CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy won the regular season series against Real Salt Lake 2-1-0 and because of that stat, RSL head coach Jason Kreis believes that it will make LA favorites to win the Western Conference Semifinal.
LA picked up two wins against RSL this season winning the first meeting 2-0 at Rio Tinto Stadium on April 27 before falling in Sandy, UT 3-1 on June 8th. The Galaxy then clobbered RSL 4-2 on Aug. 17 in the lone game at StubHub Center.
Although the Galaxy outscored his side seven to three in 2013, Kreis is confident in RSL’s ability to disregard their regular season struggles against LA.
“I think [the regular season record is] relevant in some ways that it makes them the favorite. But do I think that will be the end all be all to determine the playoffs? No I don’t,” said Kreis. “I think that when players get into the playoff situation they quickly forget what records were like during the regular season and I think all of look at the playoffs as a completely new and fresh opportunity so records sometimes go out the window.”
As for Kreis’ gameplan to stop the two-time defending MLS Cup champions, he believes that it will depend on his ability to stop the Galaxy’s dangerous forward pairing of Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane.
It’s the best forward partnership in the entire league with Donovan and Keane if that’s who they choose to play there. I think that for me, Robbie Keane is probably the MLS MVP this year,” said Jason Kreis. “He’s been the most consistent and best player this year and so those two players we have to be mindful of all the time. And then they have some other guys that mix in well and come in late with the central midfielders so we’ve got to be mindful of them.
“We always have to be concerned with the potential of a team like LA because they get it,” Kreis added. “They put things together in the playoffs, players that have been there and done it so many times that they know what they’re capable of and often times will be playing there absolute best so we need to be worried about their potential, not necessarily what we’ve seen over the last week or two.”
