Marco Reus is desperate to bring silverware to the LA Galaxy after making a flying start to his time in MLS, with St. Louis City the destination for his first road game on Sunday.
Reus registered a goal and an assist on debut last week as the Galaxy beat Atlanta United 2-0, maintaining their grip on top spot in the Western Conference.
The Galaxy are five points clear of local rivals Los Angeles FC at the top of the standings ahead of Sunday s trip to St. Louis, who are 13th and 10 points adrift of the playoff picture.
Reus arrival in Los Angeles has caused plenty of fanfare, but he is focused solely on the team s collective aims.
It s not about me, it s about the team, he said. We want to be champions. So we take it game by game.
Besides the traffic, it s really amazing. The people are so friendly. The weather, it s really nice. When you wake up in the morning and the sun is shining, you start the day differently.
So I m really, really happy every morning I come into the dressing room. I m just happy and excited.
Nos vemos en St. Louis x
— LA Galaxy (@LAGalaxy)
St. Louis played out a thrilling 4-4 draw with the Portland Timbers last week, twice throwing away a two-goal lead to leave interim coach John Hackworth bewildered.
Really don t know what to say, Hackworth said. It s hard to imagine coming to a place like this and scoring four goals, being up, and then just losing one-versus-one defensive battles.
Sometimes, the number of goals you give up, or the number of goals you score, can hide a lot of the transition moments.
An easy way to prevent some of these defensive miscues from happening is to just be better with the ball.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
St. Louis City – Eduard Lowen
Lowen scored his fourth goal of the MLS season last time out, converting from the penalty spot as St. Louis drew 4-4 with the Timbers.
Only Joao Klauss, with five goals, has outscored him for St. Louis this term.
LA Galaxy – Marco Reus
Reus is one of 20 players in MLS history to record a goal and an assist on his regular-season debut.
He is also the fifth Galaxy player to do so, after Steven Gerrard, Andreas Herzog, Giovani dos Santos and Sasha Victorine. No other team have had more than two players achieve the feat.
MATCH PREDICTION – DRAW
The Galaxy have won 10 of their last 13 regular-season matches, the first time they have done so in a single season since 2011. LA have not recorded 11 wins in a span of 14 matches within a single regular season in the post-shootout era (since 2000).
It would be no surprise to see the points shared in this one, though. All three meetings between St. Louis and the Galaxy have ended level, all with different scorelines (1-1, 2-2, 3-3).
St. Louis have only won one of the last six matches in which they have held the lead in regular-season play dating back to the beginning of June (four draws, one defeat).
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
St. Louis City – 35.8%
LA Galaxy – 38.1%
Draw – 26.1%
