Life on the Road

The Galaxy's first road trip of the 2009 MLS season officially began after Friday's training session at The Home Depot Center.

Following training, all of the players made their way down to the airport before jumping on the short flight to Oakland... after a few hands of cards.

The guys were excited to be flying JetBlue as the in-seat TVs would give everyone the chance to watch the first half of the New England-D.C. United game on ESPN2. But much to our chagrin, ESPN2 was not available and we were all left to follow along on the scroll at ESPN News.

The bags came out quickly with Raul making sure that all of the gear was accounted for before loading up the bus and hitting the road. After checking in at the team's Oakland hotel, the players were given the night off to go get dinner on their own and relax as they saw fit. The only people who were on the clock so to speak were the trainers, who handled all treatments after grabbing a quick bite.

After a night of sleep, everyone gathers for a team breakfast which was followed today by a walk through at Oakland Alameda Coliseum. Just a 10 minute drive from the hotel, the walk through gave the team a chance to get out of the hotel for a bit, but also to check out the field surface at the Coliseum.

Only five of the 19 players who travelled north on this trip played in this stadium last year (trivia, can you name them?) so this was a new surface for most of the guys, making the walk through all that more important. Plus it allowed more than a few guys the chance to act like Major League Baseball players at the home of the Oakland A's.
Once back from the Coliseum, the team had a lunch scheduled, but nearly everybody wanted to catch the final seconds of regulation in the Celtics-Bulls game on ESPN, with Magee and Dema actively cheering for their Bulls. Check the link above to see if they went into lunch happy.

After a quick meeting where the coaches go over some final tactics and other items, it's all downtime for the guys. Everyone has their own way to get ready for games, so rather than building a structured schedule, the coaches leave everyone to do what they need to do.

A pregame meal will follow three hours before kick off and the team will arrive at the stadium 90 minutes prior to the game, which everyone can watch live tonight on FS West at 7:30 p.m.

We'll have more from the stadium including lineups, formations and much more.

We're ready for the game, are you?