During opening day the Galaxy of Los Angeles faces the Xolos of Tijuana is what can also be considered as a Californian derby, although the two clubs are from different leagues. However, the closeness of the city of Tijuana with the Angelina city is such that the Dignity Health Sports Park stadium, the venue of the meeting, will undoubtedly have many fans of the Mexican team.
And both teams could not better reach this quarterfinals commitment; the Galaxy comes from achieving a great victory within the MLS thanks to the 3-2 against Los Angeles FC, in a duel where the Swedish Zlatan Ibrahimovic did his thing to achieve a sensational triplet.
However, just as the team had a dream performance against their city rival, the last months of the season have been constant ups and downs in performance, since since the end of May the club has not spun two consecutive victories in the League. Before this pair of triumphs, the Angelina squad had a run of 4 defeats in a row, but in June they began to come and go triumphs and breakdowns week by week.
For example, a 2-0 in favor of FC Cincinnati was followed by a 3-0 against San José Earthquakes and a 2-0 win against Toronto FC came next week. This irregularity has prevented Barros Schelotto’s team from getting closer to Los Angeles FC in the Western Conference where he is in second place, 9 points below the leader; in the Cup, the Galaxy was already eliminated in the Round of 16 by Portland Timbers with a 4-0 win.
Without a doubt, the Los Angeles Galaxy squad is not only one of the most complete in the MLS, but the entire Concacaf area. The great presence of Zlatan is added by the Mexicans Jonathan dos Santos and Uriel Antuna, the Uruguayan Diego Polenta, the Ghanaian Emmanuel Boateng or the Americans David Bingham, Chris Pontius or Joe Corona, curiously one of the pillars of the Xolos when they ascended to the First Division.
On the other hand, Tijuana, on whose bench the Colombian Óscar Pareja remains, arrives at this meeting at a good time, since his preseason results were acceptable and the cherry of the cake was the 1-0 victory over Boca Juniors. Then it was time for the debut at the Apertura 2019 and in his visit to Puebla, the team achieved a convincing triumph of 3-1
The incorporation of soccer players such as Camilo Sanvezzo, Ángel Sepúlveda, Jorge Rojas or Washington Camacho have very well counteracted the departure of important elements such as Gustavo Bou, Fabián Castillo or Luis Chávez.