CARSON, Calif. – Just hours after their 5-1 friendly defeat against Real Madrid, the LA Galaxy were back on the training ground with their eye on a far more important match this Sunday.
This weekend, the Galaxy hit the road to take on the Seattle Sounders in a match that could see LA catapult to as high as third place in the Western Conference with three points.
When questioned on Friday about the takeaway from Thursday’s friendly, Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez was blunt saying that focus for LA this week is—and always has been—Sunday’s match against Seattle.
“It doesn’t matter at all, who cares about that game. It’s for fun, fun for the fans, fun for us, but the score line doesn’t matter,” said Gonzalez, who went 45 minutes against Real Madrid. We want to do well against that type of team, but they play in another league and another world even. [The game against Seattle] is the game that matters and I wish that we wouldn’t have even played that game.
“Now we have three days rest for guys and even if we only played a half, it was a tough half. Guys are feeling it and I just wish that we wouldn’t have even gone through that,” Gonzalez added. “We’ve been having a lot of games and for a friendly to happen and then to go into a tough place like Seattle where we need to be at our best is tough.”
Interestingly enough, the Sounders will be going through a similar situation as Seattle defeated Caledonia AIA, 3-1 in CONCACAF Champions League play on Thursday. But unlike the Galaxy, several of Seattle’s first choice players logged considerable minutes in the important CCL match. However, head coach Bruce Arena admitted that the rest factor will likely be a “wash” with the Galaxy traveling to the Pacific Northwest.
Regardless of the travel and the rest, the Galaxy are fully aware that they are in for a test against a Sounders club that is undefeated in their last eight matches in all competitions.
“It’s going to be a tough game, when we played their earlier this year, it was tough and it’s one of those things where we forget about the Real Madrid game and we worry about our regular season game,” Sean Franklin told LAGalaxy.com. “Last week, we got a good win on the road in Dallas and we need to take that same mentality into Seattle.”
Although both the Sounders and the Galaxy will be in a difficult position on Sunday, Gonzalez believes that there is no reason for a poor performance.
“We’re both going to be in tough positions, but at the end of the day, there should be no excuses,” said Gonzalez. “We just have to go out there and win and worry about the way that we come out.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at LAGalaxy.com/Insider
