CARSON, Calif. – That goalkeeper controversy with the LA Galaxy? Forget about it.
Jaime Penedo appears to still be a firm No. 1 in the nets for the defending MLS Cup champions and is expected to make his season debut Saturday night at StubHub Center against the Houston Dynamo (10:30 pm ET; MLS LIVE) after missing LA's first two games this season.
Top backup Brian Rowe got the call for the Galaxy's opening-day win over Chicago and last weekend's draw at Portland after the effects of a preseason injury kept Penedo on the bench for the first game and a migraine killed his plans for week two.
“I respect [coach Bruce Arena's] decisions,” Penedo said through a translator. “He is the boss, and I have to say that he is righteous and loyal to his job and in his interaction with players. Brian started [the opener], and I'm not going to lie, I would have loved to play. ... He got the opportunity, and, well, you just have to work harder.”
Penedo, who has been LA's No. 1 ‘keeper since joining the club in August 2013 following a superb CONCACAF Gold Cup performance with Panama, says he was healthy for the opener after seeing limited time during preseason. He was slated to start in Portland, Arena reported, until he was hit with a migraine about 3½ hours before kickoff.
“It's something that's been with me for more than 10 years, [and] when they hit me I feel handicapped,” Penedo said. “I have bad headaches, I feel nauseous, and it’s very hard for me. I feel a sense of helplessness. ... I don’t get the migraines often, but maybe I get one today, another one in three months, and the problem is that I don't know when the next one will come.”
He says not sleeping nor eating well can trigger the headaches, or eating chocolate, or changes in lighting.
“People think I’m cross-eyed,” he said, “because in pictures when I see the flash, I look down.”
Penedo, 33, takes medicine to combat the migraines, “but the medicine knocks me out” and makes him feel that he “can't think or process information.”
“The problem [in Portland] was that I didn't know if I should or shouldn't take it,” he said. “I didn't take it in the beginning, and I was hoping Aleve would help me with the pain, but it didn’t. I had to take the pill I usually take, and 45 minutes later the migraine was gone, but I felt like I wouldn't be able to play.”
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Rowe, 26, “still has a way to go” and “just has to continue to grow as a player in that position,” Arena said.
The fourth-year ‘keeper wasn't challenged much while shutting out Chicago, 2-0, but he would have liked another chance last weekend on Fanendo Adi's 90th-minute goal, which LA answered moments later for a 2-2 result.
“I expect better of myself on the last one,” Rowe said, “just to be able to clean it out and do a little better.”
He'll likely get another shot next week, when LA visit D.C. United and Penedo is off with Panama's national team for friendlies March 27 at Trinidad and Tobago and March 31 in Panama City against Costa Rica.
