LA Galaxy II announce initial 2022 roster

The LA Galaxy announced the initial 17-player roster for their reserve side, LA Galaxy II, with the 2022 USL Championship season just over a week away.

12 players will be returning, including 2021 top scorer Preston Judd, longtime goalkeeper Eric Lopez and fellow GK Alan Solorio and promising defender Josh Drack.

Meanwhile, there are five newcomers to the squad. Two are 2022 draft picks — midfielder Callum Johnson and defender Chandler Vaughn — and the other three have USL and in one case, MLS experience. Forward Michael Salazar has been a “tweener” between the divisions for years, featuring for the Montreal Impact, Houston Dynamo, their reserve teams, Ottawa Fury and most recently, for Memphis 901 FC. Salazar, 29, is a Belize international and attended college in California before turning pro.

Defender Liam Doyle, 29, is a USL veteran, having featured for Harrisburg City Islanders, Swope Park Rangers, Nashville SC, Memphis 901, San Antonio FC and Indy Eleven in his career to date. The Isle of Man native is a center back and will likely help serve as an anchor around the younger players.

And last but not least, Dante Campbell is more in the mold of a prospect. The 22-year-old is a product of the Toronto FC academy, and has played at both USL Championship and USL League One levels for Toronto FC II five of the last six years. In 2020, he went on loan with Valour FC in the Canadian Premier League.

2022 LA GALAXY II ROSTER (as of March 3, 2022)

FORWARDS (2): Preston Judd, Michael Salazar

MIDFIELDERS (8): Alex Alcala, Remi Cabral, Taylor Davila, Ascel Essengue, Adrian Gonzalez, Callum Johnson, Axel Picazo, Victor Valdez

DEFENDERS (5): Dante Campbell, Liam Doyle, Josh Drack, Owen Lambe, Chandler Vaughn

GOALKEEPERS (2): Eric López, Alan Solorio

Add to this group players on MLS contracts with the Galaxy, as well as Galaxy academy players. These players will likely play the bulk of the minutes, but there will be other players involved in Los Dos throughout the season, which is scheduled to begin Mar. 12 at San Diego Loyal.

Galaxy II have a new head coach this season, Yoann Damet, who has experience with a couple stints as an interim head coach for FC Cincinnati in their MLS era, and who was likely looking forward to getting out of that frying pan. This is expected to be the final season Los Dos play in this division, so we’ll see how it goes for the young G’s in 2022.

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