Los Angeles Galaxy: Ups and Downs

The Aftermath of an Open Cup crash

Bruce Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy have a lot of time to think ahead to their next contest of the season, a June 17 match with the Portland Timbers. The Galaxy exited the U.S. Open Cup with a 2-1 loss to the Carolina RailHawks in the third round.

"With the way the season has been going, a lot of us haven’t been getting a lot of minutes," Galaxy midfielder Michael Stephens told MLSSoccer.com's Luis Bueno. "We were planning on playing next week, so it’s a big disappointment for us."

"It’s a point in the game where we were a little fatigued,” Arena told the press. “We’d used all three of our changes at that point. We had some unfortunate injuries. They were more aggressive obviously in the last 30 minutes."

Among the casualties were Hector Jimenez, Chad Barrett and Bryan Gaul, who were subbed out due to injury.

"The fact that we had three guys come out with injuries, three guys who had actually been playing games, three guys that would have been in to play 90 minutes was a little bit unfortunate," Stephens added. "I think you saw that a lot of guys ran out of legs down the stretch."

Despite Leonardo returning to action, injuries and match fatigue, combined with the choice of fielding an understrength lineup, doomed the Galaxy late.

"(It was) remarkable we got 90 minutes out of him,” Arena said of Leonardo. “He’d played 45 minutes in a reserve game previous to this. We didn’t anticipate him playing that long, but once we had those injuries and had to make all those changes, he had to stay in there. He did a good job, but obviously he got tired in the end."

Youth Academy Update

Meanwhile, with the Los Angeles Galaxy Youth Academy, it has been a more optimistic sort of affairs.

The Galaxy Under-16s (16-3-7 overall, 10-1-4 SoCal Division) clinched the SoCal Division title and top seed in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy playoffs with a 2-2 draw against Arsenal FC this past weekend.  The point moved the Galaxy into a tie for first place in the standings, joining Real Salt Lake-Arizona (17-6-4 overall, 11-4-1 SoCal Division) at the top of the table with 34 points. The U-16s clinched the division by way of superior goal differential.

The Galaxy Under-18s are touching down on a SoCal Division title of their own. The Galaxy U-18s (19-4-3 overall, 11-3-1 SoCal Division) used a commanding 5-1 victory over Arsenal FC on Saturday to move into first place in the SoCal Division as well as clinch a spot in the U.S Soccer Development Academy playoffs. LA are one point ahead of Chivas USA and can clinch the division this weekend against Nomads SC.

Here is the game schedule for this weekend:

LA Galaxy U-16 vs. Nomads SC                              
Saturday, June 2

At The Home Depot Center – Field 5 at 12:30 p.m.

LA Galaxy U-18 vs. Nomads SC                              
Saturday, June 2

At The Home Depot Center – Field 5 at 10 a.m.