In a rather unspectacular and sometimes drab match, the Galaxy closed out its preseason with a scoreless draw against Salvadoran side Aguila at the Home Depot Center on Sunday.
While the match produced no goals, few moments of excitement and nothing for the highlight reel, the game was exactly what the club needed to prepare for the 2010 Major League Soccer season.
“Playing on the field (Sunday) with the bigger pitch, going into Saturday’s game we have more of an idea of what it’s going to be like as a team and on this field,” Galaxy forward Edson Buddle said. “You couldn’t have asked for a better matchup than Aguila to prepare for that. I’m positive with the way the team is looking going into Saturday’s game.”
The Galaxy will begin defense of its Western Conference championship on Saturday against the New England Revolution. Against Aguila, the Galaxy showed what could await the Revolution in the season opener.
Landon Donovan went the distance and was active with the ball, sending in some dangerous corner kicks. The backline was tidy and took care of Aguila’s attackers with relative ease and the lineup featured some of the team’s newcomers, including the Brazilian trio of Juninho, Alex Cazumba and Leonardo.
About the only thing the Galaxy hopes will improve come the opener is the attack.
“We were pretty sloppy in the last third of the field, and for the night our passing really wasn’t good enough to break down a team that obviously came to defend with eight or nine players behind the ball,” Galaxy coach Bruce Arena said. “We’re doing fine. You don’t overreact to these things.”
Still, the game served its purpose. Playing at the Home Depot Center was the right atmosphere to close out what Arena called a successful preseason.
“It’s a good game to get in this stadium, especially for the young players,” he said. “There were a bunch of nervous players tonight, with their first experience in this stadium. It was good to get that experience and hopefully that helps as we move forward.”
The Galaxy were also without several key players against Aguila, including Jovan Kirovski, Mike Magee and Alan Gordon.
Though the Galaxy missed their presence on Sunday night, the team will be happy to get them -- and the other walking wounded -- back in the near future, and each could make an argument for inclusion in the starting lineup.
“We have a few injuries obviously, Arena said. "We have five or six players out who, especially in the attacking part of the field, may have helped us (Sunday). We won’t have a set 11 on March 27. It’s going to take a little bit of time.”
Still, the Galaxy’s biggest gun should be ready. Donovan went 90 minutes for the second time in five days, but his biggest challenge now is getting re-adjusted to Southern California.
After spending parts of three months in England, Donovan returned to Los Angeles before heading back east, to Washington D.C., to take part in the MLS labor negotiations. Thus, he traveled from England to Los Angeles, Los Angeles to Washington D.C., and Washington D.C. to Los Angeles in a span of about seven days.
“I’ll rest this week,” Donovan said. “I knew this was going to be tough but I got to play 90 minutes on Wednesday, 90 minutes (Sunday) and now I just need a few days to kind of figure out where I am and get my body back on West Coast time.”
