CARSON, Calif. -- The high-powered LA Galaxy offense got yet another weapon this week with the addition of dynamic winger and Swedish International Christian Wilhelmsson.
Among those impressed with the move is Galaxy captain Landon Donovan, who expects to be on the receiving end of several crosses by the Swede once he returns from a nagging left hamstring strain. Donovan spoke to the media about the Swede and his own health following Thursday's training session.
Below are Donovan's thoughts on the Swede...
DONOVAN: “I’ve only seen him train once now and we all know his resume speaks for itself, but I think that it’s low risk and potentially really high reward for us. We’re fortunate at this club that we get a number of players that reach out and want to play here. It’s a big advantage for us and if he can help us along the way then it will be great.”
(On the depth that Wilhelmsson adds…)
DONOVAN: “We saw our depth last week, we were able to put really our second team on the field and really hammer Puerto Rico here. So that’s going to be important, we know that’s important, we learned that last year and you never know what happens. Robbie’s gone a couple games, David wasn’t training today, I haven’t been training so guys need to be ready to step in and that’s been a really good quality in this team over the last couple years since Bruce has been here.
(On MLS’ perception in Sweden…)
DONOVAN: “I think that Sweden is an underrated national team in the world, I think that they have some very good players and we’re hopeful that one of them can help us here. I think that it’s good that they want to come and play here and I think that you’re going to see more and more of that.”
(On Wilhelmsson proving that MLS is an underrated league…)
DONOVAN: “It’s probably similar to the Swedish league, I think when you don’t know a lot about it, you just assume that it’s not very good. So, I think that the more high quality, high profile players playing here the better because it helps spread the word about how good this league is.”
(On Wilhelmsson giving LA their first true wide player…)
DONOVAN: “It gives us an added element that maybe we haven’t had as much. I think that Hector [Jimenez] does a good job of providing that when he’s playing. He gives us an ability to get wide and to get crosses in front of the goal for a long time, we had Eddie Lewis and Chris Klein here who were more typical wide players, but we’ve kind of gone away from that. Our style of play is a little more different and if you can have players that can provide that it’s really helpful because you can’t just clog the middle and worry about the guys in the middle. You need to pay attention to the guys wide and that’[s something that can be helpful down the stretch.”
(On whether he’d be playing more at forward because LA has that wide presence…)
DONOVAN: “Probably, the good thing now is that we’re getting Edson [Buddle] back in the fold. Jose [Villarreal] played well, [Jack] played well in the game against Puerto Rico so we do have some depth at forward, but there’s a lot of players in the midfield vying for minutes and my guess is that I’ll be primarily used up top.”
(On the team developing more dimensions and perhaps more than last season…)
DONOVAN: “I think that the early part of the year, as bad as it was, was really helpful and I think that it made it really clear, how to be successful and if we don’t do things the right way, then you’re not going to be successful. And now we’re in a really good groove where we understand what it takes. We were talking about how much impact our young players have had this year and it’s really impressive that we have probably 25, 27 guys who could probably play in most teams in this league. It’s a credit to Bruce and what he’s done and Curt with the reserve guys
