Steve Carrillo

Preview: LA Galaxy Travel to Vancouver to Take On the Whitecaps

The LA Galaxy go on the road to Vancouver to play the Whitecaps on April 1, at 7 PM PST. The Galaxy are coming off their first win of the year, a 2-1 match against RSL on March 18th before the most recent international break. If you are in LA and want to attend a watch party at the StubHub American Express Stadium club. There will be free parking from the Main Gate off of Avalon Blvd.

The Whitecaps are coming off a loss to fellow Canadians Toronto FC, 2-0 on March 18th, at BC Place, their home field. They aren’t very good at home but will have David Ousted their goalkeeper back. But the rest of the lineup is in flux, just like the Galaxy’s lineup. Christian

Christian Bolanos and Kendall Waston are returning from international duty. They both played on Tuesday in Honduras. Carl Robinson will have to juggle the lineup if players come back injured or tired from break.

The very dangerous and very young Alphonso Davis could be the key in the midfield running against the much older, and the injured midfield of the Galaxy. Also out for the ‘Caps, is David Edgar, Brett Lewis, and Yordy Reyna, who are all injured. Brek Shea is on suspension after picking up a red card in the previous game.

In addition, Vancouver just made a trade with Columbus Crew that sent Tony Tchani to Vancouver plus some General Allocation Money and some Targeted Allocation Money for Kekuta Manneh. With Manneh expected to make an appearance in this game, will the Galaxy now have to plan for Tchani?

Robinson will also be keeping an eye on their April 5th CONCACAF Champions’ League date. Will the Whitecaps rest some key player for their midweek battle with Tigres? They’re already two goals down, but hosting the second leg could give them hope of bridging that gap.

The Galaxy, who are off to a difficult start, seem to be forever facing injury troubles. Sebastian Lletget is, as we found out earlier this week, out up to six months with his most recent injury and Jermaine Jones, who played a big role in the USMNT’s 1-1 tie on Tuesday against Panama, will have to have his minutes monitored on Saturday. Also available for selection is Ashley Cole, Gyasi Zardes, and Giovani dos Santos, as well as Jelle Van Damme, who is back from his suspension. Brian Rowe is back in full training, but Clement Diop is still most likely to get the start

With Lletget out of the lineup and questions about Jones’ fitness after playing 75-minutes in a World Cup Qualifier, the Galaxy will be looking for a playmaker in the center of the field. Baggio Husidic could slot in next to João Pedro with Giovani dos Santos dropping deeper to be the playmaker. That would leave Romain Alessandrini and Emmanuel Boateng to patrol the wings and hopefully Gyasi Zardes reprising his role up top. But Jack McBean could also be positioned in front of everyone to hold up the ball and allow Dos Santos and Alessandrini to get caught up to the play.
The Galaxy will be debuting their “Blue on Blue” Secondary Jersey for this game. Perhaps this blue kit won’t be as cursed as the last one (Josh made me put this in there).
The game can be found live on SpectrumSN and SpectrumDeportes.