The superstar striker is done for the year, and his heir apparent isn’t hitting the net. The backline leader might be finished, too, and there’s only one center back available — not a regular starter — with the rising phenom and only other veteran substitute off at the Gold Cup.
 
The LA Galaxy ought to be in shambles — a glance at the Major League Soccer table suggests that’s so — but a six-game MLS unbeaten streak capped by the Fourth of July triumph over archrival Los Angeles FC says otherwise.
 
Things are hardly perfect — there have been four ties during the stretch, two after conceding late equalizers, and some of the gnawing, longstanding issues haven’t been conquered — but Tuesday’s 2-1 win before a league-record stand-alone crowd of 82,110 at the Rose Bowl provided a nice look at what’s working for the former standard-bearers while contrasting their current form with their more-revered El Trafico rivals’.
 
Two glimmering goals, Tyler Boyd‘s upper-right beauty to forge a first-half lead and Riqui Puig‘s goalmouth finish for the win, punctuated a performance that thrilled most inside the iconic venue, the club’s fans firmly behind the side since former president Chris Klein‘s ouster last month.
 
Now, on the heels of taking down the reigning MLS Cup champion, comes runner-up Philadelphia Union, on Saturday night at Dignity Health Sports Park. It’s another chance to make a statement.
 
“To put together back-to-back wins against two very good teams would be … I don’t even know if I could describe what it would mean to the group,” head coach Greg Vanney said Friday. “It would almost signal, like, OK, whatever happened earlier in the season is truly, really behind us. Like, behind us. And we would probably see we closed the gap even more and some sign that you have a gap that’s not insurmountable.”
 
LA could sure use the win. It’s just 4-7-9 following that awful 1-6-3 start, ahead of only the lowly Colorado Rapids in the Western Conference, but sits only six points below the postseason line with 14 league games to go. The Galaxy’s form has been better than its record from the start, a few startlingly poor outings aside, but those elements are starting to mesh behind dynamic midfield and wing play — much of it anchored by interim captain Gaston Brugman in the No. 6 slot — and surprising MLS newcomer Preston Judd‘s prowess up top.
 
Things are going the Galaxy’s way, more or less, and the more things fall into place, the more dangerous it will be.
 
“[When you put these kind of results] in the bank, you build a little bit of confidence. You build a little bit of resiliency through that stretch,” Vanney noted after Tuesday’s victory. “Tonight, we got all of that in one match. Because of the environment. The magnitude of the game. The feeling of the game. The joy that’s in the group. Sometimes you forget about some of the struggles that were earlier in the season. And I felt like even though we’re been solid through this little stretch, you still feel the tension of the earlier part of the season.
 
“So my hope is that tonight the joy that they feel in the locker room and for each other, our effort and for our fans, that this can be that thing that puts you on another level of confidence and belief, and you can start to build off of this even more. I think it’s building off of the last five games that we should look back on. It’s not just tonight.”

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