Surging Galaxy look to take advantage of Timbers' troubles

The resurgent LA Galaxy will look for their third consecutive victory on Wednesday night when they visit a Portland Timbers side coming off a pair of troubling defensive performances.

After a miserable July at the MLS is Back Tournament, where the Galaxy lost twice and tied once, and lost striker Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez to a calf injury, LA (2-3-2, 8 points) has been one of the best teams since the season restarted in August.

With Chicharito still out, Sebastian Lletget has picked up the scoring load with two goals and an assist in a pair of wins over LAFC and the San Jose Earthquakes. And 19-year-old Julian Araujo has also emerged as a more important part of the Galaxy offense.

Defensively, LA has been better if not necessarily perfect, conceding two goals in two matches after letting in eight over the first five.

Perhaps most improved is the resiliency, says Lletget. The LAFC win came in desperately hot conditions, and the victory against San Jose came after trailing twice.

"I think normally last year we would've put our head down and probably just accepted that it wasn't -- we weren't going to come back," Lletget said of the win over the Quakes. "I mean, polar opposites (to this year). More than anything, I'm happy about that."

Portland (3-2-2, 11 points) saw any lingering satisfaction of winning the MLS is Back Tournament quickly put in the past with its return to the regular season.

After an embarrassing 3-0 home loss to the Seattle Sounders, the Timbers settled for a 4-4 draw against Real Salt Lake on Saturday after entering the 90th minute with a two-goal lead.

What troubled Timbers manager Giovanni Savarese most was that the very late goals from RSL's Guiseppe Rossi and Sam Johnson echoed a pattern from the previous match, in which Seattle did all their damage after the 72-minute mark.

"Against Seattle, it was the same," Savarese said. "Great performance 73 minutes. We deserve to win, we have the game in control and then at the end we lose 3-0. Too many goals, at home. That's not good enough."

On the plus side, Sebastian Blanco has still shown the offensive form that made him the MVP of MLS is Back, contributing a goal and an assist in the RSL draw. He has two goals and four assists in regular-season play, and had two more of each in the tournament's knockout phase.

--Field Level Media