Galaxy Sees Far East Trip as Irresistible
This is the time of year when Major League Soccer teams scatter far and wide looking for suitable training sites and opponents while preparing for the season ahead.
Portugal, for example, is the destination of choice for the New York/New Jersey MetroStars, the defending champion Kansas City Wizards and the Colorado Rapids.
The Columbus Crew is off to Germany, while the New England Revolution is heading for Costa Rica and the Tampa Bay Mutiny is checking out Colombia.
The Dallas Burn and San Jose Earthquakes are staying a little closer to home. They’re going only as far as Mexico.
And the Galaxy? Well, Los Angeles has taken this travel thing to extremes. Its preseason jaunt will take it to China and Japan next week.
On Saturday, Coach Sigi Schmid’s squad flies to Tokyo on the first leg of an ambitious 10-day, three-game trip. The first game will be Wednesday against China’s national team in Kung Ming, a city near Beijing. The game will reunite Schmid with China’s coach, Bora Milutinovic, under whom Schmid served as an assistant when Milutinovic coached the U.S. in the 1994 World Cup.
After that come two matches in Japan against J-League teams. The first is a closed-door game against Verdy Kawasaki on Feb. 23; the second is against the Urawa Red Diamonds on Feb. 25.
“It [adding the China game to a schedule that originally featured only Japan] makes our trip a little bit hectic,” Schmid said Wednesday at the Rose Bowl, “but I felt the unique opportunity of being able to visit both countries and playing three quality games was something that we couldn’t pass up.”
The Galaxy will take 19 players, including four recent draft picks: forwards Isaias Bardales Jr., Brian Ching and Brian Mullan and midfielder Alex Bengard.
Not included on the roster are starters Luis Hernandez (on loan to Club America in Mexico), Cobi Jones (exploring options in England) and Robin Fraser and Danny Pena (recovering from shoulder and knee surgery, respectively).
“I’ve been very pleased [with the draft picks],” Schmid said. “It’s been very good. I think all of them fit in. They all have shown an ability to play with the veterans. These last three or four days away [in Lancaster] have been very good for the team.
“Obviously, it was difficult with the cold and so forth to train at times. But it was just good to get away. Guys got to know each other. We roomed older players with younger players, so there was integration right away.”
