This is Part Eight in a series of articles on the players that make up the 2010 Los Angeles Galaxy.

Sometimes opportunity comes at you in the most unexpected of matches. For Van Nuys's Tristan Bowen, it came in the 82nd minute of the Los Angeles Galaxy's club friendly match with Boca Juniors.

And it didn't need to have pizzazz like the South American clubs are infamous for. Nor did it have to include a celebration that could draw the ire of the officials and the opposing fans.

The goal opened his MLS scoring account, and perhaps the floodgates for the future.

You'd be crazy to think that completing sequences and sealing the deal haven't been Tristan Bowen's calling card ever since he began his young footballing career.

Tristan Bowen was born on January 31, 1991 in Van Nuys. An integral part of the San Fernando Valley region, Van Nuys was at one time one of the least affordable places to live in California, with the price of a one-family home reaching $600,000 in August 2005. Only recently has the price lowered to more affordable levels such as $330,000-$340,000 in 2009.

Van Nuys is home to one of the few cricket pitches in America, the Leo Magnus Cricket Complex. Other major attraction include its Japanese Garden, the Sepulveda Dam, and the biggest of them all, Van Nuys Boulevard.

Stretching from Valley Vista Blvd. in Sherman Oaks to Fenton Avenue in Pacoima, Van Nuys Blvd. was home to a 1979 motion picture about the local car culture on this celebrated road.

Bowen's education academically paled in comparison to his education he got juggling a round ball in the air for long periods of time. A homeschooled young man that did not attend college due to his dream of "heading from high school straight into the pros," as alluded by rapper Nelly, Bowen was first involved with the Galaxy through its subsidiary youth academy Galaxy Rios in March 2007.

The skills he learned with Galaxy Rios and a short stint with the San Fernando Valley Quakes of the USL Premier Development League culminated in a 2008 SUM U-17 Cup appearance and a USL Super-20 Pacific Southern California Division crown.

Now it was time for Bowen to up the ante. He played a number of patches with the reserves in the MLS Reserve Division and would eventually be signed by Galaxy on November 12, 2008.

In his first year with the Galaxy first team, Bowen appeared in three matches. As a result of his limited playing time, the Galaxy loaned him to the PDL's Hollywood United Hitmen and USL First Division's Miami FC to maintain match fitness.

As a member of the USA U-18 and U-20 teams, he played three matches in November 2008, playing friendlies against the youth sides from Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, and Rayo Vallecano.

Fast forward to the 2010 season and the friendly with Boca Juniors, and the late run in the middle of Boca's defending third by Bowen.

All that training, all that fitness, all those aspirations of playing with the team that got him to where he is today paid off on the finish from that dummy pass by Michael Stephens.

All Bowen did was complete the sequence and seal the deal.

Not many can say that their first-ever goal scored as a professional came against Boca Juniors. Tristan Bowen can be proud to be that elite company of players.

And you can also be sure that it will not be the last goal scored by the No. 17 as a professional against Boca...or any team for that matter. Tristan Bowen is a young gun to be reckoned with.

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