LA Galaxy face division foes without key personnel

Robbie Keane and Jaime Penedo have been called up for international duty and will miss this Friday's match against the Colorado Rapids. Keane travels to Dublin for a September 3rd friendly, and then Ireland has a 2016 UEFA Euro Qualifier on September 7th. Penedo is participating in the Central American Cup on the 7th and 10th, missing the Galaxy's match against the Montreal Impact as well.

"You make slight adjustments to your team," said Bruce Arena. "We've been preparing for this. Robbie [Keane] didn't play in the D.C United game on Wednesday, he missed 60 minutes tonight, so we've played without him."

The solution this week with Keane resting the solution was Alan Gordon mixing it up with Gyasi Zardes. Gordon scored in the second minute against DC United, but he and Zardes didn't flow as well against Chivas USA. Landon Donovan ended up playing quite centrally with Gordon withdrawn, picking up two assists to Zardes for his trouble.

While the Galaxy attack should be fine, less clear is who will replace Jaime Penedo. Brian Perk has two starts this season in relief of Penedo with one goal allowed in only three shots faced. LA Galaxy II have moved on from any notion of being a reserve side, as Cody Laurendi leads that side in goalkeeper minutes. Practice is great, but facts are Perk and Rowe have had very few competitive minutes this season.

"We have some good options in the goal. This is all part of it. When the league plays on the international fixture dates, there are going to be occasions where you lose some players, and others have to step up. That will be the case [next week]."

Center backs will have a lot to do with how good a time either of the options has in goal, and this week we've seen Leonardo in that spot. No one would argue he makes the team better, but the facts remain that Leonardo hasn't directly cost LA too many games this season.

Of course, that's attributed more to the attack than to him, as well as the defenders around him. Correlation does not directly imply causality.