CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy are ready for Thursday’s friendly against Real Madrid, but admit that the friendly could not have come at a more difficult time for the club.
In the middle of their league schedule—with their third game in ten days—and with CONCACAF Champions League dates on the horizon, the Galaxy will host the Spanish giants while simultaneously preparing for a vital league game against the Seattle Sounders on Sunday. Although each Galaxy player admitted that the friendlies serve a valuable purpose for the club, when asked about the timing of the friendly, forward Robbie Keane provided an honest response.
“Terrible. That’s being totally honest with you,” said Keane. “We have a game on Sunday, which is obviously more important than [Thursday’s] game. The timing in these situations are never great because we have games on the weekend so the only time that we can fit them in during the week.
“It’s a friendly game, this game is probably more for Real Madrid then us to be honest with you. It’s for them for the preseason,” Keane added later. “We’re not going to win the championship by beating Real Madrid tomorrow. For us, it’s a great honor and great privilege against a massive club and great players, but like I said our bread and butter is Sunday against teams that we can do something, which is Seattle. If we get three points, it pushes further up the table.”
However, despite the difficult scheduling, Keane told reporters that he and the rest of his Galaxy teammates are not planning to just roll over for Real Madrid.
“Of course, every player wants to win regardless of when you’re playing,” said Keane. “Listen, we’re not going into tomorrow’s game thinking that we’re going to do Real Madrid a favor and just let them pass the ball around and get their fitness out in preparation for their season. The players that haven’t been playing a lot of minutes, it’ll be good for them. Listen, every game that we want to play, we want to win.”
While Keane admitted that the timing of the friendly is difficult for the Galaxy, he is confident that head coach Bruce Arena will regulate minutes to ensure that players do not overspend themselves with the important match against Seattle looming.
“It’ll be one of those things that I don’t think anybody will be playing 90 minutes so a lot of players will play 45 minutes,” said Keane. “So I’m sure that it won’t be too bad.”
