Red Bulls, Galaxy look to rebound (Apr 27, 2018)

After losing at home for the first time this season, the New York Red Bulls head out on the road this week to try to regain some momentum.

The Red Bulls travel to the Stub Hub Center in Carson, Calif., to play the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday night.

The Galaxy also will be attempting to bounce back from a loss, falling at home last Saturday to Atlanta United, 2-0. That was L.A.'s second consecutive home defeat.

After winning their home opener against LAFC in Zlatan Ibrahimovic's first game with the club, the Galaxy were beaten by Sporting Kansas City before the loss to Atlanta.

Heading into the weekend, the Galaxy (3-3-1, 10 points) are tied for fourth place in the Western Conference with Real Salt Lake and Vancouver.

Ibrahimovic, who has a club-leading three goals, made news off the field this week when he announced that he would not come out of international retirement to play for Sweden in the World Cup. His focus is on the Galaxy, and he's hoping to see a better effort on the pitch than his side put forth a week ago.

"We did too many simple mistakes," he said. "We watched the player instead of watching the ball. In the first half, we were not organized. It was confusion in the game. Second (half) was much better, but we chase, we chase and then we get one goal against us."

The Galaxy are expected to have forward Giovani Dos Santos back from injury this week.

"You never want to get injured, but it's been a good month to get stronger," Dos Santos said. "I've been working really well. I feel very good and I hope that I can be involved in the next game."

But Galaxy midfielder Jonathan Dos Santos may be out again after suffering a calf injury before last week's game against Atlanta United. Baggio Husidic would start in place of Dos Santos.

The Red Bulls stumbled at home in a 2-1 loss to the Chicago Fire last week despite owning a 22-4 advantage in shots. New York (3-3-0, nine points) has fallen back to sixth in the Eastern Conference, two points behind New England and Columbus.

The lone goal was scored by forward Bradley Wright-Phillips, who has a team-leading five for the season.

"What I saw was a team that wasn't fully engaged in the way that we need them to be," New York coach Jesse Marsch said of the loss. "I felt if we would have been on top of our tactical details more, if our mentality would have been stronger, if we had more urgency in our play, the game would have never had a chance of slipping away from us."

Defensively against the Galaxy, the Red Bulls will pay plenty of attention to Ibrahimovic while trying to capitalize on scoring chances against Los Angeles, which has given up eight goals in its past four home games.

"I'm excited to play against a player of his caliber and to see what he has already done in this league," New York defender Tim Parker said. "It's going to be big for me and Aaron (Long) to obviously keep him limited.

"I think we have to keep them in their own half and get in their heads a little bit. We want to frustrate them and make sure they are not having an easy day."

The teams last played in Los Angeles in August 2016, with the match finishing in a 2-2 draw.

In the lead-up to this week's match, the Red Bulls signed midfielder Daniel Royer to a multiyear contract and reportedly reached agreement on a contract extension with midfielder Sean Davis.