Dog days in Arizona

Bruce Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy arrived for training in both Scottsdale, Arizona and the Athletes' Performance Facility on the campus of Arizona State University in Tempe.

The first day began with some drills and possession work, as well as a 25-minute scrimmage before the team hit the weight rooms at ASU for some heavy lifting.

Team captain Landon Donovan hopes the players will be able to gel together as a unit, with the season opener against the Seattle Sounders at Qwest Field a month away.

“We’re still lacking understanding on the field,” Donovan said. “My belief has always been the things you do off the field then cultivate themselves on the field.

"Guys in groups hanging out after training, whether it’s sitting by the pool, going to dinner, watching TV, playing cards…those kinds of things allow for discussions about soccer to take place. You can understand people and talk about things that are important. Trips like this are crucial to that kind of team building.”

Defender Todd Dunivant was pleased with last year's camp in the Grand Canyon State, and is optimistic that he will see more of the same...and some.

“It was good for us last year,” Dunivant said. “It continued to push us forward and it was really good training for us."

“I hope it helps us continue to jell. We have a lot of new faces this year, and there’s a lot of integration we have to deal with in the team. We’re just trying to get things down by opening day.”

Arena knows that days and days of practice and conditioning will be essential to building on last year's success.

“We need to work on everything,” Arena said. “There’s not any one area we don’t need to get better. We’ve been together only three weeks, and just two on the field. We’re a long way from where we want to be.

“We just want to continue to take a step forward. We want to be able to analyze all of our players and have a feel for where they are. All of the little things, and hopefully move forward in a positive manner to be ready come March.

“To be away from LA is good. To be away for a couple of weeks and get the guys a little bit more concentrated and to get to know each other a little bit better. That happens when you go away as a group. That will help build team spirit as well.”

With midfielder David Beckham set to wrap up his own training at Tottenham Hotspur F.C., Arena looked forward to the opportunity of having a full-strength squad for the latter stages of camp.

“Last year at the start of camp, we didn’t have Beckham, and we didn’t have (Landon) Donovan,” Arena said. “We’re a little bit better having Donovan around, and we’re going to be getting David back in a couple of weeks, so that’s a plus.

“We’re still not obviously near where we want to be in terms of match fitness, but it’s getting a little bit better every day. We want to get a little bit sharper of the ball. We want to have a better tactical understanding of some of the things we want to do but that’ll come. That’s why it’s called preseason.”


Down goes Cuba...

Meanwhile, at Montego Bay, LA Galaxy home-grown player Jack McBean saw playing time off the bench as the USA defeated CUba 3-1 at the 2011 CONCACAF U-17 Championships.

Alfred Koroma, Andrew Oliver and Esteban Rodriguez were on the score sheet for Wilmer Cabrera's boys.

Up next is a match with Panama on Feb. 18 at the Catherine Hall Stadium.


Agreeing to terms

This week, the Galaxy announced that they agreed to terms with all of their SuperDraft and Supplemental Draft selections.

SuperDraft selections Paolo Cardozo and Hector Jimenez, as well as Supplemental Draft picks Dan Keat, Ryan Thomas and Dustin McCarty each signed with the Galaxy prior to the start of the club’s 10-day preseason camp in Arizona.

Contracts for Cardozo and Keat will each be finalized pending the receipt of their ITCs.

In spite of being highlighted on Bleacher Report and the View from Victoria Street earlier this year, goalkeeper Zach Johnson, the club’s third-round Supplemental Draft pick out of West Virginia University, did not join the club in preseason, electing to pursue other professional opportunities.

Read more MLS news on BleacherReport.com

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