The LA Galaxy aim to continue their recent strong play when they visit the San Jose Earthquakes for the latest installment of the California Clasico on Wednesday night.

The Galaxy (6-10-7, 25 points) are 4-1-4 over their past nine MLS matches as they look to overcome a slow start. Los Angeles sits in 13th place in the 14-team Western Conference.

The Galaxy are 1-0-1 this season against San Jose (9-8-8, 35 points), which is tied for the fifth-most points in the West.

Los Angeles is coming off Saturday’s 3-0 home victory over the Chicago Fire.

Tyler Boyd, Riqui Puig and newcomer Billy Sharp scored the goals.

Sharp, 37, scored on a penalty kick in the 90th minute in his franchise debut. He spent the past eight seasons with Sheffield United in England and scored 266 goals in 19 seasons overseas.

“I’m very grateful and very thankful to be here,” Sharp said after Saturday’s win. “I want to come here and score goals and I want to make a difference. Every single player and staff member have made me feel really grateful.”

San Jose had a four-match MLS unbeaten streak (2-0-2) conclude with Saturday’s 3-0 road loss against Sporting Kansas City.

The Earthquakes placed just two shots on target in the disappointing setback.

“We are very disappointed in the score,” San Jose coach Luchi Gonzalez said afterward. “It wasn’t our night. It’s done. Let’s move on and respond to the next moment, it is what this team has been doing all season. I believe they will be ready to fight again.”

Goalkeeper Daniel allowed his second-most goals of the season. He gave up four in a 4-1 loss to the Houston Dynamo on June 21.

San Jose star Cristian Espinoza didn’t take a single shot against Sporting KC. Espinoza is tied for second in MLS with 12 goals.

Espinoza scored the tying goal in the 81st minute when San Jose and Los Angeles played to a 2-2 draw at Stanford Stadium on July 1. The Galaxy won the first matchup 2-1 at home on May 14.

Boyd leads the Galaxy with five goals.

The Earthquakes are 7-1-4 at home this season. Los Angeles is 1-6-5 on the road.

–Field Level Media

Something has to give when enigmatic Austin FC hosts the stumbling Seattle Sounders on Wednesday in a key late-season Western Conference match.

Both teams are above the playoff line as the league schedule turns to its final quarter but have struggled lately. Austin has lost its past four matches and the Sounders have gone winless in their last six.

Austin (9-11-5, 32 points) heads home after a 1-0 loss at Copa Tejas rival FC Dallas on Saturday. The Verde was close to splitting the points with Dallas despite playing a man down for the final 30 minutes of the match but lost on the final kick of the highly contested match.

“I liked the guys’ spirit character, the grit, the grind,” Austin coach Josh Wolff said. “They worked incredibly hard, and they gave up very little and we deserved to take the points but this is what the game is. We’ll do our best to take it out on Seattle.”

The Verde is looking to its home-pitch advantage to get back on track. Austin has dropped only two of its past 11 regular-season matches at Q2 Stadium and has captured three straight at home.

Sebastian Driussi, last season’s runner-up for league MVP, leads Austin FC with seven goals this year despite missing nearly a month with a groin injury.

It will be a quick turnaround for the Sounders (10-9-7, 37 points), who travel to central Texas after a 1-1 draw in Minnesota on Sunday. Seattle’s Yeimar Gomez Andrade was responsible for both goals in the match — one for his team on a header off an assist from Nico Lodeiro in the 17th minute and an own goal in the 56th minute that ultimately split the points.

“At the end of the day, it’s a point on the road and maybe at the end of the season it’ll be a difference maker,” Seattle midfielder Albert Rusnak said after Sunday’s game. “This point could be valuable.”

Seattle’s six-match winless streak (two draws) is its second longest since 2014.

Austin beat the Sounders 2-1 in May in Seattle in the only other meeting between the sides this year. Overall, Seattle has a 2-1 edge over the Verde, with a pair of draws in their five all-time meetings

–Field Level Media

Real Salt Lake has played its past three matches in three different competitions.

And lost them all.

RSL (10-8-7, 37 points) will try to get back on track when it visits Portland (6-11-8, 26 points) in a Major League Soccer match Wednesday night.

Salt Lake lost midfielder Pablo Ruiz, who had four goals and a team-high six assists, to a season-ending knee injury earlier this month.

It has since lost 4-0 at Los Angeles FC in the Leagues Cup round of 16, 3-1 at Houston in the semifinals of the U.S. Open Cup and again to the Dynamo 3-0 on Saturday at home in the resumption of MLS play.

“I think the group lacks a little bit of confidence after the recent results,” RSL coach Pablo Mastroeni said. “You’ve got to believe when you step on that field that you’re going to win the game.

“I told them, ‘You guys didn’t get here because you’re a poor group of soccer players. You don’t go on the run that we did for three months if you’re poor soccer players. If you feel sorry for yourself, you’ll never get to where you were.’

“Now we’ve just got to put it all together and go to Portland and get a result.”

The Timbers fired coach Giovanni Savarese last week after a 5-0 loss at Houston.

They played better Saturday against visiting Vancouver in the debut of interim coach Miles Joseph, but still suffered a 3-2 defeat despite goals from Felipe Mora and Evander.

“What I can say is that everyone has to do more,” Timbers captain Diego Chara said. “In defense, in attack, we need to figure out how to do better things on the field.”

This will be the third meeting between the teams this season.

Real Salt Lake knocked out the Timbers in the fourth round of the U.S. Open Cup with a 4-3 decision May 10 at Portland. That snapped RSL’s seven-match winless streak (0-5-2) at Providence Park. The teams played to a scoreless draw a week later in an MLS match in Sandy, Utah.

–Field Level Media

Two teams below the Western Conference playoff line square off on Wednesday night when Minnesota United host the last-place Colorado Rapids in St. Paul, Minn.

The Loons (8-8-8, 32 points) enter the contest in 10th place but have a match in hand against ninth-place Austin FC (9-11-5, 32 points), which owns the wins tiebreaker.

Minnesota United won the first meeting with the Rapids, 2-1, on March 18 in Commerce City, Colo., on a late header by defender Miguel Tapias. The Loons begin a stretch that sees them play five of their next seven matches at home. However, that might not be a good thing.

Minnesota has won just two of its 11 home matches (2-2-7) this season, the second-fewest number of home wins in MLS behind only Colorado (1-4-7).

Minnesota United, who earned a 1-1 draw with the visiting Seattle Sounders on Sunday, could also be without their two top goal-scoring threats in leading scorer Bongokuhle Hlongwane (six goals, three assists) and midfielder Emanuel Reynoso (four goals).

Hlongwane suffered a knee injury on a hard challenge by James Sands in the first half of the team’s 2-0 victory at New York City FC on Aug. 20 and missed the match with the Sounders.

“Will we rush him back? Probably not,” Loons coach Adrian Heath said.

Reynoso, a 2022 All-Star, has been slowed by a sore ankle but played against Seattle.

“Rey’s ankle has been swollen for a couple weeks,” Heath said. “It’s not 100 percent.”

Colorado (3-11-10, 19 points) is 13 points out of a playoff spot with 10 matches and a possible 30 points still left. However, the Rapids, who lost 4-0 against Los Angeles FC last Wednesday and haven’t won a match since July 8 (2-1 over FC Dallas), are still talking about battling for a playoff spot.

“I think at this point in the season, every game has to be three points,” Colorado defender Andrew Gutman said. “We can’t go into a game thinking we want to tie or get out of there with a result. For me it’s three points or nothing because we only have a certain amount of games left to get into the playoffs. So we’ve got to make them count.”

–Field Level Media