CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy haven’t won in just under a month and they are in the midst of a four-game winless streak. Head coach Bruce Arena said he had the perfect solution to his team’s problems.
“Yeah, we’re probably going to fold the franchise,” he said sarcastically after Thursday’s lackluster 0-0 tie with Sporting Kansas City in front of a StubHub Center crowd of 19,651.
Chances are the five-time MLS Cup champions still will be operating through the weekend as they begin a 16-day break from competition to accommodate group play in the Copa America Centenario, but there definitely may be reason for concern. The Galaxy are 0-1-3 in their last four games and their last victory was a 4-2 romp over New England on May 8.
There actually was some good news Thursday.
Goalkeeper Brian Rowe, who misplayed a free kick in a last-second 3-2 loss to the Montreal Impact last Saturday, looked sharp in net. The shutout also marked the Galaxy’s second clean sheet of the season; the other was a 0-0 tie at Vancouver on April 2.
Other than that Thursday’s Western Conference clash was a dull affair in which the Galaxy were not credited with a single shot on goal.
“Probably the most frustrating night I’ve experienced in a Galaxy shirt, to be honest,” midfielder Sebastian Lletget said. “We weren’t very creative tonight.
“You can give credit to them. They made it difficult, but we still weren’t at our best.”
Granted, the Galaxy were short-handed.
Midfielder Steven Gerrard, for example, did not play because of a minor injury suffered in training this week and forwards Robbie Keane and Gyasi Zardes were with their national teams (Ireland and the U.S., respectively).
But players did not want to use those absences as an excuse for the team’s poor performance.
“It had the makings of a 0-0 game,” Arena said, “and that’s what it was.”
“I think individually we’re disappointed,” midfielder Baggio Husidic said. “We’ve got to get it together. Usually this is the time of year when the Galaxy start going on a streak and scoring a lot of goals, and we’re still lacking that final touch and the sharpness we usually tend to have around this time.
“We’ve got to give credit to Kansas City. They fought well and they defended well. You can’t take that away from them, but on our end playing at home we needed to be sharper, more aggressive, more creative, a lot of things that we lacked tonight we usually have.”
Center back A.J. DeLaGarza, making his first start since the romp over New England, said the tie was satisfying in one respect.
“The positive we can take out of it is we got our second shutout of the year,” he said. “That was a big thing tonight.”
Right back Robbie Rogers said he wasn’t concerned with the team’s recent play. Not yet anyway.
“I wouldn’t say concerned,” he said. “We have a lot of work ahead of us. I thought today we defended well as a team, which was an improvement over the past few games.
“It’s a long season.”
