Academy Teams Earn Draw and Win at The Home Depot Center

The LA Galaxy Youth Academy teams earned a win and a draw this afternoon at The Home Depot Center. The U-16's played to a 0-0 draw with Pateadores while the U-18's scored a goal on either side of halftime to earn a 2-1 win over Pateadores.

Both teams were playing their first competitive games since early December but managed to put on a show for the nearly 1,000 fans who came out to The Home Depot Center this afternoon.

Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena, associate head coach Dave Sarachan and assistant coach Trevor James, the Galaxy's Director of Player Development, were all in attendance at the games, closely watching the Galaxy stars of tomorrow.


The U-16's remained unbeaten in Divisional play with their 0-0 draw, but very nearly claimed all three points. Goalkeeper Joshua McNeely and the rest of coach Kenny Arena's defense limited the visitors chances throughout the match. However, the Galaxy were unable to find a breakthrough at the other end of the field and the game finished scoreless.

The U-16's are now 1-0-2 for five points in Divisional play and 4-4-3 overall on the season.

Later in the day, David Vaudreuil's Galaxy U-18's were able to go one better than their U-16 counterparts with a 2-1 win. Matthew Mardesich scored his first goal of the season to give the Galaxy a 1-0 lead with a header early in the first half before Ruben Valencia scored the game-winner midway through the second half. That goal was his third of the season and helped the 18's improve to 2-0-1 in the Division and 4-3-3 overall.

Be sure to check back to both this site and lagalaxy.com on Monday for complete photo galleries (courtesy of German Alegria) from both games.

Week One is in the Books

A little more than two months after falling on penalties in MLS Cup 2009, the Galaxy completed week one of their 2010 training camp at The Home Depot Center.

Fitness was the buzzword all week long as the players began the transition from the offseason to the preseason, all of which will get them ready for the regular season, which is just under two months away.

The shiny new MLS adidas Jubulani soccer balls that the team will be using this season saw just the slightest bit of action this week as the players went through a two hour gym session each morning. After lunch in the team lounge, the players would emerge each afternoon for another fitness session, this time featuring a series of runs as opposed to a gym workout.

In fact, if it wasn't for Ian Feuer putting the club's goalkeepers through afternoon drills each day, the new balls would never have seen the light of day (see below).

Here are some new photos from the opening week of training.


Finally, enjoy this photo of Birchy striking a pose, and holding it for about 10 steps while running. That's what we call skillz, people.

MLS and MLS Players Union To Continue To Negotiate Through February 12

After spending the first half of the week in New York attending the Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations between MLS Players Union and MLS officials, Galaxy players Chris Klein and Todd Dunivant were in attendance at training today for the first time this season.

Earlier today, Major League Soccer announced that it had reached a deal with the Players Union to continue to negotiate through February 12. The current CBA had been scheduled to expire on Sunday, January 31. Click here to read the full statement from MLS and the MLS Players Union.

Live Soccer at The Home Depot Center Sunday

Can't wait for the Galaxy's season opener against New England on March 27 for live Galaxy soccer at The Home Depot Center? Then come out to the stadium this Sunday to see the LA Galaxy Youth Academy will host Pateadores in a U.S. Soccer Development Academy league match.

The U-16 Academy team will kick-off at noon, followed by the U-18’s at 2:30 p.m. and admission is free.

Don't miss this chance to see the Galaxy stars of tomorrow, this weekend on the stadium field at The Home Depot Center.

Landon Speaks to Everton TV After 2-0 Win Over Sunderland

Landon scored his first goal for Everton yesterday and had the honor of chatting with Everton TV after the game.

Here is what he had to say about getting the win and scoring his first Premier League goal.

Catching Up With the Guys

The Moving Train that is the Galaxy's preseason continues to roll through its first week at The Home Depot Center and the guys are moving ever so closer to match fitness. We caught up with two of the club's new (but familiar) faces in Clint and Mike, as well as Bruce, after this afternoon's session to see what they had to say about the first week of camp.

On the Run

The players made their way outside this afternoon for a bit of running in the sun up on the training field here at The Home Depot Center.
We're now three full days into the preseason camp and there has not been a ball (medicine balls and stability balls not included) in sight. Everyone's focus is clearly set on fitness and getting back into game shape as quickly as possible.

Much to the delight of the coaches (and the chagrin of the players) the fence that runs between the Galaxy's two training fields has not been put up for this part of the preseason, creating a much larger running circuit for the guys during these afternoon sessions.

Much like all of Bruce's training sessions, today's run was short but intense, leaving all everyone a bit tired by the end, though Chris was able to flash a quick smile for the camera through it all.

We think however, that the real reason that the session wrapped so quickly was that everyone was excited to meet the awaiting press for the first time in 2010.

Clint Mathis seemed to be the most popular player amongst the media, though Edson, Gregg and Michael Stephens also stopped to answer some questions.

Bruce was the final person to address the press, answering questions on a number of different topics for about 10 minutes before heading inside.

Here is a bit of what some of the guys had to say.

Bruce...

Clint...

Gregg...

Michael...

Edson...

Finally, while Yohance did not have to answer any questions today, he was nice enough to pull up a chair and wait for Edson to finish up before the two headed into the stadium together. What a friend!