A New Face Joins the Galaxy

This week, Bruce Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy acquired the services of David Junior Lopes in exchange for Paolo Cardozo, who was traded after a poor early-season outing.

Lopes will look to add some muscle in central defense, alongside Tommy Meyer and Andrew Boyens.

"Lopes is a big strong center back, left-footed with good athletic ability and it gives us physicality in that position that we haven't had, and experience," Arena told reporters in a conference call on Tuesday, according to Luis Bueno of MLSSoccer.com.

With Lopes in the lineup, a combination of him with Meyer could potentially move A.J. DeLaGarza  to his natural position of right-back. Alternatively, a three-man rotation of Lopes, Meyer and Boyens could be utilized if DeLaGarza remains in central defense.

Arena has kept the details of the trade under wraps.

"It's a discussion that we've had with Chivas for a while and gives us the ability to strengthen ourselves in that position,” Arena remarked. “It doesn't say anything. It's a move that we're making to make our team stronger."

A special on David Junior Lopes as part of the "This Is The Los Angeles Galaxy" series will be posted later this week.

'We Know We Will Do Better,' Says DeLaGarza

As for A.J. DeLaGarza, he knows that the there is only one direction for the club, and that is up.

Because of their position at the bottom of the MLS Western Conference, the detractors are loving every minute of it. And some of those detractors are coming from their own.

“That’s where the negative reaction is—the fans and everyone outside this team,” DeLaGarza told Bueno. “As a fan, I guess that’s their worries: ‘Are we going to play better?’ But inside this team, we know we can do better, we know we will do better.”

Arena is a manager that likes to emphasize the bigger picture. Actually that's what he could only do this week. Or is that to save face?

“These things all go in cycles and, whether you’re doing real well or real bad, there’s all these little cycles and you never know what it adds up to,” Arena said. “You really don’t. Sometimes you have periods where you don’t play real well and you steal one every now and then.”

Defender Todd Dunivant, the Iron Man on defense for the LA Galaxy, believes that the time is now for the club to rebound, starting this Saturday against the Portland Timbers (7:30 p.m. PT/10:30 p.m. ET, KDOC-TV, KWNY-TV).

“We’re kind of looking at it as an opportunity to get things right,” Dunivant said after training Tuesday to LAGalaxy.com's Larry Morgan. “If there’s ever a time in the season to do it, it would be now.

“It’s coming early and we have to sort out all of our issues, and we’ve got a lot of them.”

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