With his team's 0-3-2 start to the season disappearing in the rearview mirror, Portland Timbers coach Giovanni Savarese is preaching focus.
The Timbers (6-3-2), winners of six straight games, will try to maintain their perfect 4-0-0 home record when they host the LA Galaxy on Saturday at Providence Park in Portland.
"I don't think about the winning streak," Savarese said in his weekly press conference. "I only think about the fact that we did the job that we needed to do in Colorado and now we have one more match. Every week we have to think about the next match. The victories, of course, allow you to have a better environment, allows you to be able to correct things in a positive way and that's very, very good. But we have to stay focused that it has to be one match at a time."
Portland, which didn't play at home until the sixth week of the season, is coming off a 3-2 win over the Rapids and sits in fourth place in the Western Conference.
"We have to just make sure we keep on going in this direction," Savarese said, according to the (Portland) Oregonian. "I've been very content with the mentality of the players, very happy to see that whoever steps on the field gives 100 percent. We're on the right path."
On Saturday, the Timbers will be without David Guzman (Costa Rica) and Andy Polo (Peru), who are away on international duty. Defender Liam Ridgewell, who missed the win in Colorado, is out again with a right quad injury.
The Galaxy (5-7-1) are coming off a 3-2 loss to FC Dallas after coach Sig Schmid made several changes to a lineup that had beaten San Jose the previous week.
Dallas led 2-0 at halftime and 3-0 after 66 minutes as LA lost for the fourth time in seven home games.
"Part of it is me. I made some lineup changes because I thought with the game coming up with Portland, I thought we needed to make sure we had some guys who were fresh," Schmid said after the game when asked what is to blame for his team's defensive performance. "The first thing I'm going to do is analyze if I made the right decisions, but obviously there's other opportunities. We have more than 11 players on this team and when your number is called, you've got to be ready. Just our intensity and our desire, our drive, our determination in the first 15 minutes was not good."
The Galaxy is 4-4-2 all time at Portland.
