CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy close their preseason on Wednesday when they face Seattle Sounders FC in a closed-door scrimmage at StubHub Center’s main stadium. The match is closed to the public but will be streamed live on LAGalaxy.com at 7 p.m.
Wednesday’s match will be the Galaxy’s last tune-up before the club begins their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals series with Santos Laguna at StubHub Center on Feb. 24. The Galaxy have enjoyed success this preseason with a 2-0-1 record over the last two months.
Although the Galaxy have steadily improved over the last month, Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena admits that the job is nowhere close to being done.
“We’re getting closer, but we’re not there yet,” Arena said after the club’s 1-0 victory over the San Jose Earthquakes last Saturday in Las Vegas.
Against the Earthquakes, Arena allowed his starters to play the first 45 minutes and a small section of the second half. When Los Angeles lines up against the Sounders on Wednesday, the Galaxy boss is expected to allow the bulk of his players to play a full 90 minutes in order to prepare them for the all-important series with Santos.
“It’ll be a good test for us playing at home,” said Galaxy captain Robbie Keane. “It’ll be a game where a lot of players will play 90 minutes. We’re getting there. We’re 80 percent, and I think that we’ll be fine.”
One of the players who are expecting to see significant time on Wednesday is new Galaxy midfielder Nigel de Jong. De Jong went 54 minutes against the San Jose Earthquakes last weekend but admits that he is expecting to go a full 90 against Seattle on Wednesday.
Having just arrived in Los Angeles a week earlier, de Jong is hoping to get major minutes on Wednesday in order to be ready for the CONCACAF Champions League.
“I’m about 80 percent. It’s not only me but the whole team. We have a couple of days to improve our fitness,” de Jong said. “It’s hard out here because of the heat which is different than in Europe where it is always raining and gray. We have to improve our fitness. I hope so, it depends on how my body feels but I’ll go for the 90.”
For de Jong and the rest of his new teammates, fitness and not results are of utmost importance on Wednesday.
“We’re prepared. We’ve been training really hard,” said forward Giovani dos Santos. “We’ve had a lot of good players come into the team. We’re really looking forward to Champions League… We’re going to keep going and hopefully we’ll be up to 100 percent for CCL.”
Adam Serrano is the LA Galaxy Insider. Read his blog atLAGalaxy.com/Insiderand contact him atLAGalaxyInsider@Gmail.com
