View From the Booth: Galaxy Need to Establish Home Field Advantage

Mark Rogondino

The only way to describe Wednesday’s 1-1 draw in Philadelphia is disappointing.

Maybe Carlos Ruiz had a point when he took a dig at the LA Galaxy and said that they are in trouble. No matter how you look at it, LA has left points on the field several times this season, and I know we all don’t want to see that come back to hurt this team come in October.

Sure you could say the officiating was at fault, a bad break went against the Galaxy, or even a blatant error that lead to a goal. Regardless of however you want to look at it, “it” has become a consistent problem. Dare I say it, a bad habit?

However, there is still a chance to salvage the three-game run of this week. Similar to when the Galaxy went on their three games in eight days, East Coast road trip and came away with a draw in each of the first two games before beating Chicago, a win against Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night would shine a positive light on things. A win would mean LA would once again take five of the possible nine points from the three games in eight days.

Sporting Kansas City arrive in Southern California looking for their second win of the year, and second at The Home Depot Center. Sporting opened the season with a win against Chivas USA back in March, but they have struggled ever since. KC has failed to notch another win, and in fact is in a run of three straight losses.

A major factor why Sporting have struggled early this season is that they have played all of their games on the road, while waiting for their new home, LIVESTRONG Sporting Park to finish construction ahead of their June 9 home opener. But this is a team that is starting to play better in recent weeks and has had two weeks to prepare for Saturday’s game. In addition, as we see year after year, teams are known to play their best when the Galaxy are on the field.

Defensively, Sporting Kansas City is very vulnerable. The team has surrendered 13 goals this year in six games and has yet to shutout an opponent. Jimmy Nielsen is a solid goalkeeper and has come up with some big saves to keep his team in games, including stopping a penalty against New York two weeks ago, but the bottom line is this team allows too many chances around the goal.

The return of Matt Besler and Roger Espinoza to the back four should help solidify things this week. Besler had to sit out a game due to suspension, and Espinoza couldn’t fight off illness to make the line-up against New York.

I am looking forward to how the Galaxy will respond after the game in Philadelphia. Even though LA earned a point, to most it felt more like a loss. I received numerous comments on twitter (@mrogondino), ranging from it was my fault that I mentioned something about the Galaxy and their inability to close out games, to the anger that LA has consistently found a way to leave points on the table.

If you recall how the Galaxy started against Portland a few weeks ago, that is EXACTLY the response I want to see. Simply overwhelming the opponent in the first 10 minutes of the game, to the point where the other team is under intense pressure and off balance.

It goes back to what I was saying last time on this very same page. Make teams coming to The HDC to play the Galaxy think they will have to perfectly execute a game plan to even come away with a single point. That is called a true home field advantage, something Sporting Kansas City won’t have a chance to experience until the first week of June, but something that Galaxy fans will hope to be a part of on Saturday night.