CARSON — Although it is only preseason, Kevin Cabral’s second season with the Galaxy is off to a good start.
Cabral, who joined the Galaxy last season as young Designated Player, struggled at times finishing just five goals in 28 games.
Saturday, in the first preseason game in front of fans, Cabral scored the Galaxy’s first two goals and showed his talents of getting into dangerous and threatening situations in the attack.
“Scoring goals is about confidence,” Galaxy coach Greg Vanney said. “It’s about taking a risk a little bit …He was playing as a winger, but he was in front of the goal and he was goal dangerous, which was excellent. We didn’t see that a lot last year.
“He did a real nice job of putting himself in dangerous spots and guys found him and again, goal-scoring a lot of times is about confidence and it helps get a rhythm and flow going.”
The Galaxy defeated the New England Revolution 4-0 at Dignity Health Sports Park in front of 9,345.
In the first half, Cabral was played through by Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez. Cabral the dribbled away from the goalkeeper and scored. Cabral now has three preseason goals.
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Early in the second half, Julian Araujo fed Cabral from the right wing and Cabral, who was running unmarked, had the easy tap in for a 2-0 Galaxy lead.
Araujo was making his preseason debut after spending time with the Mexican national team for the last three-game World Cup qualifying window.
Dejan Joveljic scored the third Galaxy goal. The fourth goal was an own goal.
Jonathan Klinsmann, who replaced Jonathan Bond to start the second half, kept the shutout intact with a kick save in the 88th minute on a shot by Justin Rennicks.
The Galaxy’s next two games (Feb. 10 and 13) will take place at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. The club departs Tuesday and will return home before the Dec. 16 preseason game against Vancouver.
The regular season begins Feb. 27 at home against New York City FC.
NOTES
Vanney talked earlier the week about ramping up the workload of the players. The starting lineup increased their minutes load to 60.
Former Galaxy midfielder Sebastian Lletget made his New England debut. The Galaxy traded Lletget to New England in December.