A few Galaxy Roster Updates

By: Laurie | February 15th, 2008

Draft picks Sean Franklin, Julian Valentin and Ely Allen have all officially signed with the team. And chances are that at least one of them might be making more than minimum wage! Go, draft picks!

We still have only one official goalkeeper on the team: Steve Cronin. But a goalkeeper did survive the Open Tryouts. Vito Higgins, (pictured) who played college ball at Gonzaga here in Washington State, now gets a chance to make the team. And all those other Open Tryout guys are out their $150.

Of course, surviving Open Tryouts is no guarantee that you’ll wear the Galaxy jersey. (Ask Laurent Merlin and Rui Fortes, last year’s winners.) But Vito now gets the chance to make the team that will travel to Hawaii for next week’s tournament games. Since he’s originally from Hawaii, that would be kind of cool.

And I’d still love to get a first-hand account from anybody who participated in the tryouts. Anybody?

Also, Soccer by Ives has this bit of news:

In other LA news, the Galaxy is also stepping up its efforts to acquire a veteran defender. Sources in Los Angeles suggest that Portuguese defender Abel Xavier is showing his age while another pending development is expected to leave the Galaxy’s defense even worse off. Stay tuned for more on that.

The Xavier news isn’t all that unexpected. I loved him last year. When he played. But he’s thirty-five now, and a lot of MLS games are played on turf, which doesn’t seem to agree with him. If he’s healthy and fit, he should stay. Otherwise? He made a fair bit of cash last year that could be spent on somebody who could play more games.

(Does that sound cold? Am I getting callous in my old age? Sorry, Abel! Love ya!)

What do think the “pending development” is? My guess would be Ante Jazic heading out the door. There’s no way they can afford to carry him on the payroll when he’s out for 4-6 months.

Ives also says we’ve got a Brazilian on trial: Alvaro Henrique Alves Pires, aka Alvaro. A twenty-two-year-old defensive midfielder, which we could certainly use. And it would be kind of cool to have a Brazilian on the team, providing he’s willing to work for peanuts.