Kickoff: 5:00pm PDT, TV: PT (Tape Delay) Galavision
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After securing a victory against the Seattle Sounders in a storm on Tuesday in the MLS First Kick match, the Los Angeles Galaxy are set to christen their home stadium with that selfsame storm. Kickoff conditions call for rain, wind, and cold, as the New England Revolution are cheated out of a trip to sunny California. How the Revs will play in sunny California's evil twin, stormy California, is what we're all itching to find out.
The Galaxy will most likely trot out the same lineup they did on Tuesday. Juan Pablo Angel is listed as probable, as he's been battling a yet to be announced illness. However, it's likely we'll see Magee and Barrett up top again. Chris Birchall has begun to cement his place in the midfield, so expect him and Juninho in the middle with Landon Donovan and David Beckham on the ends. Omar Gonzalez is also listed as probable. Donovan Ricketts is listed as questionable, so Josh Saunders will likely get the start. Saunders made some fantastic saves on Tuesday, and his teammates have confidence with him in goal.
In fact, Josh Saunders was called upon to make six saves in the win over Seattle.
"One of those games where a lot of things came to me and it was a lot of preparation leading up to this from the preseason," Saunders said. "You're always prepared. You have to be prepared to do your job."
Still, coach Bruce Arena isn't worried. He said Gonzalez, Ricketts, and Angel were all "making progress" toward being ready for the home opener.
"We'd love to have everybody healthy but that's never going to be the case. We just happened to start to season missing a couple of players," Arena said. "You can't panic over it. It's all part of the game and we're going to experience that throughout the year. It's not the worst thing to have to experience it in the early going and see how our team reacts to it."
Captain Landon Donovan was very high on the work of A.J. DeLaGarza & Leonardo, as well as Mike Magee with offseason signing Chad Barrett.
"There's not another team in our league that could go without two starting center backs, their starting goalie, and one of their forwards and win here," Landon Donovan said. "We're proud of that, but it's just the beginning and it's early."