Last Saturday, the LA Galaxy's future met the club's past in an Alumni match.
The match was a part of the festivities honoring the 2002 MLS Cup winning side that was inducted into The Home Depot Center Wall of Legends. In the match, the Academy side composed of Under-16 and Under-18 players defeated the Alumni by the score of 2-1 with Jack McBean and Cobi Jones being among the scorers.
Following the match, I caught up with Galaxy Vice President Chris Klein, Galaxy U-18 player Oscar Sorto and former LA midfielder Dema Kovalenko.
Below are their thoughts...
KLEIN: "It was fun. We want the future of the Galaxy to beat the past. It was great, it was really amazing to see all these guys back here on the same field and talking to each other again. We all have something pretty cool in common that we played for the best club in Major League Soccer so they all feel it so it was nice to get out here and play. The whole idea is that we're trying to tie the young guys into the organization and we're trying to bring the old guys back to be a part of our organization so it works well."
(On playing against his childhood hero, Mauricio Cienfuegos...)
SORTO: "It was a dream come true. I never thought that I would be playing against him and going hard against him. I was so happy to be playing against him. He's a big role model to all Salvadorans so it was a great experience."
(On returning to the Galaxy...)
KOVALENKO: "It was nice to be back and being around the stadium brings so many memories back. It's been only a year and a half, but it seems like yesterday that I was playing for the Galaxy. It's nice to be back, but I'm humbled. I'm still in soccer coaching kids, but it nice to be back and see everyone as well as all the guys that played that used to be on the team. It's really good."
