Jakob Glesnes was one of the Galaxy’s big offseason acquisitions.
The former MLS Defender of the Year was brought in to shore up a leaky defense that has plagued the Galaxy for years. In games that Glesnes played, excluding a 4-1 loss against the Colorado Rapids, the Galaxy had allowed only two goals.
Unfortunately for Glesnes and the Galaxy, his early start was interrupted by a calf injury that ended up sidelining him for nearly 1½ months.
Glesnes’ played in the opening leg of the Galaxy’s CONCACAF Champions Cup round of 16 match against Mount Pleasant and then was on the shelf until Sunday, when he finally returned in the first half of the Galaxy’s 2-1`win against Real Salt Lake.
“It was amazing,” he said of returning to action. “It have been some long weeks for me. I’m not used to this type of situation, being away from the team for that long. So just, now to have a whole week of training, it’s amazing and to be part of what we did last week (beating RSL), it was really good, so now it’s something to build on.”
Durability has been one of Glesnes’ attributes since arriving in Major League Soccer. In his last five seasons with the Philadelphia Union, the Norwegian missed just eight games. In 2021 and 2022, he played every minute of the 34-game season.
“It (the injury) happened in training, in the end of training one day, I just popped my calf, it was really scary because the feeling that I had when it happened, wasn’t good at all,” Glesnes said. “You feel it straight away, that it was more than just something small. But I’m glad the body was recovering well and I think the recovery time was good compared to what they were saying when the injury first happened.”
Glesnes accompanied the Galaxy (3-4-3, 12 points) on their mid-April road trip to FC Dallas and Columbus. His injury designation was listed as questionable for both stops, but he didn’t appear in a game.
“He’s done great work, I would say, to speed that (injury) timeline up as fast as he could,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “If it was up to him, he wanted to get something (playing time) in Columbus and the docs were wisely, like, it’s just not long enough for that particular tricky injury to heal.
“We wanted to get him going, but we had to be extra precautious, also on the weekend (against RSL), but he’s feeling great, he’s back in and as you saw, we need the way he’s aggressive and engaged and the way he drives our backline is just really important for our group.”
Glesnes was subbed off after the first half Sunday as part of the Galaxy’s plan of getting him back up to 90-minutes fitness.
“I felt pretty confident,” he said of his return. “I was checking all of the boxes. It was more the time limit after the injury they didn’t want to press that too early.”
This week’s challenge sees the Vancouver Whitecaps come to town. Vancouver (8-1-0, 24 points) is in second place in the Western Conference while playing eight of its first nine game games at home. The Whitecaps have allowed just five goals while scoring 25.
“They’re a really good team, but again, it shouldn’t matter who is coming here,” Glesnes said. “This (Dignity Health Sports Park) should be our fort and we should win every game. That should be our mentality from now and out the rest of the season.”
Injury updates
Maya Yoshida (knee) is questionable for Saturday’s game. The defender said Thursday that he was feeling better.
Midfielder Erik Thommy (calf) is likely back during next week’s road trip, which has the Galaxy playing in Atlanta (May 9), Kansas City (May 13) and Seattle (May 16).
Forward Matheus Nascimento (hamstring) and defender Julian Aude (ankle) are trending toward being ready after the road trip.
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS at GALAXY
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday
Where: Dignity Health Sports Park
How to watch: Apple TV