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Galaxy add centerback depth, acquire Lopes from Chivas USA

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By ADAM SERRANO

After a difficult start to the season, the Los Angeles Galaxy added some defensive help on Tuesday by acquiring Brazilian centerback David Junior Lopes from rival Chivas USA in exchange for midfielder Paolo Cardozo. 

Lopes has yet to make an appearance for Chivas USA this season, but the hulking Brazilian centerback made eight apperances and seven starts for the Rojiblancos in 2011 after joining the club midseason from Romanian club FC Universitatea Craiova.

"He's a big strong centerback, left footed with good athletic ability and it gives us physicality in that position that we haven't had and experience," Galaxy head coach and general manger Bruce Arena said on Tuesday. "I think that with all these type of moves, you need to see how the player deals with the transition and we're pretty open to what kind of role that he's going to play."

Upon his inclusion to the Galaxy, Lopes is expected to battle Andrew Boyens and Tommy Meyer for the centerback slot alongside A.J. DeLaGarza, a position of weakness ever since Omar Gonzalez went down with a torn ACL. Lopes will also fight for minutes with Leonardo, with the on-loan Brazilian centerback due to return to the field after recovering from an ACL injury.

"It's a discussion that we've had with Chivas for awhile and gives us the ability to strengthen ourselves in that position and it also allows us to move Brian Gaul to the left back position and add depth there as well," said Arena."It doesn't say anything about [Meyer or Boyens] it's a move that we're making to make our team stronger." 

Cardozo, meanwhile, who was the Galaxy's first-round selection (16th overall) in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft, made just one appearance this season, starting the Galaxy's 3-1 defeat to the New England Revolution last month. The Uruguayan made 17 appearances for the Galaxy last season, earning eight starts. 

What are your thoughts on the trade? Who got the better end of the deal? Do you think this helps solve the Galaxy's problem?

Share your thoughts below.

Comments

  1. The team has been poor because they haven’t been able to build from the back. Cardozo was an offensive spark everytime they brought him on in their championship season.

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  2. Don’t see it JJ. Cardozo has been poor in virtually every outing with the Galaxy. Gets pushed off the ball very easily, although he has quick feet, he holds the ball way too long allowing defenders to make up their space.
    I was scratching my head when Cardozo was brought back. So, moving him makes sense.
    Does the signing of Lopes make sense for the Galaxy. Not sure; but certainly he brings a physicality that anyone who has watched them have to agree they lacked. Getting beat over the top, over and over again. I still think Franklin in the middle would have been a better bet, but Cardozo wasn’t helping much so why not try and put a finger in the dyke.

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  3. Houston needs a finisher not a donkey (Buddle and Keane are not connecting because Keane feeds off quality touches and Buddle can’t distribute like Angel or Landon).

    For Houston that would be up there with Seattle shipping out two decent young players to help staff their reserve league side with EJ.

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  4. What does a Chivas-to-Galaxy trade consist of? The Chivas equipment man boxes up your Home Depot locker room stuff, sticks it on a dolly, walks halfway down the 15 yards of hallway from locker room to locker room, drops the box loudly on the floor for emphasis, Galaxy equipment man picks it up, puts it on his dolly, heads to the Galaxy lockers, whamo, you’re traded?

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  5. As a Galaxy fan I saw nothing in Cardozo. He is physically weak and did nothing going forward. I’m quite happy with them getting rid of him. Now we wait to see how Lopes does. It would be nice to know Leonard’s progress from ACL recovery. I think in Omar’s absence Leonardo would do fine.

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  6. Lopes does have good pedigree. He is young and might be worth the gamble in the long run. LA has been lacking bite in the middle. They didn’t use Cardozo enough anyway.

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  7. Cardozo is the real deal. He is young and small, but he is player you find a spot for because of his possession skills. LA misused him on the wing and at forward. He is a CAM with great combination skills.

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  8. +1…Ricketts bailed them out of a lot of messes.

    AJ is still an excellent defender, but he is a natural Right Back.

    Franklin and Dunivant are good defenders, but their distribution should be much better. They panic and send blind boots upfield too often. LA is having trouble transitioning from the back.

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  9. Leonardo wasn’t that great to begin with. Arena failed by trying this center back by committee thing. He should have looked for an adequate Gonzalez replacement right when he went down. They could have dumped guys like Cristman or Noonan if the cap space was tight. They should have made a legitimate effort to win CCL.

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  10. translate.google.com is much better than the dictionary.com edition. Make sure you have an engine that translates the sentence as a whole instead of just going for each word without grammar or context.

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  11. If this was the Mexican League then I could see it happening. America and Necaxa do that all the time because they have the same owner. A lot of player movements. Forever Orange

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  12. BRUCE IS AN IDIOT, IDIOT, IDIOT x 1000, why u trade cardozo he is a good player and give creativity, Speed and Technical skill, But u such idiot that u kept stupid Jordan and other players that are not good. Dumb a**. I hope u everything works out or else U should freaking quit.

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  13. Ha! I’m no Chivas Supporter. Not sure where you got that idea?

    And you’ve never heard the term Lady Gals? Galaxy, Chivas, Sounders etc. They’re all fine names of teams it just so happens that the Galaxy has a lot of spin-off names because of Gals.

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  14. It was so simple. Acquire Buddle, then trade him to Houston for Cameron. AEG to AEG. I think both teams would’ve profited. Buddle and Keane aren’t connecting yet and Houston needs a proven scorer.

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  15. Lady Gals?

    I’m not even a Galaxy fan but that’s just laughable when coming from a Chivas USA (aka the worst name in MLS, aka the red headed step brother of LA aka wont be in LA much longer) supporter.

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  16. Size doesn’t matter if he can’t position himself. If you notice, all of the sloppy goals (which I’m pretty sure ALL have been that we’ve given up so far) were scored because of bad positioning. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Hopefully Leonardo will come back strong.

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  17. “Last in the west”! Really does have a nice ring to it.
    L.A.s back line sucks while they do seem to have a pretty deep midfield so this was likely a good move for L.A.
    Robin Fraser I think your team just got much stronger.

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  18. LA is probably pretty stuck capwise because they had to get so cute just to sign everyone they did, allocations and such. So Lopes is cheap ($45K) and basically an even cap trade for Cardozo. Presumably Arena thinks that he can try to curb the more violent aspects of Lopes’ game while he works on plugging the holes in their defense. It’s early to pay too much attention to standings but they are last in the West and if they go with Boyens or Meyer they won’t make the playoffs. So I think they will try to fill a spot with someone more athletic and then do a summer window deal, but given their cap situation they will have to break some more eggs to pursue an omelette.

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  19. from what I remeber of him, he was terrible. Got like 2 red cards, and was simply a thug. Sounds like Chivas swindled the galaxy on this one

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  20. I’d say Chivas got the better player based on very few facts such as Lopes isn’t good enough to play for Chivas. Maybe he’s been hurt this year too but the article doesn’t say that.

    This smacks of desperation for Lady Gals.

    Reply

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