Young Galaxy reserves learn from experience against FC Barcelona

The largest crowd to ever see an MLS club watched two B-teams battle it out in the second half of FC Barcelona’s 2-1 victory over the L.A. Galaxy on Tuesday night.

On one side, Barcelona, already missing five starters entering the match, made seven substitutions at halftime, taking out star Luis Suarez and putting in young players in need of experience.

The Galaxy entered the break down 1-0 on a last-minute goal by Suarez. But when Bruce Arena’s squad returned to the Rose Bowl pitch for the last 45 minutes, all of his starters were off. Steven Gerrard, Robbie Keane, Juninho and A.J. DeLaGarza were replaced by the likes of Bradford Jamieson IV, Raul Mendiola, Ari Lassiter and Tommy Meyer.

With an MLS regular season game Saturday, Arena elected to rest his stars rather than push for a comeback. And in doing so, he gave the younger players a unique experience.

“It’s something you have to let sink in, because when’s the next time you’re going to play Barcelona?” Jamieson said afterward. “We showed a lot of heart. … Against the guys who are the best in the world, it really puts you in your place and there are things you can learn from it.”

And the Galaxy reserves held their own, despite surrendering a goal 11 minutes into the half that started with a flubbed back pass.

“It’s a faster pace, it’s just another level,” Mendiola said. “We had a good performance, just didn’t get the result. But it was fun, real fun.”

From there on out, however, the defense held Barcelona to three shots on target, all of which substitute keeper Andrew Wolverton gobbled up. On offense, the Galaxy generated six shots, two of which were on target, after producing none in the first half.

The reason for the offense’s success partly came from the freedom the players felt to take risks, Jamieson said. Rather than hunker down and try to avoid a repeat of last year’s 7-0 thrashing at the hands of Manchester United, the Galaxy pushed forward and tried to create chances with the knowledge that any mistake would not cost them.

“Making mistakes, you make a lot of mistakes, and those are the things you learn from the most,” Jamieson said.

That aggressiveness paid off in the closing seconds of the game, as Meyer connected with Mika Varyrynen on a corner kick to send a header into the net in the 91^st minute.

Arena said the experience was an important one for his second squad, which got the chance to play in front of more than 93,000 fans that erupted in cheers when Meyer scored.

“Guys like [Robbie Keane and Steven Gerrard] don’t need games as much as these young guys,” Arena said. “You can tell them a lot of things, but once they step on the field and actually experience quality players, they don’t really understand. So it was an invaluable experience for them.”