CARSON — The long road up the Western Conference standings and the hunt for a playoff berth resumed for the Galaxy on Saturday night.
Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said each of the final 12 games are like a playoff game and the Galaxy started this stretch with a strong showing in a 3-0 victory over the Chicago Fire in front of 19,762 at Dignity Health Sports Park.
It was the first MLS match for the Galaxy since July 15 and the first of any kind since July 30, when the club was eliminated from the Leagues Cup competition.
Since the last game the Galaxy played, the club underwent a makeover during the summer transfer window, acquiring forward Billy Sharp, defender Maya Yoshida and midfielders Diego Fagundez, Michael Barrios and Edwin Cerrillo. Yoshida and Cerrillo were inserted into the starting lineup Saturday. Sharp entered as a second-half substitute in the 70th minute and scored his first MLS goal, converting a penalty kick in the 90th minute.
“They’re going to help us, there’s no question about that,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said this week of the new acquisitions. “The environment is really competitive. Guys are competing to play, guys are competing to start and guys are pushing each other, we’ve added some maturity and we’ve felt that maturity has raised.”
The game changed in the 27th minute when Chicago midfielder Gaston Gimenez picked up his second yellow card and was sent off, leaving the Galaxy with a player advantage for the rest of the night.
It paid off in the 28th minute off of a free kick as Tyler Boyd scored for a 1-0 lead. The initial ball from Douglas Costa came off of a Chicago defender and right into Boyd’s path.
Riqui Puig gave the Galaxy a 2-0 lead in the 72nd minute with his calm finish inside the 18-yard box.
“We weren’t sharp at the beginning, I thought we were too slow in terms of our rhythm and I knew it was going to be a process, building into the game,” Vanney said. “As the game progressed, they went down a man, we got structurally smoother.”
The Galaxy (6-10-7) improved to 25 points with the win and now stands seven points behind the ninth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
“Every team we play is a hard game, especially this time of year when everybody looking at the standings and they understand, on some level what they need to keep moving toward the playoffs,” Vanney said.
The Galaxy returns to action Wednesday on the road against San Jose before hosting the Houston Dynamo next Saturday.