CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy’s 2016 campaign is at its infancy, but the five-time MLS Cup champs started the preseason on the right foot with a 2-1 victory over FC Shirak.
Jose Villarreal found the back of the net twice in the win while Viulen Ayvazywan scored the lone goal for the Armenian side. In the early days of preseason the results mean little, but Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena was pleased with his squad’s showing on Saturday.
“I thought it was a very good exercise for our team tonight,” Arena told reporters in the postgame press conference. “Very good for our fitness, good to get back playing together, good for evaluating players.”
As is the case in preseason friendlies, Arena used his full complement of players against the Armenians with 23 of 25 players on the game day roster getting minutes. In the first half, the Galaxy trotted out a near first-choice squad before opting for a younger XI in the second stanza.
Throughout both halves, the newest members of the Galaxy were able to earn valuable time as offseason acquisitions like Dan Kennedy, Emmanuel Boateng and Josh Turnley saw their first minutes in a Galaxy uniform. For Kennedy, who is expected to be the Galaxy’s new No. 1 goalkeeper in 2016, the chance to open up the preseason with a win in front of the StubHub Center faithful was a major plus to his acclimation with the team.
“Sometimes that helps us move along a little bit quicker when you have some fans in the stands and it's not up on the track field,” Kennedy told reporters. “It feels a little more real so it should put us in a better frame of mind. But yeah, it was great to get the first one out of the way.”
Although the showing was largely positive on Saturday, Arena wasn’t shy to say that the Galaxy still have a long way before their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals series against Santos Laguna.
"I thought overall the night was good. Again, we saw a lot of good things out of the players, and as a group they were attempting to do some of the things we have been working on so that is good,” Arena said. “We have to push pretty hard over the next couple of weeks to try and catch up to our Mexican friends [Santos Laguna] to be in a position to give them a good game."
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog at www.LAGalaxy.com/Insider and contact him LAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com
