Los Angeles Galaxy manager Bruce Arena confirmed that José Leonardo Ribeiro da Silva will miss the entire season due to a torn ligaments in his right knee.

“Those things happen," Arena told MLSSoccer.com's Luis Bueno. "You can never understand why they happen. Unfortunately it’s all part of the game but we’re going to do everything we can to get him back on the field and work with him. I’m confident he will be back on the field with the Galaxy.”

The training staff was unable to tend to the Brazilian at the time he injured his knee, as the match was late into stoppage time.

“It was the last play of the game,” Arena said. “We thought it was serious but the referee wouldn’t let our trainer onto the field.”

Either Sean Franklin or A.J. DeLaGarza will be called to fill in the void left by Leonardo. Gregg Berhalter is two to three weeks away from reaching full match fitness.

“We have cover there with Franklin and DeLaGarza, and the whole preseason we did that so they’ve been playing there throughout,” Arena said. “We didn’t want to predict an injury, but we said if we had an injury, we wanted to be prepared for that.”

As for Landon Donovan, he rejoined the team this week, going through some drills ahead of the match with the Portland Timbers, scheduled for Saturday, April 23.



Redemption for Chad Barrett

Chicago Fire fans to this day still refer to Chad Barrett as a Fire reject, but this reject scored on Sunday to make the partisan crowd at Toyota Park think twice be saying that.

How about "Former Fire Forward" instead?

“We really had to dig down deep,” Barrett told LAGalaxy.com's Larry Morgan. “We were missing a couple of starters. Everybody did a great job.”

After he scored, he raised his arms in the air as if to say, "How do you like me now?"

“That was just kind of trying to hush the crowd a little bit for calling me a Fire reject,” Barrett said. “They were chanting it for like three minutes before I scored my goal. It just felt good to score.”

“When forwards don’t score, they are frustrated,” Arena added. “I think he was a little frustrated, and that’s good. He’s been getting better...he’s getting in a good rhythm.”

Forward Mike Magee agreed with the Galaxy manager's sentiments.

“He had a great road trip," Magee said. "He definitely needed to get a goal, to get that off his back. And especially against his former club, I think, is huge for him. The longer you go without scoring, the harder it is.

“It was good to see him get it finally. It will lead to many more.”

In spite of standing up to the detractors, Barrett naturally wasn't satisfied.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s off a knee or a 30-yard bomb," Barrett said. "It would have been nice to score that goal against Toronto. It didn’t want to go in, but the one in Chicago did.

“I plan on scoring against Portland if I get the chance and keep going from there. I’m a firm believer if you work hard you’ll get tons of chances. You always want to get that first goal. Now that it’s in I can just go on and score more.”


What about Real?

With Jason Kreis's Real Salt Lake 180 minutes away from a possible shot at the FIFA Club World Cup, Bruce Arena put his work with D.C. United in perspective.

D.C. were the first Major League Soccer club to have won the CONCACAF title, back in 1998 with a win over Toluca.

“It was great, but [a] different scenario than it is now," Arena told MLSSoccer.com's Luis Bueno. "We played a championship format. It was a little different, but Salt Lake has gotten good experience in the group play to be prepared for this. They obviously know what’s at stake.”

Two years after D.C. won the CONCACAF Champions Cup in 1998, Los Angeles won it in 2000.

“I don’t think at that point in time anyone kind of understood that we were going to have this type of dry run in the competition,” Arena said. “Now that it’s been such a big gap, I think it will be a great achievement for the league and certainly for Salt Lake.”

A result for Real at Monterrey in the first leg on Wednesday will put the wheels in motion.

“Having the first game away is never easy," Arena said. "I think it’s easier the other way, when you have the first game at home."

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