Stefan Ishizaki suggests his role for the LA Galaxy is made so much easier due to the talents of Landon Donovan and Robbie Keane.
The 32-year old Swedish attacking midfielder has been a raging success in his debut MLS season with the Galaxy who are preparing for the Western Conference semi-final second leg with the Seattle Sounders this weekend.
Ishizaki put in an impressive display in the initial bout between the Western Conference rivals in LA's 1-0 win at the StubHub Center last week and he thanked stars Donovan and Keane for allowing him to have a positive contribution.
"Obviously, they're going to mark Landon and Robbie closely, because they're a threat all the time, and that gives me a little more space on the right, and that's what I like," the former Elfsborg ace said.
"[My performance] wasn't all about crossing - I took the defender [Leo Gonzalez] on a bit more and ran at him a couple of times, and I thought I did well, so I kept on doing it."
In terms of again overcoming Supporters' Shield winners Seattle in the return leg, Ishizaki feels the Galaxy need to be aggressive and controlling in order to book their place in yet another MLS Cup final.
"We need to be a little bit cleaner in the final third ," Ishizaki added.
"We've got to be really clean, 100 percent focused the whole game. We've got to be aggressive and press them. We've got to make it hard for them to play.
"That's when they get frustrated, and that's when we can take advantage of them."
