The Galaxy concluded the month of May with consecutive impressive performances.

On May 25, the Galaxy defeated rival LAFC 3-1 to advance to the U.S. Open Cup quarterfinals. Four days later, it posted a 4-1 win over Austin FC.

Unfortunately, that momentum was placed on hold as the international break arrived, with some players departing for national team duty and others taking time off. Now the Galaxy (7-5-2, 23 points) will look to put the pieces back together, starting with Saturday’s home game against the Portland Timbers.

The first challenge is getting everybody back in sync.

“Some guys physically are in different places,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said of the start of the week. “Some guys had long flights, some guys have been in here and have had tough sessions, so the first thing is getting everybody back on the same page and ready to go, whether that’s physical, mental, tactical and all those different things.”

This could be a big week for the Galaxy, which will be playing three games in eight days. Two of the opponents – Portland and San Jose on June 25 – are near the bottom of the MLS Western Conference and on Tuesday the Galaxy will have a chance to advance to the U.S. Open semifinals when it hosts USL side Sacramento Republic.

“We hope we can take back that momentum that we left with,” Galaxy star Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez said. “We hope to get three more points like the performance like we did before the break. We’re excited.

“The break helps a little bit to rest and to recharge, but now the challenge is to try to get back that momentum and attitude that we showed in the last two games.”

The performance in the last two games was the perfect response to a couple of disappointing nights. In home games on May 14 and 22, the Galaxy suffered losses to FC Dallas (3-1) and the Houston Dynamo (3-0).

“The key was getting locked in again,” Galaxy defender Derrick Williams said. “I think the last two games we were locked in, we were all ready and I think the switch kind of flipped and we realized how good we can be if we put in the work every day.

“I feel like sometimes we get too comfortable and … we all tend to switch off, maybe not run as hard, but I felt like the last two games, everyone put it all in and that’s what we have to do if we want to be champions.”

The Galaxy is in fifth place in the Western Conference with 23 points, two points behind second-place FC Dallas.

Douglas Costa update

Costa appeared as a substitute in the May 22 game against Houston, but missed the last two games of May and will likely miss this three-game stretch.

“He’s out and starting to work on his return to training,” Vanney said. “I would say 7-10 days is probably our window to getting him back into the match. Hopefully he will be in training the next few days and then we will try to get him ready and up to match fitness.”

Costa had made it four consecutive starts, including back-to-back 90-minute games May 14 and 18.

“It’s probably as frustrating for him as it is for anyone,” Vanney said. “A big part of this is he’s had a stretch of issues injury-wise over the last little bit and for us it’s trying to get down and diagnose what the causes are of those. None of the injuries that we’ve dealt with have been serious, all pretty minor, but the problem is if you keep having little minor injuries, then we have to find the source.

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“We do believe we have found through working with some specialists … the deficiency that are leading to these minor things that are constantly having to set him back, which means he never gets to the full fitness and full speed that he needs to be at. We took a step back during this long break to be able to work on some of those things and hopefully bring his strength up in certain areas that will then keep him from compensating, which creates some of the issues that we’ve encountered.”

Portland Timbers at Galaxy

When: 2:08 p.m. Saturday

Where: Dignity Health Sports Park

TV: ESPN