Preseason slump for LA

It seems that the 7-2 whipping laid by Bruce Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy on the Los Angeles Blues was a bit of a fluke. On Friday, LA lost 1-0 to the Houston Dynamo at the Home Depot Center.

While it was just a mere preseason match, the result can be seen as a bit of poetic justice for Houston, who lost to LA by the same scoreline in the 2011 MLS Cup Final.

With the defeat, Los Angeles drop to 1-2 in preseason play and will come into Tuesday's scrimmage with the Montreal Impact with a need to find cohesion, because the last thing the Galaxy want is to have these results carry over into the regular season.

The scrimmage will be open to all fans who make a donation of five dollars or more to the Galaxy Foundation.

 A.J. DeLaGarza...thrust into the limelight

Defender A.J. DeLaGarza has seen his role in central defense increase exponentially, especially with Omar Gonzalez sidelined for the bulk of the 2012 Major League Soccer season.

DeLaGarza is expected to join forces with untested rookie Tommy Meyer in the back.

“I’m trying to take that leadership role and talk to everyone around me,” DeLaGarza told reporters on Friday after the scrimmage, according to Adam Serrano of MLSSoccer.com. “[Meyer is] still learning that role to take leadership as well and he’s doing fine at it.

“Not too many times [has the defense] been broken down in these first few games, so it looks pretty good.”

Another possibility is that Leonardo returns in central defense to complement DeLaGarza, but Arena argues that the possibility is a ways away from fruition.

“He looks much further along than the last time that we saw him,”  Arena told reporters on Friday. “He’s been on the gym on the rehab. He just got here yesterday and we’re not that far along yet and evaluating where he is and setting a schedule week to week.”

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