Galaxy seeks first 3-game winning streak of the season

The Galaxy has had a strong start to this final stretch of the regular season, defeating Portland and Houston.

On Saturday night, it will attempt to do something it hasn’t done all season – win three consecutive games.

The Galaxy will host FC Dallas in the penultimate home game of the season at 7 p.m. at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson.

“Two weeks ago, before the break, we couldn’t even get a win in nine games, you know, and now we got two,” Galaxy forward Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez said. “So we need to be very calm.

“We need to keep fighting to make it to playoffs.”

The Galaxy (13-11-6, 45 points) is now up to fifth place in the Western Conference standings, but there isn’t much breathing room. The Galaxy is one point behind fourth-place Portland and two points ahead of seventh-place Vancouver.

The top seven teams in the each conference qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs.

“Winning is always good,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “There’s always a good emotion that comes out of that. And now we’ve got to transition that emotion to be at home and to play well and try to do it again.”

Wednesday’s win was the 100th regular-season coaching win for Vanney.

“It’s a special thing to be able to do it back in L.A. and in a club that kind of gave me my start, obviously. And to be here doing that is wonderful,” Vanney said of his milestone victory. “If that was the one that clinched the playoffs and got us into kind of that next phase of things, I would be happier. But we’re still grinding away at that.

“And we’re going to keep building and hopefully No. 101 or 102 will be the one that that seals the deal for us in the playoffs.”

One thing working for the Galaxy is FC Dallas  has already been eliminated from playoff contention and has just two wins since August.

A victory Saturday would certainly get the Galaxy closer to the playoffs, which would be big, especially with tough road games (at Sporting Kansas City and Seattle) following.

“The guys have believed, the guys are working hard and … now we’re rewarding ourselves in these last two games by putting the ball in the net enough to win the game,” Vanney said.

Galaxy top spenders in MLS

On Wednesday, the MLS Players Association released the updated players salary guide for all players under contract as of Sept. 30.

Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez is the second highest-paid player with a guaranteed compensation of $6 million.

In the initial release in April, the Galaxy had the third-highest payroll, but has now moved to the top of the league with the highest payroll ($20.32 million).

Summer signees Dejan Joveljic ($612,500), Rayan Raveloson ($855,025), Nikko Hamalainen  ($612,500) and defender Sega Coulibaly ($337,000) were added. Julian Araujo ($653,750) and Efrain Alvarez ($612,167) were given new contracts, raising their guaranteed compensations, all contributed in moving the Galaxy ahead.

The Galaxy has three of the league’s 81 players earning at least $1 million: Kevin Cabral, $1,440,000; Jonathan dos Santos, $2,000,000 and Hernandez.

FC DALLAS (6-14-10, 28 points) at GALAXY (13-11-6, 45 pts)

When: Saturday, 7 p.m.

Where: Dignity Health Sports Park

TV: TUDN