CARSON — The regular season is less than a week away and the Galaxy have the look of an incomplete team.
When last season ended in the Western Conference semifinals, the Galaxy looked like a team that could have been a few pieces away from being a legitimate championship contender.
Now, even though the club will benefit from having a full season with late acquisitions Gaston Brugman and Riqui Puig, there are still holes to fill and if they’re not careful, a crowd of more than 70,000 could see them Saturday.
“We’re very close to closing some of these holes,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said Friday. “We’re in negotiations for all of them at the moment. It’s just working through the process. It’s not like we’re not trying to identify players. We’re actually in discussion process, so we’re hoping that within days, we’ll start to put names into those places.”
One of the soon-to-be announced players is midfielder Tyler Boyd. Boyd, 28, joined the Galaxy while the club was in Indio for the Coachella Valley Invitational. However, his signing isn’t official due to a paperwork issue. Boyd has been able to train and play in the preseason games.
“I think everything is right there done or close to being done,” Vanney said following Saturday’s 2-1 preseason finale against Toronto FC. “Hopefully everything will be finalized and announced in the next couple of days.”
During the off-season the Galaxy signed midfielder Memo Rodriguez and he’s been a good addition to the midfield. The question will be can the Galaxy get the production from that duo, that they didn’t get on a consistent basis from Kevin Cabral (traded) and Samuel Grandsir (transfer back to France).
The Galaxy has also been linked with Brazilian defender Lucas Calegari from Fluminense. Calegari, 20, would be viewed as a replacement for Julian Araujo, who left for Barcelona. Veteran Kelvin Leerdam is in line to start the season opener at right-back.
“In the group of right…
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