Not the way LA Galaxy meant to draw it up

The Los Angeles Galaxy are sitting in a pretty good position. They are in first place of the Western Conference with 58 points after 31 games played.

As the regular season is wrapping up, the Galaxy have three more games, two away and one at home in October. Had it not been for a series of stalemates in the month of May, the LA Galaxy could have had teh top seed in the West wrapped up by now.

With 17 wins and just seven losses, Greg Vanney saw his team struggle to earn a win going into the third full month of the season. The Galaxy entered May with a record of 5-3-2.

Though, they went unbeaten in May, the Galaxy struggled to find wins until the last week of the month. For four straight games, their games ended in a draw. Sure, ties still earn your team one point in the standings while losses dont give you any.

If even just two of those ties were wins instead, that would have given the Galaxy 62 points and a ten point lead with three games left. Meaning, at this point, they would have already locked up the West's top seed and home field advantage throughout the Western Conference playoffs.

The first draw of the four: at Seattle, 0-0

On May 5, the LA Galaxy traveled to Seattle and played at Lumen Field. The host, Seattle Sounders FC, were the opponent. Neither team scored.

The Galaxy had scored seven goals between their pair of wins prior to losing 2-0 at Austin FC. It was back-to-back games for the five-time MLS champions where they were held scoreless.

Joseph Paintsil's pass to Maya Yoshida in the last minute of play almost gave the Galaxy the 1-0 win. Just like the other 11 shot attempts, the ball did not find the back of the net.

Riqui Puig and Dejan Joveljic sat out of this contest. John McCarthy was able to make five saves and giving the LA Galaxy one point from the tie on the road.

The next and second consecutive draw: vs. Real Salt Lake, 2-2

Six days later, the Galaxy welcomed Real Salt Lake to Dignity Health Sports Park, Unfortunately, even with Joveljic and Puig back in the lineup, they settled on another tie.

Down 2-0 at the half, it was Gabriel Pec's goal at the 54th minute that cut into the deficit by half. Had it not been for Miguel Berry's score in stoppage time during the second half, the Galaxy would have lost.

Cristian Arango of Real Salt Lake scored twice for the visitors in the first half. Had John McCarthy been able to save at least one of those, the Galaxy would have collected three points instead of just the one.

The third of four consecutive draws: at Minnesota United FC, 2-2

Four days later, the Galaxy traveled to St. Paul to play Minnesota United FC. The score was the same, 2-2.

It was the Galaxy who gave up the first goal when Bongokuhle Hlongwane scored for Minnesota in the 30th minute. Vanney and his team responded with a pair of second half goals by Joveljic and Diego Fagundez just seven minutes apart.

The LA Galaxy could not hold onto the 2-1 lead as McCarthy was unable to prevent Kervin Arriaga's shot at the 80th minute. Again, the Galaxy found themselves short of a win and two more additional points.

Settling for their third tie in a row, the Galaxy felt confident they could turn it around on the road their next game.

The fourth and final draw in May for the Galaxy: at Charlotte, 0-0

On May 18, the LA Galaxy had controlled the ball twice as long as Charlotte. They also had more shot attempts, shots on target and corner kicks.

The opportunities to score were there but the LA Galaxy failed to convert on any of them. Thus, in a 13-day span, the Los Angeles Galaxy only earned four points in as many games for their consecutive draws,

So far this season, Joveljic and company have only been shutout four times this season. Two of those were in this four-game stretch.

The league's third best scoring offense couldn't come up with just two more goals from May 5th thru May 18th. They managed to find them on May 25th and 29th when the Los Angeles Galaxy won against Dallas FC (3-1) and Houston Dynamo FC (2-1)

While no one expects their team to win every game, the LA Galaxy have grown accustomed to scoring in almost every one of them. So, looking back at all, those four ties may not have hurt the Galaxy's efforts in wrapping up first place. However, it definitely hindered it some.