CARSON — The Galaxy open the Curt Onalfo era Tuesday night with a preseason friendly against Club Tijuana.

The Galaxy and their new head coach began training camp Jan. 23 and will get a good test of how far along they are against one of Mexico’s top clubs.

“For me it is just another opportunity to get the players moving in the right direction,” Onalfo said. “It is always better than a training session because you’re playing against a real opponent and in this case, a really good one.

“This is another step toward moving our group to where we want to go.”

Onalfo and the Galaxy will be without Giovani dos Santos (national team duty), Gyasi Zardes, Romain Alessandrini and Joao Pedro (visa).

“You’re missing a couple of players and that’s all part of it,” Onalfo said. “So that means you end up utilizing more of your depth and in the second half, even more guys that have come through our system. You’ll see a good mixture of players.”

Forward Jack McBean is looking at games like Tuesday night as another opportunity to show he deserves a larger role.

“Every time you step on the field, you want to do well,” McBean said. “I want to show my teammates and the coaching staff that I belong here and that I deserve to get a look for a starting spot and, if not, then coming off of the bench.

“Of course we want to win the game, but we want to also build that fitness level as well as getting that chemistry on the field. Hopefully take away a lot of positives from it.”

Galaxy midfielder Sebastian Lletget rejoined the club Monday for training following his time with the U.S. National Team.

He went 90 minutes in the 1-0 victory Friday over Jamaica, but said he “would love to play” Tuesday.

CLUB TIJUANA at GALAXY

Kickoff: 8 p.m. at StubHub Center

TV: Spectrum SportsNet

Update: Club Tijuana, also known as Xolos, is in first place in Liga MX’s Torneo Clausura with 12 points (4-1-0 record). They’ve won their past three league games. Aviles Herrera leads the club with seven goals. … After Tuesday night, the Galaxy will face San Jose on Saturday in Las Vegas and then travel to Santa Barbara on Feb. 15. They will face Alashkert FC on Feb. 18 at Westmont College.