Through the early going of the MLS season, St. Louis City and the Los Angeles Galaxy have had very similar showings.
Each owns a 1-0-2 record and has five points through three games and each is coming off a 2-2 draw. They both have a goal differential of plus-2, with St. Louis having scored five and conceded three while Los Angeles has scored six and conceded four.
The one difference between the two sides is their respective home and away records. The Galaxy are 0-0-1 as the hosts compared to 1-0-1 as the visitors. St. Louis’ records are the reverse: 0-0-1 on opposing pitches compared to 1-0-1 on their own pitch.
That’s something St. Louis will look to improve upon when they visit Los Angeles on Saturday.
“We want to become road warriors,” coach Bradley Carnell said. “We want to prove things on the road, that we can play the same way as we do here at CityPark. We want to put those types of displays on away from home, too. This is a very good opponent, one of the best in the league. … It’s a good challenge for us to measure ourselves in our collective efforts.”
St. Louis is coming off its first road match of the season, drawing 2-2 with Austin FC a week ago — a match in which it trailed twice before rallying for a point.
Celio Pompeu tallied in the third minute of second-half stoppage time to secure the point for his side. It was his second goal of the season, tying him for the team lead. Pompeu also assisted on a goal in St. Louis’ 2-0 win against New York City FC on March 2, giving him three goal contributions in three matches to tie his output in 26 matches last season.
St. Louis will be without midfielder Eduard Lowen, who left training Wednesday early with a hamstring injury. Carnell said he would be re-examined in two weeks.
The Galaxy also enter the match having rallied for the draw. After falling behind 2-0 early in the second half against Nashville SC on Sunday, Los Angeles scored twice in 15 minutes to earn the draw.
“I think this group is a resilient bunch,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “They come and they work hard every day. … I think this group feels like they have special qualities and I feel like they can do special things.”
Forward Dejan Joveljic tallied the tying goal against Nashville. The striker leads the Galaxy with three goals, having scored in each of the team’s matches thus far.
Though they have only one win, Los Angeles is feeling good thus far after finishing 13th in the Western Conference and 26th overall in 2023.
“This year is just full of positive and good energy,” Galaxy midfielder Mark Delgado said. “Obviously, from the first three games, you can see … when we play, there’s a lot of joy and it’s fun to watch, and it’s fun to be part of it as well.”
–Field Level Media
