Friday, September 4, 2009

Rest for the Weary

Heading out of town, spending time with the family, hanging out at the beach, relaxing and catching up on some sleep.

These were the words that were echoing through the Galaxy locker room after this morning's quick training session at The Home Depot Center.

The players were all broken up into small groups of four or five and sent to different corners of the field where four different drills were taking place. There was a finishing drill, a possession drill, a passing drill and a fitness drill. Each group spent about 15 minutes at each drill before grabbing some water and moving onto the next station.

After one circuit, the session was over and the guys were able to start thinking about their first weekend off since the end of March. Since that last weekend off, following the season opener against D.C. United, the Galaxy have played 23 league games, three friendlies, an Open Cup Play-In Game and completed countless training sessions, leaving the club where it is currently; in second place in the Western Conference and in line for their first postseason berth since 2005.
It's been a lot of hard work from each and every player, coach and staff member, so we think it's safe to say that these guys truly deserve some time off. That is exactly what they will get, with the full squad being given Saturday, Sunday and Monday off before returning to training on Tuesday to begin preparations for FC Dallas in earnest.

A look at the standings show the top 11 teams are separated by just nine points with only eight playoff spots up for grabs. As you can see from Larry Morgan's article on MLSnet.com, guys are excited about the team's chances heading into the stretch run. But with everything so tight, every game counts, as a point gained and dropped here or there could have serious ramifications. Four of LA's final six games are against the teams that are in that group of 11 so every game will be a battle, meaning that a little bit of rest now could go a long way toward the team's success.

Finally, as you all already know, the blog staff goes everywhere and anywhere that the team does, so like them this is our first weekend off and we plan to take full advantage of it. We will still have a new episode of This Week Inside the Galaxy on Saturday, but outside of that, we will not be posting here until the team returns on Tuesday.

So enjoy your long weekend, check back on Saturday for This Week Inside the Galaxy and we will see you all on Tuesday.

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