Greg Vanney is anticipating another draining week for his LA Galaxy players as they head to Texas to tackle FC Dallas.
The Galaxy played two home games in quick succession, losing to rivals Los Angeles FC and beating Minnesota United, before a break ahead of this match.
But the July heat means Vanney sees this next task being little easier for his side, with another home double-header quickly following as the Colorado Rapids and the Portland Timbers visit LA.
"We have a couple of days from a busy and emotional week, just to reset physically and mentally, and then you start to prepare for what's going to be another busy week after," he said.
"We start off in Dallas. Dallas is always tough, especially this time of year. It's a special kind of tough with the weather.
"Then we come back for two more at home. We'll road map out how we want to approach next week and prepare the group."
After the setback of the LAFC defeat, a win over Minnesota at least lifted spirits ahead of this stretch.
Vanney continued: "It's nice doing that coming off a win. It feels a lot better as you go into this week and everybody can kind of relax and enjoy a couple of days, and then we get right back to work."
The Galaxy have also had time to get back on the training pitch before playing Dallas, with Vanney acknowledging he was focusing solely on the result against Minnesota given the quick turnaround.
"I think sometimes in the third games you put away some of the stuff that you normally are really, really picky on," he said.
"You've just got to suffer through it a little bit, and we did enough to get the three points [against Minnesota].
"We'll take it, and we'll talk about how we want to keep improving and get better and attack the next week, so just I'm glad we managed to get the three points."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
FC Dallas – Petar Musa
Musa missed out on Croatia's squad for Euro 2024, but while his international team-mates were exiting at the group stage, he has been tearing it up in MLS.
The forward has scored in four of his past five matches for six total goals across that span.
He is only the eighth Dallas player to score six or more goals across a run of five matches in MLS history.
LA Galaxy – Gabriel Pec
The Galaxy have their own in-form star in Pec, who scored both goals in the 2-1 win over Minnesota.
He is not just a goalscorer, however, adding seven assists to his nine MLS goals this season.
Indeed, Pec has either scored, assisted or provided a secondary assist in six straight games, the longest such streak from a Galaxy player since Javier Hernandez's eight across 2021 and 2022.
MATCH PREDICTION: DALLAS WIN
It is little wonder Vanney was not exactly relishing this trip, as Dallas have won seven in a row at home against the Galaxy. An eighth would make this the outright longest winning run for any team at home to the Galaxy in the MLS regular season.
And Dallas' home form is imperious right now, too. They have won six of their past eight at home.
The Galaxy are at least themselves in good shape, winning seven of nine for the first time in a single regular season since 2019, but only league leaders FC Cincinnati have won at Dallas since the start of April.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
FC Dallas – 38.8%
LA Galaxy – 34.7%
Draw – 26.5%