Galaxy concludes regular season on road with focus on No. 1 seed in the Western Conference

The Galaxy have come a long way from last season.

As the club prepares for the final game of the regular season in Houston, it needs just a draw to clinch the top seed in the Western Conference.

Edwin Cerrillo arrived last season as the Galaxy tried to regroup on the fly, but never found its footing, eventually finishing in 13th place.

“When you’re losing, you can feel it the whole week,” the midfielder said. “That’s what makes the weeks long and the season long. This year, there’s a lot of joy around this team, so it’s been easy.”

When compared to last season, any season would be easy. Now comes another challenging night: trying to get a result on the road against a Dynamo club trying to hold onto fifth place.

“They’re very good in possession,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said of Houston. “Their positional play is very sound, their movements off of each other and their awareness of each other is very good, they’re very efficient with the ball, there’s not too much overplaying things. I think they haven’t hit their full stride this year and hopefully it’s not tomorrow or Saturday … we have to be efficient about how we defend. You could spend a lot of energy trying to get the ball off of them, you could get pulled around the field and exposed if you’re getting pulled around doing too many things.

“This is a game where I think probably in a good case it’s 50-50 with the ball for us. We’ve got to be steady about how we defend and we’ve got to be smart about using the ball to defend for ourselves as well.”

A draw or a win for the Galaxy would seal the No. 1 seed. A loss and win by LAFC, which is at home against San Jose, would send the decision to the tiebreakers. Home-field advantage is a big goal for the Galaxy, especially considering the club went unbeaten (13-0-3) at home during the regular season.

“It’s our biggest priority, right now, I would say,” Cerrillo said of clinching home-field advantage. “Playoffs start in a couple of weeks, but for us, it starts this weekend. A point is crucial to solidify the top of the West and that’s where we want to be … in front of our fans, using them to give us energy, early in the game, late in the game, whenever we need it.”

With the home-field advantage, the Galaxy would host the first game of their best-of-3 series and the potential third. The Galaxy would also host the conference semifinal and final.

Another race to watch is for second overall in MLS. Inter Miami leads MLS with 71 points entering the final week and would host any team from the West in the final. The Galaxy currently holds a one-point lead over the Columbus Crew (63 points). If the Galaxy finishes with more points, then a potential MLS Cup final would be played at Dignity Health Sports Park.