CARSON — After spending the first five years of his professional career with D.C. United, Perry Kitchen packed up and left the U.S.

“It was a tough decision,” he said of leaving after his contract expired following the 2015 season. “I had a great time at D.C., everybody was great there. It was just something that my wife and I wanted to do. Experience new things and experience new things on the field. We had a great time. It was a great two years.”

Kitchen spent two years with Heart of Midlothian Football Club in the Scottish Premiership and one with Randers FC in the Danish Superliga.

Last month, Kitchen made his return to the U.S. and Major League Soccer, joining the Galaxy.

“To be honest, I wasn’t really planning on coming back this soon,” he said. “But when a club like L.A., a big club like them, wants you and they come after you, it is tough to say no.

“I think that’s kind of the situation that I was put in. It is a great opportunity for me, not only to get back to the states, but to be at a big club like L.A.”

Kitchen will make his home preseason debut with the Galaxy at 7 p.m. Saturday at StubHub Center against New York City FC.

Kitchen made his MLS debut at 21. Now at 25, he believes the time in Europe served him well.

“Better player, better person, just experiencing new things, seeing different things and being a foreigner in a different land, gives you a different perspective on things,” Kitchen said.

Kitchen joins a crowded midfield with the Galaxy, but he hangs his hat on doing the dirty work.

“He’s a competitor, he loves sitting in the hole, he likes winning tackles,” Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid said. “Jonathan (dos Santos) can play there, but that’s not his best position, (Joao) Pedro can play there, but that’s not his best position. He (Kitchen) gives us that guy and he’s also a guy that talks during a game.”

The Galaxy midfield fell apart last year without having someone capable doing what Kitchen is willing to do.

“I understand that it was a difficult season,” Kitchen said of the Galaxy’s 2017. “A lot of injuries, obviously couldn’t pick up results, but that’s the game sometimes. I still think there’s a ton of quality here, obviously, a lot of new guys are in, so it’s our goal to not let that (2017) repeat itself.”

Preseason goals

This is the second preseason game for the Galaxy. Last week, Schmid played three groups of players for 30 minutes against Real Salt Lake.

In all, 33 players played last week.

“The first group is going to go 45 minutes, maybe a little bit more, we’ll see,” he said. “I want to see a good 30 and maybe fitness will fail them a little bit. I thought against RSL, we created some opportunities, but we just didn’t have the freshness in our legs to finish some of those. I think that will come.”

The game will available via livestream at LAGalaxy.com