Whitecaps tangle with resurgent Galaxy

Carson, CA – Wednesday's 3-2 comeback win over Real Salt Lake is the type of result that can turn a season around for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Bruce Arena's team trailed RSL 2-0 after 25 minutes, but Landon Donovan scored two goals and assisted on another to help the Galaxy rally for their second successive win after three straight losses.

The Galaxy is still 15 points back of Salt Lake at the top of the Western Conference, but Arena is hopeful that another good result on Saturday at home against Vancouver Whitecaps FC will see his team headed back up the table.

"We are starting to move up the ladder a little bit," said Arena. "Three games ago we were sitting in a difficult position and now we've got six points in two games and we want to get another three on Saturday and that would put us in a decent position as we try to improve in the second half of the season. This week would indicate that things are moving in the right direction."

Donovan put forth the type of effort his team needed, but he knows how much work must still be done for the Galaxy to get back to where preseason expectations were.

"We're not going to get carried away over two wins now," Donovan said. "We've had a really poor start to the season so we've got a lot of ground to make up. We're real envious of the position Salt Lake is in and that's where we feel we should be. We need to do our part to keep winning games and worry about everything else later, but we've got to keep winning games and keep the momentum going."

Vancouver has a bit of its own momentum going at the moment with Martin Rennie's team carrying a five-game unbeaten streak into Saturday's match.

The Whitecaps were held to a 1-1 draw by Red Bull New York on Wednesday, and although Rennie's team finds itself in third place in the Western Conference, the coach knows his side has room for improvement.

"There's two big things for us to make improvements on tonight," Rennie said following the draw with New York. "One is how we break down a team that sits a little deeper and how we make sure we're clinical when we have chances. The second thing would be when we're ahead in a game with a short time to go making sure that we see the game out. We need to manage that just a little bit better. But overall I think tonight was a strong performance from us."

Vancouver will be boosted by the return of young forward Darren Mattocks, who was suspended for Wednesday's match after being sent off against the Colorado Rapids last weekend.

Mattocks has netted three goals in his last three games and gives Rennie another option up top along with Sebastien Le Toux, Camilo Sanvezzo and Eric Hassli.