LA Galaxy Face Shallow Cuts On MLS Roster Compliance Day

Good morning everyone! Today's MLS Roster Deadline today, which means the LA Galaxy need to cut down their roster to conform to the 30 player limit. The Galaxy can go with 31, since they'll begin the season with Omar Gonzalez on the Injured Reserve list; but that's not a requirement. This means today is the last day of the beautiful, teal Player In/Player Out chart:

By my count, the Galaxy have 27 players under contract, one of whom is seriously injured. It's likely Tommy Meyer and Kenny Walker have already signed contracts, since the Galaxy had to waive Noble to sign Bill Gaudette yesterday. It's likely that one other draft pick has signed, though we won't know who until later today.

The roster the Galaxy took to Arizona had 30 players, but didn't include Robbie Keane (loan), Gonzalez, Kyle Nakazawa, or Jose Villarreal (injured). I have Tommy Meyer, J.T Murray, Justin Davies, Bryan Gaul, Kenny Walker, and Rafael Garcia as the six players whose contract status is unknown but traveled to Arizona with the team.

When Bruce Arena spoke to the local media before heading to Arizona, he said that it was likely five players competing for three spots. Noble and Gaudette simply swapped situations, so the game remains the same. I would speculate that at that point, Meyer had already signed and Arena was fully planning on going with 21 players on the senior roster. Arena admitted that we will see Omar Gonzalez on the Injury List when it's published today. He also said it's highly unlikely the Galaxy go with two players on the injury list, because it's a housekeeping headache.

More info will come out either tonight or tomorrow morning. There shouldn't be any big surprises, but it's likely four guys will be shipping home, not getting to play in the fantastically prestigious Desert Diamond Cup final against the New England Revolution.