Can Colorado Rapids defend home streak and deny LA Galaxy's playoff push?

This Wednesday's regular-season matchup between Colorado Rapids and LA Galaxy is anything but a regular season matchup, with the teams both up at the top of the Western Conference standings. The showdown at DICK'S Sporting Goods Park carries serious weight, a win for the Galaxy could lock in their top spot in conference while Colorado is looking to lock in home-field advantage for the 2024 MLS Cup playoffs. This is a huge matchup for both clubs with the postseason drawing closer.

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Colorado Rapids: Focused on Home-Field Advantage

The Colorado Rapids enter this match with one thing in mind: to deliver themselves a spot in the top four of the Western Conference and assure a home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. With 50 points and sitting in fourth place, the team has been dominant at home all season. They are unbeaten in the last 13 matches at DICK'S Sporting Goods Park, having transformed their home into a real fortress. Colorado managed to boast a record of 10 wins, 2 draws, and just 3 losses at home, thus remaining confident of their ability to control games when they play in front of their home crowd.

The team is, however, coming off a heavy 3-0 loss to Minnesota United and will carry extra pressure going into this tie against the Galaxy. Rapids' head coach knows his team needs to show its resilience and bounce back from that defeat to keep their hope of finishing in the top four alive.

Through the midfield in Colorado, the engine has been Djordje Mihailovic, who, with 11 goals and 13 assists this season, will be called upon to break down the Galaxy defense by being an outright chance creator and a dictating influence on proceedings. Additionally, goalkeeper Zack Steffen will have a key role to play to shut down LA's potent attack.

LA Galaxy: In Hot Pursuit of Top Spot and Road Woes

Meanwhile, LA Galaxy enters Wednesday's match knowing a win will just about lock up first place in the Western Conference. The club currently leads the conference with 58 points-six ahead of the second-place team. A victory in Colorado would go a long way toward locking up that top spot. Attacking trio Riqui Puig, Joseph Paintsil, and Gabriel Pec have been the most-feared attack this season, as all three net more than 10 goals thus far.

But despite that good streak and a 4-2 victory in their last encounter against Vancouver Whitecaps, Galaxy have performed abysmally away from home. They have lost the last three away matches and won just five of 15 away games this season. Such inconsistency away from home plays into Colorado's strong home form. Galaxy's head coach knows they need to break this negative streak if they want to leave DICK'S Sporting Goods Park with all three points.

Recent History

While Galaxy holds the overall advantage in the head-to-head record, with 84 regular season meetings between the two clubs, Colorado has had the upper hand in recent years. In that stretch since 2018, the Rapids boast a 7-2-3 mark against the Galaxy with a +6 goal differential. Colorado has also taken seven of the last dozen meetings between the two sides, including a 3-1 win in the most recent meeting at DICK'S Sporting Goods Park back in 2022.