Up next for the Galaxy: Sunday at Sporting Kansas City
When: Sunday, 11 a.m. PT
Where: Children’s Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kan.
On the air: TV: Fox, ESPN Deportes Radio: 1220 (Spanish).
Records: Galaxy 11-4-14, Sporting Kansas City 11-12-6.
Record vs. Sporting Kansas City: 0-0-2
Update: Things are looking up for the Galaxy: Robbie Keane will rejoin the starting lineup Sunday for the first time since Aug. 20, Landon Donovan is expected to be available for more than seven minutes and Giovani dos Santos, last week’s MLS player of the week, is among the hottest scorers in MLS, with four goals and three assists in his last two games. But the team is still limping slightly, with midfielder Steven Gerrard likely to miss his fourth consecutive game because of strained hamstring. This one is critical to both teams’ playoff hopes but it might be more important to Sporting K.C., which would fall 11 points behind the Galaxy in the Western Conference with a loss. Meanwhile the Galaxy, unbeaten in their last five, need to build on that momentum after entering the weekend second in the standings with five games to play. The top two teams in each conference get a bye into the conference semifinals, avoiding a one-game knockout round. The Galaxy have not defeated Sporting at home since 2007, when the team still played in Missouri. However Kansas City has lost four times at home this season; only Seattle, among MLS teams, has lost more.
kevin.baxter@latimes.com
