The LA Galaxy will attempt to couple some promising defensive signs with better attacking play when they open their MLS home slate against the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday night.

The Galaxy (0-1-1, 1 point) grinded out a 0-0 draw against Sporting Kansas City on March 11 following a 3-1 defeat at FC Dallas two weeks ago.

Galaxy keeper Jonathan Bond made 11 stops in the draw, but didn’t necessarily believe his team had defended poorly.

“I think that most of the shots that they had were from far out,” Bond said. “Nothing was like really, really dangerous. So we defended the box really well. And honestly, I think we come out of it with definitely some confidence in our defensive principles.”

The Galaxy are still missing 2022 leading scorer Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez to a hamstring injury and winger Douglas Costa to a calf issue. But for a team that has struggled to create chances without those stars, Vancouver could be a good opponent.

The Whitecaps (0-2-1, 1 point) have conceded five goals in three games this regular season, and new goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka is still looking for his first MLS clean sheet. And those struggles resurfaced Wednesday night in a 3-2 loss to Real Espana in the second leg of their CONCACAF Champions League first-round series.

The was still enough for Vancouver to advance to next month’s quarterfinals. The Whitecaps had earned a 5-0 win in the first leg and won the series 7-3 on aggregate goals.

But their defending of headers in particular continued to be poor. Manager Vanni Sartini acknowledged there should be concern, albeit combined with satisfaction that his team advanced.

“It’s been a part of the game where we haven’t been good from the start of the season, and we need to be better,” he said. “But for the rest, I’m happy the qualification was never in discussion, we were always in the game, and at the end I told the guys, even if we were a little bit down, we did not lose 3-2 today. We won 7-3. So we need to be happy.”

–Field Level Media

Still in search of their first win of the 2023 season, the Colorado Rapids on Saturday night host a Minnesota United team that has never beaten them at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colo.

The Rapids (0-2-1, 1 point) are 5-0-2 all-time against the Loons (1-0-1, 4 points) at home. Besides trying to garner its first victory of the season, Colorado also is still in search of its first goal of the campaign. Only two teams in MLS history — the 2015 Rapids and Toronto FC in 2007 — have started a season with four scoreless games.

Colorado comes in off a 1-0 loss at San Jose that saw them get six shots off set pieces but none on goal. Head coach Robin Fraser was still upbeat despite the shutout loss.

“Zero complaints about the work ethic and the effort,” Fraser told coloradorapids.com. “It was absolutely fantastic. I thought even the attackers defended well from the front. One thing that we need to be sharper at in the attacking is really turn half chances into real chances.”

“We’re playing some good football,” Rapids midfielder Sam Nicholson added. “You see this quite a lot, not just in this league, but in many leagues. People have slow starts and it’s just waiting for something to click. We’re definitely building something good here.”

Colorado goalie William Yarbrough is off to a good start with a league-leading 18 saves and one clean sheet.

Minnesota United comes in off a 1-1 draw with the New York Red Bulls in their home opener played in the snow in Saint Paul, Minn., last Saturday. The Loons had a bye following a season-opening 1-0 victory at FC Dallas.

Minnesota is still without All-Star midfielder Emanuel Reynoso who was suspended by the MLS after failing to join the team and still remains home in Argentina. Reynoso had 10 goals for the Loons last season.

“Right now … we don’t have Rey,” defender Kemar Lawrence said. “We don’t have that one guy that we can say, ‘alright, let’s depend on him,’ so we have to make it a full team effort, and it’s been working.”

–Field Level Media

St. Louis City can become the first expansion team in MLS history to win their first four league games when they host the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday night.

St. Louis (3-0-0, 9 points) has already defeated Austin FC, Charlotte FC and the Portland Timbers this campaign. That ties the 2009 Seattle Sounders for best-ever three-match start for an expansion team.

In Portland last Saturday, Jared Stroud scored shortly before halftime to level the match. Then defender Kyle Hiebert scored his first MLS goal in the 75th minute, capitalizing on a sloppy free kick defending to send a header past Portland goalkeeper David Bingham.

As a result, St. Louis was installed as oddsmakers’ favorites for the first time in its brief history this week. But manager Bradley Carnell does not believe suddenly rising outside expectations will shift his squad’s mentality.

“We took it upon ourselves to hit a hard reset on Tuesday when we got back to work,” Carnell said this week. “There’s a lot of good things happening. Obviously, momentum and success helps ease the cause. But even if we weren’t 3-0, I think this group would be even hungry for more.”

San Jose (2-1-0, 6 points) have also started brightly under new coach Luchi Gonzalez.

The Quakes’ only defeat so far came away to an Atlanta United team that has yet to lose this season, and they led that contest 1-0 heading into second-half stoppage time.

