Bruce Arena demands defensive fix as San Jose's backline leaks goals

San Jose Earthquakes head coach Bruce Arena has conceded his team's defending has been "very poor" of late, but insists there is no cause for panic over the Western Conference standings as his side prepare to host a goal-shy LA Galaxy in an intriguing midweek MLS clash.

The Quakes have won just one of their last nine league matches (D3 L5) and have shipped 12 goals across their last four outings — a dramatic slump after a blistering start to the campaign in which they lost only one of their opening 10 games and sat comfortably in the Western Conference shake-up.

Despite the slide, San Jose remain fourth in the table, just four points behind leaders the Vancouver Whitecaps. Arena is hunting improvement but says he is not obsessing over the standings.

"Collectively, we've been very poor at the defensive end of the field," Arena said. "No question about that. [Against St. Louis City SC], first goal, we're not tracking players. Second goal, probably get ahead on that or the goalkeeper gets on the end of that. And the third goal was an absolute miss by our backline and goalkeeper. We deserved a good beating. We're not panicking [about the standings] yet."

Galaxy's goal drought deepens Vanney's pressure

At the other end of the West, the Galaxy are mired in 13th place with 22 points from 20 games and are winless in six (D3 L3). They lost 1-0 to Houston Dynamo last time out without managing to land a single shot on target, a result that has intensified the scrutiny on head coach Greg Vanney.

Vanney is hoping for a more clinical display against the Quakes. "It's about the efficiency when we get into the final action," he said. "We get into some good early spots through the game, but I felt like we weren't efficient at those moments. And once we go down a man, it only gets more difficult."

Players to watch

LA Galaxy – Kyogo Furuhashi: The Galaxy failed to hit the target with any of their nine shots in defeat at Houston, with only Kyogo attempting more than one (three). Those efforts were worth 0.3 expected goals (xG) on the weekend, and the forward is still searching for his first goal since joining from Birmingham City.

San Jose Earthquakes – Beau Leroux: Leroux scored his eighth career regular-season goal last Saturday in the 3-1 loss to St. Louis, and his sixth from outside the box. Since his MLS debut last season, only four players have scored more goals from distance: Evander (16), Lionel Messi (12), Martin Ojeda (seven) and Sebastian Berhalter (seven).

Match prediction: Draw

The LA Galaxy have lost only one of the last 11 editions of the California Clasico (W7 D3), though San Jose are unbeaten in the last three (W1 D2). The Earthquakes have not gone four straight matches against the Galaxy without defeat in all competitions since a run between May and November 2012 (W3 D1).

Los Angeles' winless streak stretched to six matches (D3 L3) with the 1-0 loss to Houston. They have just four wins in their last 18 matches in all competitions, with only one of those coming at home — a 2-1 victory over Real Salt Lake on April 26. San Jose, meanwhile, have won only one of their last nine regular-season games (D3 L5) after opening with nine wins from 10 (L1). The Quakes, who kept clean sheets in five of their first six matches this year, have conceded at least once in all 13 regular-season matches since.

Opta win probability: LA Galaxy 39.4%, Draw 26.6%, San Jose Earthquakes 34%.