Zac Lee Rigg salutes the staying power of L.A. veteran Chris Klein, 32, who has now started 108 games in a row for the Galaxy and Real Salt Lake, stretching back to April 15, 2006.
The two-time MLS Comeback Player of the Year, who was made Galaxy captain by coach Bruce Arena at the weekend in the absence of both Landon Donovan and David Beckham, said, “You just take it one at a time, and try to take care of your body, and hope the coach keeps picking you.”
Klein is doing his best to take care of the many Galaxy youngsters that have stepped up to first team action over the past two seasons. “We’ve got a good group of young kids,” he said. “You try to just talk to them, encourage them as we go along, and they’ve developed well.” The player singled out 22-year-old Bryan Jordan’s performance at the weekend as reason for optimism.
Klein also said that Arena’s approach was helping the team defensively, despite conceding five goals in the last two games. “I think it’s much different now,” he said. “The chances are less and on a whole we defend much better as a team. Yeah, we let in two goals [Saturday against Real Salt Lake], but we scored two also, and I think we’re much more organized than we were before. I don’t want to say it was coaching, but it was basically coaching. Arena tells us where he wants us to be, the right spots, how to shift, and how to move as a team. It’s not just the back four, it’s all 11 guys.”