Jeremy Ebobisse scored in his first two games of the season for San Jose. Cristian Espinoza struck the winner in March 11’s 1-0 home win over the Colorado Rapids after striking the post earlier in the match.

Espinoza has always been a talented winger, but adding more of a goal-scoring threat could take him from a good-to-great MLS player, and lift the Quakes with him. He scored a career-high seven goals last year.

“It’s something I’ve always tried to work toward,” Espinoza said this week through an interpreter. “I’m always trying to create spaces to have good shooting opportunities. As a winger, sometimes you don’t have many chances to shoot so you need to create those spaces to have options.”

–Field Level Media

Now in their 18th MLS season, the Houston Dynamo are off to their first-ever 0-2-0 start, and they will face out for a difficult home opener against rival Austin FC on Saturday.

It’s the first Texas Derby match of 2023, and the Dynamo are coming off two weeks of practice since a 3-0 loss at New England on March 4. Houston opened the season with a 2-1 defeat at FC Cincinnati on Feb. 25 and had a bye in Week 3.

“We’ve had plenty of time to work on ourselves and make sure we utilize this bye week to get better and prepare for a very good team in Austin,” Dynamo coach Ben Olsen said. “It’s very clear who Austin is and how they go about winning games. They’re well-coached. They’ve got weapons.”

Austin (2-1-0, 6 points) has won its past two MLS games and recorded a 2-0 victory Tuesday over Haitian side Violette — although that win could not keep the Verde from being eliminated from the CONCACAF Champions League (3-2 aggregate loss in the Round of 16).

Saturday’s match in Houston will be Austin’s fifth in a span of 18 days.

“We’re two years into our build and we’ve got growth that needs to continue to happen, development that needs to continue to happen,” Austin coach Josh Wolff said. “In these moments we have to show resiliency when it’s needed. We have to move on and obviously get back and get focused on the weekend. We play an in-state rival and we have to freshen up.”

Austin, last year’s Western Conference runner-up, bounced back from a home loss to St. Louis City on opening night with wins at home against CF Montreal on March 4 and on the road at Real Salt Lake on March 11.

Against RSL, Austin won 2-1 behind the first career goal of 18-year-old midfielder Owen Wolff. Wolff, Josh’s youngest son, also had an assist on a goal by Jon Gallagher.

Austin has beaten Houston in the past three meetings and has won four of the five all-time matchups.

The Dynamo’s only goal this season was produced by defender Tate Schmidt off a corner kick by team captain Hector Herrera.

–Field Level Media

FC Dallas looks to extend visiting Sporting Kansas City’s scoreless streak to open the season when the teams meet on Saturday in Frisco, Texas.

FC Dallas (1-1-1, 4 points) allowed an own goal in the 34th minute after taking an early lead in a 1-1 draw against the host Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday. Sporting KC (0-1-2, 2 points) has yet to score through three games this season after a scoreless draw against the visiting LA Galaxy on Saturday.

Dallas took the lead in the fifth minute when Nkosi Tafari intercepted a Vancouver clearing attempt a few yards outside the top left corner of the 18-yard box. He sent a cross to defender Sebastien Ibeagha, whose glancing header from about eight yards out from in front of the goal found the bottom right corner for his first MLS goal in his 97th appearance.

“It’s been a long time since I scored a goal, so it is good to be back on the score sheet. For it to be assisted by Kos (Tafari) is great because he’s my guy,” Ibeagha said. “We looked at each other and I told him to put the ball in the box and that is exactly what he did. It was a good goal, and it makes it a little extra special that Kos assisted it for me.”

Vancouver equalized when Javain Brown’s long throw-in from the right wing was headed along the top of the 6-yard box by Ranko Veselinovic. Dallas forward Paul Arriola was guarding the Whitecaps’ Ryan Gauld just outside the far post, but he stuck his leg out and inadvertently knocked the ball into the net past keeper Maarten Paes.

Dallas outshot Vancouver 11-10 but had just two shots on target, while the Whitecaps had four.

“We had a very good game, playing away and dictating the tempo. We knew that they were a good team, they have quality,” Dallas coach Nico Estevez said. “We had a good start and scored a goal. And there was a moment there that we should have been more aggressive, we should have been more determined to score the second goal. And even though we were having the possession and we were dominating, we weren’t creating those goal-scoring opportunities.”

Kansas City unleashed 30 shots, including 11 on goal, in a scoreless draw against the Galaxy.

“I’m incredibly excited about our team,” Kansas City coach Peter Vermes said. “I really am. I’m incredibly excited based on what those guys did tonight and the way they played, the way they controlled the game.”

Kansas City, CF Montreal and Colorado are the only teams that have yet to score through three MLS games this season. However, Kansas City has allowed just one goal.

“It’s a little frustrating that we couldn’t score, but it’s coming,” Kansas City winger Daniel Salloi said.

–Field Level Media