By Andrew Rogers

Cool and assured like his playing days, Alexi Lalas is amazingly calm despite the pressures of running Major League Soccer’s most glamorous franchise, the Los Angeles Galaxy and the small matter of making good on the largest player trade in league history.

Despite his hectic schedule, the man who did the business in Serie A, was keen to talk to Soccer 365 and let the readers know how football life was shaping up both on and off the field at the Galaxy, and typically the big man refused to shirk the big questions our readers demanded answers to.

It was massive game on Sunday against the defending champs?

We watched Houston last week in the CONCACAF Cup, it was a great game but unfortunately for Houston and MLS it didn’t happen. It would have been nice to have had a Mexico/MLS final.

Houston put up a valiant effort and got some solid preparation in, so to draw against them is creditable. We were playing the defending champions, and they were in their stadium. All the games will be difficult for us, that’s the level of competition that now exists.

Last time you admitted to our readers that you were disappointed with how last season went. Surely the target must be to compete this season?

When I look at the end of last season and look at Frank Yallop’s time with the team, we really had some more consistent performances which was great. But we need to put that together for the entire year.

We are not going to win every game, but we will be in every single game. That is important in this league and is important for this team. It’s a competitive league and all the teams are good. We really concentrated in the off season, on making sure we had a level on consistency that ultimately must translate into success.

What are the components of creating that consistency?

One of these is for Frank to be able to go through an off season, and a pre season with his team, which he did not get last year. He is a really interesting coach and person, in the way he goes about motivating the team and getting them to buy into his philosophy. It doesn’t happen over night so he needs time. I'm real excited to have seen this team go through a pre season with Frank Yallop.

What players should we be looking out for?

Well there’s the signing of Joe Canon and Nate Jaqua and the re signing of Santino Quaranta and a couple of surprises that our fans are really going to enjoying seeing whether its, defender Ty Hartman or Kyle Martino who has had an incredible pre season.

Ian Russell who has been out of the league and we are so happy to have him back, because you know exactly what you are going to get which is 100 % and a tremendous work ethic.

All these little pieces of the puzzle will hopefully come together to create a much clearer, healthier and brighter picture.

But the Copa America and the resultant loss of players could cloud this picture?

It’s no secret that we are a better team when Landon is with us, the stress upon our team is we have to find ways of competing and winning without Landon.

He is a great player and anyone with him on the side will be a stronger side. We respect that so much so, that if you’re the national team coach you want him on the side as much as possible. It increases your chances of winning dramatically.

You can’t blame the national team coach for wanting him to enter both major tournaments this summer. At the end of the day it’s up to Landon and what he feels is appropriate. It’s wonderful some of the statements he has made about his commitment and excitement about being with the Galaxy this year.

It is going to be an incredibly exciting year for this organization and the players are excited, whether it be the arrival David Beckham, the world series of football, with games against Chelsea or the Super Liga with some of the biggest names from Mexico.

All these things are exciting and what being part of the Galaxy is all about. Having said that we recognize how important the national team is, and we wouldn’t want to stand in the way of that and the players representing their country. So it remains to be seen how things shape up.

With regards to Beckham, is the team going to be simply wait for him to turn up?

For the complete Lalas interview CLICK HERE