Big D on the Docket

Bruce Arena's squad was back on the field this morning as they continue their preparations for Saturday's game against FC Dallas at Pizza Hut Park. The Galaxy have played some wild matches in Frisco in the past including their 6-5 SuperLiga win in 2007, last year's Edson Buddle inspired 5-1 win that eventually left FCD to part ways with Steve Morrow and of course all Galaxy fans will remember winning the 2005 MLS Cup over New England in extra time.

But it has not been all good times for the Galaxy at Pizza Hut Park as they suffered a 4-1 loss in their first-ever visit there in 2005, a 2-1 loss in 2006 that eliminated LA from postseason contention for the first-time ever and a 4-0 thumping late last July in Ruud Gullit's penultimate game in charge of the club.

But none of that will matter on Saturday when both teams go in search of their second win of the campaign. A Galaxy win could see them jump all the way up to third in the Western Conference standings and stretch their unbeaten streak to eight games, their longest since a 12-game run between the 1999 and 2000 seasons.

After training we caught up with Todd Dunivant and Alan Gordon to hear what they had to say about Saturday's game.

Dunivant

Gordon


Also on Thursday...

The team debuted some new training tops, busting out the blue sleeveless numbers modeled by Todd and Landon above. Equipment Manager Raul Vargas and his staff have had the guys in blue short-sleeved shirts and grey sleeveless ones (amongst the many training tops the guys have worn this year) but this was the first time that they donned this one. What do you think?

The only person who stuck with the sleeves this afternoon was Gregg Berhalter who claimed to be simply "keeping it old school" as he walked off the field at the end of the day.

The fans should get used to seeing the guys in blue as they will be wearing their blue uniforms for the first time this season on Saturday. LA is 1-0-7 when wearing their all-white uniforms this season and 0-1-0 when wearing the white top with blue shorts and white socks, a uniform that they also used in the Open Cup Play-In defeat to Colorado. LA is 0-2-1 all-time in MLS play when wearing the all blue uniform.While Sean Franklin did not train with the team today, Edson Buddle and Yohance Marshall were involved, with the young Trinidadian defender taking part in full training for the first time since injuring his knee last month. Marshall has been doing a number of strengthening exercises and more than his fair share of running to stay involved, but he was thrilled to step up his rehab, even just a little bit.

Edson Buddle was back on the field for the second straight day and will be chomping at the bit to take on FC Dallas this weekend. He has 10 goals in his career against FCD, including four last season (three at Pizza Hut Park) against them. He has not scored more than seven goals against any other club.

If Buddle, along with Landon Donovan and Kenny Cooper get on the field, it will be just the second time in MLS history that the top three goalscorers from the previous season will be on the field at the same time. Much credit will go to the person who can identify the only other time that happened.
Kyle Patterson remains with the club and is in line for a spot in the 18-man squad once again, but Tristan Bowen and Israel Sesay were absent from training this afternoon. Instead of preparing for Dallas, the pair were on a plane to Utah where they will play a pair of games against the Ogden Outlaws on Friday and the BYU Cougars on Saturday.

Patterson and the rest of the team will train once more at The Home Depot Center on Friday morning before flying to Dallas tomorrow afternoon. We'll be at that training session and then heading to LAX for the journey to Dallas.

And if you won't be making the trip, be sure to follow all of the action live on FS West, starting with 'Galaxy Live' at 5 p.m.