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Galaxy Notebook: Villarreal out six weeks, Birchall’s status in question and more

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BY ADAM SERRANO

The Los Angeles Galaxy enjoyed a banner day on Wednesday, but it was by no means a perfect one. 

After signing forward Edson Buddle and acquiring midfielder Kyle Nakazawa in a deal from the Philadelphia Union, the Galaxy learned that homegrown signing Jose Villarreal will be out for six weeks. The youngster had missed several training sessions this week and now must undergo surgery to repair  bilateral lower-leg compartment syndrome, an aliment discovered by Galaxy staff that has bothered the youngster for some time. 

With the midfielder not expected to play major role in the upcoming season, the Galaxy were quick to correct the issue.

"[Villarreal] probably had this issue for awhile," head coach Bruce Arena told reporters on Wednesday. "I'm happy it has been identified and we can get him fixed up so hes headed in the right direction. He's still a young kid and we he'll be back on the field in the near future."

BIRCHALL'S STATUS UP IN THE AIR

One member of the Galaxy's 2011 squad, whose status is still uncertain is midfielder Chris Birchall.

The veteran midfielder left the club at season's end to pursue options in his native England after serving primarily as a reserve last season  making 23 appearances and scoring just one goal. However, the club believes that Birchall is currently seeking to return to Los Angeles, but with the Galaxy facing salary issues, a deal may not be feasible. 

GORENTZVAIG CUT FROM GALAXY CAMP

After making two additions on Wednesday, the Galaxy released Supplemental draft pick Yuri Gorentzvaig from camp. The Brazilian forward, who was on loan from Flamengo appeared in January's MLS Combine and was selected in the third round of the Supplemental draft. 

With two additions being made on Wednesday, the Galaxy expect that further roster moves will be made shortly. 

Comments

  1. Birtchall stunk…Slow and a card waiting to happen. LA was so much better when they replaced him in the strating lineup with Juninho. If all you want is hustle, Stephens is much better as a backup.

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  2. You have to factor in raises that might be present in players’ contracts.

    Surely, players like Omar, AJ, and Dunivant will be getting performance-based price bumps.

    Regarding Barrett, they missed out on the opportunity to drop his salary in the waiver period.

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  3. Just a thought about Barrett. He is overpaid for his performance LAST YEAR before his injury. Assuming he plays at all in the coming months, he won’t even be at the level he was at last season. So now we’re left with a LOWER quality forward making a quarter million dollar. I like Barrett, but he’s using up valuable cap space and will likely perform no better than last year; probably worse.

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  4. I’m in the same boat re: Birchall. I do think he’s a little overpaid for his output (1 goal in his entire tenure with LA), but he’s a hard worker. LA has good odds to go far in 3 competitions this season (actually 4 if you consider two seasons of CCL), so they’ll need depth. I think Birchall will have to accept a pay cut if he comes back.

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  5. Maybe 100K or less?

    I agree, always thought he should of started behind Juninho who should have been in the spot where Beckham played the way they played in the majority of 2011 when they started off undefeated and led the whole year. And Becks out wide, but with no need for Donovan up top, Becks can stay center, maybe if Birchall takes a cut, because we will need him or good depth for that matter with a late round run in the current CCL and then next season’s CCL plus a more emphasized US Open Cup

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  6. Very tempting to do so, but with Keane going away for about 3 weeks to a month with the Irish national team for the Euro in the summer, we need a good option for sure, and to give them cover in what will be a very congested schedule the 1st month and maybe the 2nd if they go deep in the CCL, and in the summer. Also Donovan and Buddle might be gone with the US so they need cover….he is highly overpaid tho, at least for what he’s done, if he stays healthy and can perform say in US Open Cup to get them a good deep run even if it’s to give guys like McBean, Villarreal, Cardozo, Jimenez, Jordan get some valuable playing time to stay sharp.

