The Galaxy is back in the Major Soccer League playoffs, though you wouldn't have known it from the way the team marked the win that sent it there.
Because while Saturday's 4-2 win over Toronto FC before a sellout crowd of 27,000 at the Home Depot Center guaranteed the Galaxy its fourth postseason invitation in as many seasons, there was little celebrating afterward. Instead, the team focused on the work that remains to be done before next month's playoffs begin.
There's the matter of seeding, for example. With Saturday's win the Galaxy jumped over Seattle and is tied with Real Salt Lake for second in the Western Conference standings, a point ahead of the Sounders, with four matches left. Only the top two teams get home-field advantage in the conference semifinals ? and should the Galaxy fall to fourth, it would have to win a one-match play-in game just to get to the semifinals.
"We don't have the luxury of admiring anything we're doing or thinking we're great. Because we're still far away from where we want to be," captain Landon Donovan said. "There's a lot going on with seeding. There's a lot going on with our conference that could matter in the end. So we've got to keep winning games.
"Right now our mentality is good, our attitude is good. We're confident. And we've just got to go on the field and perform. It's really as simple as that."
Simple also sums up Saturday's win, the Galaxy's season-best fourth in a row and one that extended its unbeaten streak to six games, also a season high.
Playing without David Beckham, who missed his second consecutive game with what's being called a left ankle sprain, the Galaxy jumped to a 3-0 lead after 36 minutes on two goals from Brazilian midfielder Juninho and another from Irish striker Robbie Keane.
Juninho's first came on a free kick from the edge of the penalty area while the second, a right-footed blast into the top left corner from more than 30 yards out, was his sixth goal in as many games. Keane's first-half score ? the first of two goals ? came three minutes later on a close-range chip over Toronto keeper Freddy Hall.
That proved to be more than enough offense even after Galaxy keeper Josh Saunders' shutout streak was snapped at 351 minutes when Toronto's Terry Dunfield scored on a header late in the first half.
Toronto briefly made it close at 3-2 when Luis Silva knocked home an Eric Avila cross at the far post in the 86th minute. But Keane added another goal, his team-high 14th of the season, in stoppage time.
"We're moving forward as a team," said Coach Bruce Arena who, like Donovan, was focused on the future and not the past. "The team's getting better. Having said that, I think we all understand there's a lot of soccer left to be played this season."
kevin.baxter@latimes.com
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