Galaxy, Chivas USA Looking for Wins

Summer is almost upon us and that means two things: warm weather and the race to the MLS playoffs is about to start. Entering the 12th week of the 2009 campaign, a couple of interesting and familiar trends are starting to surface.

Perennial MLS Cup contender, Houston Dynamo, started off a bit slow but now sits in second place in the overall standings a mere three points behind overall leader Chivas USA. Chicago and D.C. United follow with 21 and 19 points respectively. Clearly, things are starting to tighten up and the middle third of the season which we recently entered tends to factor heavily on a team's chances for a playoff spot. It is time for teams to really get down to business.

The L.A. Galaxy started off very slow but are showing some faint signs of more positive things just around the corner. After years of dismal defensive play, General Manager and Head Coach Bruce Arena made it a point to focus heavily on correcting said issues this year. His work has significantly improved the defense and the team has slowly crept up a few spots in the standings, riding a steady series of ties. In order to rise to the next level, however, the team needs to generate more offense to turn those ties into victories. Herein lies the team's biggest challenge, further compounded by the absence of their offensive threat, forward Landon Donovan. Donovan will be on duty with the U.S. Men's National Team for a few weeks, thus missing some MLS matches.

Recent games have shown some hopeful signs of offensive potential, but that was with Donovan on the pitch. This afternoon will be the team's first test without the speedy forward and others will need to step up to take up the void left on the offensive side. A victory or tie against Toronto FC at BMO Field this afternoon will extend the Galaxy's undefeated streak to ten games.

For its part, Toronto has had a bit of an up-and-down season so far and are also missing players due to National Team duty. Fortunately for the Galaxy, one of those absences is playmaker Amado Guevara who always seems to have a field day when facing the blue-and-gold.

The absences will take a bit away from the game, but at the same time, it will open up opportunities for others to come off the bench and make a name for themselves. Should be interesting as both teams are looking to get some more wins under their belt.