Coming out of the Western Conference final, the status of Riqui Puig and Marco Reus were two big questions facing the Galaxy.
With Puig’s injury (torn ACL) ruling him out, all attention is now on Reus, who has been dealing with a groin injury, he confirmed Thursday.
“I’m doing pretty well,” he said. “I was training today (Thursday) a little bit, tomorrow (Friday) we have another day and then one more night, so I think I will be fine.
“The question is of the timing, but I’m pretty confident that I’ll be fine.”
Reus said he trained with the team Thursday and also did some on his own and in the gym.
“Last game (against Seattle) after 10-15 minutes, I felt my groin, was trying the last days to recover,” he said.
When asked what was the percentage chance he would be on the field, Reus said he wasn’t sure.
“It’s still 48 hours (away), I’m really confident I will be there,” he said.
Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said Thursday morning that Reus was “trending in the right direction.”
“He warmed up with group and then got in the work that he needs to and checked the boxes he needed today,” Vanney added. “Tomorrow (Friday) the plan is train with the group and be ready to go.”
New York Red Bulls playoff rally leads to MLS Cup
The regular season didn’t go the way that the New York Red Bulls wanted, but a playoff run, mostly on the road has led them to Saturday’s MLS Cup.
“We started the season very, very well, we were fighting on all cylinders and I think, it became a little bit of theme to be honest since I’ve been at Red Bulls, the summer months we struggled,” forward Lewis Morgan said from Thursday’s Media Day. “We missed guys. … I was away for an extended period, Emil (Forsberg), John Tolkin … we’re a younger squad, we’re not blessed with a squad of 30 guys, so the summer months were tough for us in terms of finding that rhythm that we had earlier in the season.
“Getting toward the end of the year, I feel like the performances were always there, but we weren’t necessarily getting the results.”
The Red Bulls finished seventh in the Eastern Conference (11-9-14). In the penultimate game of the regular season, the Red Bulls rallied from a 2-0 deficit, eventually losing to Columbus (3-2), but to Morgan that was a big moment in the club’s development.
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“We were 2-0 down at halftime. Maybe if we don’t come out and have that reaction and really go toe-to-toe with them in the last half, we’re probably limping into the playoffs,” Morgan said. “But I think that really galvanized the group and showed that, you know what, we beat (Inter) Miami in the regular season. We’ve beaten Cincy (FC Cincinnati). We knew going into that game knowing we could beat these teams.”
The Red Bulls followed with an upset win over Columbus in the first round of the playoffs and recorded two upsets (New York City FC and Orlando City SC) to advance.
“We always knew we could get here,” defender John Tolkin said.