CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy have their sights set on their first U.S. Open Cup title in a decade, but they’ll have to get through Real Salt Lake in the competition’s quarterfinal stage on Tuesday.
The Galaxy reached the quarterfinals after earning their first competitive road victory since last August by dispatching the San Jose Earthquakes 1-0 in the Round of 16 earlier this month. Fresh on the heels of their 2-1 International Champions Cup win over Club America, the Galaxy will now switch gears to a tournament which is of vital importance for Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena and his men.
“It’s certainly important,” Arena said after the team’s final training session before departing for Salt Lake City. “We’re in the quarterfinals now, and we’d like to play three more games in this competition. It’s an important game, and we’re going to do our best to win.”
Added right back Dan Gargan, “We’re at a point where this has gotten really important. It’s an opportunity for us to win some hardware and we can all see the end of that finish line. Some of the earlier games are tough to play in, and tough to get results, but this won’t be any different … It’s a priority for us.”
The importance of the match is without question, but just who takes the field on Tuesday is up in the air.
In LA’s two preceding Open Cup matches, Arena has rotated his squad each time. Against PSA Elite, Arena trotted out almost a first choice XI that thumped the amateur side before opting for a youth-laden squad against the Earthquakes in the Round of 16.
This time around, Arena is expected to field close to a first choice lineup with Galaxy stars Robbie Keane and Steven Gerrard making the trip to Salt Lake City. Whether they’ll start, however, remains up to Arena.
“We have options, we have players who can play on both Tuesday and Friday, we’ll make those decisions when we arrive in Salt Lake City,” said Arena. “We’ll see, we’ll get it figured out.”
Regardless of who takes the field, whether it a first choice team or a youth-laden one, the Galaxy are heading to Rio Tinto Stadium with the goal of helping LA reach the USOC semifinals for the first time since 2006.
“Bruce is going to put some emphasis in this game,” Gargan said. “We don’t know what the lineup will be yet, it could be a bit of a mixture but I think that we all feel there is a real opportunity to win a championship, and we’re focused on it.
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at LAGalaxy.com/Insider and contact him at LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com.
