added Mike Magee, “It’s massive. Knowing how difficult it is to play in Mexico makes it that much more important to get a result at home. We’re very aware of that… It’s massive that we get a shutout and get a goal or two or 10 if we can.”
The Galaxy understand how important the first leg in a CCL knockout round is given their past struggles against Mexican opposition.
In their 2013 semifinal series with C.F. Monterrey, the Galaxy went into the last 10 minutes up 1-0, before conceding twice late on to fall 2-1. The Galaxy lost the series 3-1 on aggregate after falling 1-0 in Monterrey a week later.
Two years later, the Galaxy once again floundered in the knockout rounds, defeating Club Tijuana by just a 1-0 scoreline in the first leg at home despite dominating the Mexican side and creating numerous chances across 90 minutes. In the return leg, the Galaxy fell apart in the first half as Tijuana scored three times in the opening 45 minutes, ultimately winning the series 4-3 on aggregate.
To prevent these types of defensive breakdowns, the Galaxy have opted to bolster their roster with more seasoned veterans. One of those experienced additions,
Ashley Cole
, heads into his first CONCACAF Champions League match with lots of experience in continental competitions.
“Going into it, you have to win at home. We’re here to win, but also not to concede goals. You still want to have a chance heading into the second leg,” Cole told LAGalaxy.com. “You don’t want to be too gung-ho in the first leg because then you’ll find it difficult in the second leg. We have to defend well as a team, not concede a goal and hope we can get a few goals ourselves to take to the second leg. We have great players here and hopefully on Wednesday they can create some magic.”
Cole’s defensive partner Jelle Van Damme, another player with experience playing in European competition, agrees.
“We should try to keep a zero and score a couple of goals so that we can go there with a good feeling,” Van Damme said. “It’s our first game, and if we do well, we can go to Torreon with a good spirit.”
Given the Galaxy’s checkered past in Champions League, Galaxy captain Robbie Keane believes that the Galaxy need Los Angeles to support them when they take on Santos on Wednesday.
"I would urge all the Galaxy fans to support the team. We're the Galaxy. [StubHub Center] is our home stadium," Keane said. "This is a team and a club that is getting bigger and bigger. If I'm being totally honest, it doesn't look good if we don't have, at least, 90 percent of Galaxy fans in the stadium tomorrow. It's not going to look good for the club or MLS. If this league wants to push on and go forward, this is the stuff that has to change. We need [the crowd] to be 90 percent of Galaxy fans, or even more. With their support, it'll help us push on and win the game."
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at www.LAGalaxy.com/Insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com.
