Jesper Sorensen believes the Vancouver Whitecaps' upcoming road fixtures will allow him to refine his team's style when playing away from home. 

Sorensen's side kickstarted a five-game stretch on the road with a 1-0 victory over Los Angeles FC last time out, with Emmanuel Sabbi scoring the only goal in the first half. 

The Whitecaps return to California this weekend to take on the LA Galaxy, which is followed by trips to the Colorado Rapids, Houston Dynamo and San Diego FC. 

And Sorensen is looking to use this run of games to learn more about his team, who are one point off top spot in the Western Conference after 19 games of their season.

"It does, of course," Sorensen said. "We know when we play away from home that it is under very different conditions. I think many games have their own approach, but I always want us to insist on not playing too far away from how we play at home. 

"It can be difficult. We have seen how it has been in certain games. I want us to play with aggression. I want us to play as a team. It's very important that you come out, and you are not too shy and a bit soft, because we have done that. 

"It is important that we come out with composure. I also think this period is an opportunity to see where players are mid-season. Now we are seeing a couple of players playing their way into the team and into the line-up. 

"We don't have 11 players to play the rest of the season. We have a full squad, and we trust them to play away. One thing is to play at home where you are confident, compared to away when it is a hostile environment. I see it as an opportunity to mature."

The Galaxy, meanwhile, remain at the bottom of the standings in the Western Conference but have improved in recent weeks after their poor start to the campaign. 

Greg Vanney's team fought back from a goal down to draw 1-1 with the San Jose Earthquakes last time out, with Marco Reus grabbing the all-important equaliser. 

It was a game that the Galaxy dominated, registering an expected goals (xG) total of 2.42 to their opponents 0.62, despite both teams registering 13 shots each in the match. 

And Vanney believed his side were worthy of earning just their second win of the campaign, but cited areas of improvement ahead of welcoming the Whitecaps to Dignity Health Sports Park.

"I thought the start was just a touch slow. Yeah, bit too much space between our lines and too stretched out. And obviously they get between our lines. It's a good shot, but we shouldn't have that much time to be able to look there," Vanney said. 

"I thought from that point on our intensity level was raising. I thought we were solving as the game progressed, how we wanted to get pressure on the ball and figure out their positions. That carried over, I thought, to the second half, which, yeah, they became even more aggressive in the one-on-ones.

"I thought we should have had a penalty, but it was definitely a better response, a good response coming out of Colorado. I think we can all tell you we felt like we should have got more out of this game. It was a good battle for the stretch."

PLAYERS TO WATCH

LA Galaxy – Marco Reus

Reus notched a goal and registered two shots on target in the Galaxy's draw with the Earthquakes, registering his third goal contribution in as many games (also two assists).

Over his last 10 MLS matches, Reus has fired off just six shots on goal, scoring with four of them, and the Galaxy will need his quality in the final third this weekend.

Vancouver Whitecaps – Emmanuel Sabbi

Sabbi scored Vancouver's only goal against LAFC, finding the back of the net for the first time since notching goals in consecutive league matches in April.

He is also one of eight Whitecaps players with five or more goal contributions, having grabbed three goals and two assists this season. No team in the MLS has more.

MATCH PREDICTION: VANCOUVER WHITECAPS WIN

The Whitecaps ended a season-long two-match losing streak with a road win at LAFC. Vancouver have never won more than one game in the state of California within a single MLS season, though. 

And they have already beaten this weekend's opponents, earning a 2-1 win over the Galaxy back in March as the Whitecaps have scored at least once in 11 consecutive regular-season matches in this fixture. The only longer streak of MLS games with a goal against a single team in Vancouver history was a 13-match run against FC Dallas (2017-2024).

The Galaxy, meanwhile, will be playing on Independence Day for the 29th time (the only missing season was 2020), the most matches on any date that any MLS team has feature in. They have recorded 15 Fourth of July wins, more than any other side in the division.

OPTA WIN PROBABILITY

LA Galaxy – 34.1%

Draw – 25.8%

Vancouver Whitecaps – 40.2%