CARSON, Calif. -- Christian Wilhelmsson earned high praise from his LA Galaxy teammates in his MLS debut.
Below are thoughts from Wilhelmsson's Galaxy teammates and head coach Bruce Arena on Chippen's debut.
ARENA: "We went into the game hoping that we’d get sixty minutes out of him and we managed that. Obviously the goal was an important goal. Probably not the best goal in his career, but we’re going to take it, it was an important goal for our team tonight. But I think that he’s going to be a good addition for our team. He showed experience on the field, excellent first touch. He understands how to play on both sides of the ball so I think that he’s certainly going to be a player that is going to help us in the stretch run.”
LANDON DONOVAN: "It was his first game so we got to iron out some kinks with all of us. We have to figure out how he wants to play. But he contributed, not the most beautiful goal, but it counts and I thought that he played a really solid 60 minutes."
SEAN FRANKLIN:“As we train more and play more games, we should link up better at times. We talked at half time about getting each other some space to open up defenders and I think that over time, it’s going to be a good thing having him on the wing near us…He played well for us in his first game and he got a goal so it’s all about looking to the next game and getting things better so we can link up.”
OMAR GONZALEZ: "It was great. He gave some width and was able to make them keep an eye on them because he was getting behind them. He kept the ball for us and he scored the goal so I think that it was a great debut for him."
MARCELO SARVAS: "It’s good. He’s coming, he needs some time to get in shape and to understand the game here in MLS, but he did well. First game, first goal, he did very well."
