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Someone at Red Bull Arena must have accidentally struck the rock instead of talking to it, because the soccer gods seem very angry with the team right now: Dax McCarty is out for 4-6 weeks, Luis Robles and Aurelien Collin are banged up, and now the Red Bulls find themselves on the road, on the other side of the country, against one of the top teams in MLS: the LA Galaxy.
At a +15 goal differential, the Galaxy are the only MLS team with a better differential than the Red Bulls. More importantly, they are unbeaten at home this season with 6 wins and 5 ties. With the Red Bulls' road woes the way they are, this will be the club's most daunting road test of the season and any points taken from this match should be taken as a blessing from the heavens.
Luckily for the Red Bulls, reinforcements have arrived in the form of summer signings Daniel Royer and Omer Damari - and Royer is likely to be available for lineup selection on Sunday. In addition, the Champions League game the Red Bulls played on Wednesday against Antigua showed that the team is at least competent at midfield and getting much better.
All of that said, Jesse Marsch will need to put together one of his best gameplans ever to leave California with anything other than sunburn.
Here is the New York Red Bulls predicted XI at Los Angeles Galaxy:
GK Luis Robles
DF Connor Lade
DF Kemar Lawrence - After a solid performance in the CCL on Wednesday, Lawrence looks ready for his first MLS action since May.
DF Damien Perrinelle
DF Ronald Zubar
MF Sean Davis - The placeholder for Dax McCarty over the next month-plus, Davis is poised for a major role on the team.
MF Felipe
MF Mike Grella
MF Sacha Kljestan
MF Alex Muyl
FW Bradley Wright-Phillips
It should be safe to assume that Daniel Royer may get some minutes either to bring more attackers in or just for some garbage time reps. It will be very interesting to see though if Royer gets more time on the pitch than Gonzalo Veron...
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