    He did get 9 goals last year, had he not been injured so much I think he could of gotten 12 easily, especially when Keane came aboard…
    He did miss a ton of goals in the 1st few games, the home opener for example vs New England that was tied 1-1 I believe there was made up offsides call, but he missed 1, in any case once he got going he did well. Before this Buddle signing, I thought he would get close to a dozen+ who knows, with Keane as his partner instead of the out of form Angel he played with…Now as a back up, I hope he gets 5-8 like Magee, if he can get to double figures and get a few in Cup play and CCL, then GREAT but he is getting a lot, maybe trade him halfway after he gets some goals and shows form, could use a CB and a nice amount of cash…

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  7. Yup…After this surgery, Dawkins played well at the end of last season, even when he was LM (not his preferred position).

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  8. I think Birchall is a great player and a great CDM. We played him out of position too many times b/c Bruce doesn’t know how to sign a true speedy winger. If we stuck him in the middle only I think he would be great. I hope he comes back but he deserves less salary though.

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  9. that bilateral lower-leg compartment syndrome is the same thing simon dawkins had to have surgery for last year and missed at least 6 weeks for the Earthquakes. strange sounding thing for sure, but sounds completely fixable with the surgery.

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  10. Guy was always awfully close to scoring in long to mid range scorching shots, hit the posts a few times. And I felt he should have been starting with Juninho in front of him as the more creative thinking guy with freedom to roam forward more to be the Center Attacking Mid, and Beckham on his traditional Right Midfield side, I know he doesn’t have the same type of durability and maybe to an extent the same wheels or endurance to run fast as he did when he was younger 7, 8 or 9 years ago, but he could of played there and Donovan up top next to Barrett or Angel and if not on the left when we needed more pace than Magee even tho that guy kept scoring great and CLUTCH goals lol good ol’ Magic Magee…

    Point is he could of started, he can still come back, they are going to cut about 3 or 4 more “eh whatever practice squad type of guys” with Buddle I say cut Cristman, the Academy kid McBean can take his minutes, the few that he would get and mature into a much better player on the cheap too.

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  11. I guess things will be clearer when we find out how much Buddle is getting from MLS Players association’s report about their salaries. things will be more clear.

    Sarvas should be pretty equal or straight swap with Juninho’s departure salary coming off the books. Between Ricketts 197K, Birchall’s 157K and the allocation money they got from Montreal for Ricketts, they should be able to pay for Buddle plenty with a good comfortable 400K just those 2 player’s salaries give you over 3 fourths of that…

    You also have Hedjuk & Berhalter almost 200K combined salary…
    Not sure how much Boyens will get but Kirovski also came off the books so that gives you some leadway…

    Somewhere they have about 100K for adding Birchall if they needed, and if he was getting 157K give or take, he would have to take less and if they don’t ahve 100K available, cut Cristman, no need for him now that Buddle is there…. that’s about 50K..

    Hell I don’t want them to, but I heard Barrett makes 225K, if he had started in 2012 I would say okay, but now it seems he’ll only have spot starts and might be overpaid for a back up 3rd Forward in the depth chart…
    He had 9 goals while missing about 3 months of play and he missed a ton of great chances in the 1st 4 games before starting to score…I figured with Keane as his partner commanding attention and a much better passer/scorer than the version of JPAngel he had to play with, he could of easily scored 10+ goals. Hell if he hadn’t gotten hurt for the MLS Cup Final he probably would of scored 1 or 2 of the 3 Cristman scored.

    Point is they can make room for Birchall for depth which they will need for CCL both this year and next, MLS play and US Open Cup which is now considered a more prestigious prize…

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  12. Birchall has been below average during his time in LA, especially for his cost. LA has a glut of D-Mids. Mike Stephens deserves a bigger role and they also might have found a gem in the draft. Nakazawa also has much more upside than Birchall.

    Losing Villareal is a setback, but Cardozo is a young playmaker that is coming into his own. He has played a nice role in LA’s CCL run. He needs more minutes this season also.

    LA needs to use their remaining space on a center back. That is the biggest need going into CCL

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