Omar Gonzalez was present at the first day of the LA Galaxy’s training camp.
By Ivan Yeo
Rest? What rest, there’s a new season’s on the horizon.
Just a little over eight weeks after capturing its fifth MLS Cup, the Los Angeles Galaxy are right back at it again in late January preparing for a whole new season that is bound to be filled with tons of challenges.
“Some years you enjoy it, some years you don’t, (and) I’m in-between right now,” Galaxy head coach Bruce Arean said about opening camp. “We had a short offseason, but it was good. We have a good group and a good first day of training.”
Despite the short offseason, numerous players took advantage of the time off to recuperate from the long season and also heal some injuires. That same thought applied to the head coach, as Bruce Arena underwent knee replacement surgery.
“It’s getting there,” Arena said of his surgically repaired left knee. “We’re making progress, (but) it’s going to be a while.”
Just defending its title will be enough of a burden for the Galaxy in 2015, but there are many more hurdles to overcome as well. For the first time since 2004, the Galaxy open up camp without the services of Landon Donovan. Donovan has missed time in camp, mostly to fulfill US Nnational Team duties, but this will be the first time the Galaxy will gon into the season knowing that Donovan will not be there for the start of the season, a scenario LA is adjusting to on the fly.
Moving on without Donovan isn’t the only issure facing Los Angeles this season. Their headline offseason acquistion, Steven Gerrard, isn’t joining the Galaxy until July and another midfielder, Marcelo Sarvas, was traded to Colorado for the Rapids’ allocation ranking, supposedly to get the Galaxy closer to another big-time signing, Sacha Kljestan, though that is currenlty in limbo as well. Nevertheless, the absence of Donovan and Sarvas leaves the Galaxy with some gaping holes in its midfield.
“We’re going to miss them, but we have guys that can step up,” Defender AJ DeLaGarza said of not having Donovan and Sarvas. “We had guys last year that came off the bench and did a good job. Hopefully, there’s not too much of a dropoff. and we get better than we were last year.”
There were some other notable absences at the Galaxy’s first day of camp. Strikers Robbie Keane and Gyasi Zardes were not present at camp, though Keane is expected back on Monday and Zardes is currenlty training with the USMNT. Still most of the familiar faces were there, such as Omar Gonzalez, AJ DeLaGarza, as well as some trailists from LA Galaxy II and some academy products as well.
“You tell them just to work hard and watch what happens,” Galaxy defender Todd Dunivant said about working with the young players in camp. “Bruce always say at the beginning of the season that we’re not going to win a championship today or tommorow, but this is the start of it.”
“For them, it’s just a process of kinda adapting and learning.”
There was also another familiar face at LA training camp. Edson Buddle enjoyed some of his best years in MLS with the Galaxy, tallying 87 goals in 42 games in an LA shirt. Buddle spen the last two years with Colorado, but there he was on Friday looking to catch on with the Galaxy one more time.
“We know Edson, Edson’s a good player, and we’re hopeful he’s a player we can fit into our team,” Arena said.
All in all, players running around the Galaxy’s traning grounds in late January means its time to start thinking about another long grueling MLS campaign, one the Galaxy hopes will lead to MLS Cup No. 6.
