The next phase of the Galaxy preseason begins Wednesday with four games in 11 days in the Coachella Valley Invitational.
After a short offseason break, Galaxy head to Indio looking to get on track for the upcoming season, which will begin Feb. 23 at home against San Diego FC.
“The guys who are with us are making progress, the new guys are taking on things that we’re looking to do and getting their legs under them,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “We have more guys starting to add into training here over the next few days and we have to find the balance between getting ourselves prepared through matches and finding the balance of getting training days in between where we can get guys connected and on the same page and ready for competition.
“Because we got a week later start than everybody else, we’re two weeks in and still bringing the whole group together, which should be done this week.”
It has been an early camp of departures and another hit Saturday as forward Dejan Joveljic departed for Sporting Kansas City for $4 million.
“He was upset, just because he’s leaving a place that meant a lot to him,” Vanney said. “For me, he was a young guy that came here really young and I worked a lot with him and so did our staff to try to build his career. We went through peaks and valleys and he went through with us. He always has a place with me in my heart and I know the same for him.
“It’s always tough to see guys go, but it is a part of the game. It’s difficult when a guy does really well like that and he probably deserves some sort of DP (Designated Player) type recognition and we don’t have the (budget) space. It is difficult. It would have been great if there was a different solution, but it is what the league sort of is.
“The biggest thing for us is how we replace … he had 20-plus goals in all competitions, so it’s going to be how we replace that, both through the 9 (forward) but also collectively. We have to get guys in the door so we can start to work with them and start to connect them with our group.”
Joveljic joins Jalen Neal, Gaston Brugman and Mark Delgado, all valuable members, who have been traded away to relieve salary cap pressure.
“You hope when you find that team that has been successful, you want to keep as much as that core together,” Vanney said. “For us, it was kind of the first year of that group and we found the ultimate success. It’s hard to think that we probably still had an even higher ceiling with more time together but based on the constraints and where we were, things had to move. I was hoping we wouldn’t have to necessarily make so many adjustments, but cap stuff and other things are forcing our hand and forcing some tough decisions to be made.”
Roster additions
Defender Mathias “Zanka” Jorgensen arrived in camp this week after receiving his Visa. Midfielder Lucas Sanabria is in town, but as of Tuesday, his move hadn’t been officially finalized.
Coachella Valley Invitational
All four of the Galaxy’s games, starting Wednesday against Austin FC (11 a.m.) will be available on KCOP/13. Sunday’s game against Charlotte FC will begin at 10 a.m., followed by Feb. 12 against Minnesota United (11 a.m.) and Feb. 15 against Chicago Fire (noon).