And those words are: Best in MLS.

In today’s edition of MLSSoccer.com’s The Debate Team, Jared Borgetti, er, Jason Saghini, Greg Lalas and Simon Borg got into a knock-down drag-out over who is currently the best team in MLS, the Columbus Crew or the LA Galaxy. Granted, the Crew have played three fewer games, so points alone don’t count, and both teams are undefeated. Simon Borg was a full-bore Galaxy supporter citing the stifling defense and the explosive offense led by Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle. Borgetti, I mean Saghini, on the other hand, likes the Crew because he thinks they have more offensive depth and can grit out tough wins and ties.

Which brings me to last night in which the Galaxy traveled to the league’s worst-sited venue in Frisco, TX and put the beat-down on FC Dallas. After the game Dallas coach Schelles Hyndman said it was the worst game his Dallas side had ever played. (There’s something about a Galaxy visit to Pizza Hut Park that causes problems, apparently. Remember how the team got previous Dallas coach Steve Morrow canned?) This begs the question: was Dallas that bad or the Galaxy that good? I’m going with the second one. The thing about this team, which Borg rightly points out, is that it wins by playing hard-nosed defense from box to box, which is a powerfully disruptive force on opponents. When you take away Buddle and Donovan, then it just gets worse because the team relies on the counter for most of its offensive production. And that’s not pretty for either side.

Which was the case last night. Borgetti’s arguement that the Galaxy’s depth was aging veterans is factually true, but analytically shallow. Yes. Jovan Kirovski, Clint Mathis, Eddie Lewis, Gregg Berhalter, and Chris Klein are all well over the 30. But how many of them are consistently starting? And how many would be if not for injury to younger players like Alan Gordon, Leonardo, Alex Cazumba, Sean Franklin and AJ DeLaGarza? What’s fantastic about the Galaxy’s depth is that it is both young and old, wily vets and eager young guns. This team has the tools to play competitively in three competitions this year and watching the team dismantle Dallas last night only confirms that.

The game itself was, as noted, fairly ugly, but also gave Tristan Bowen his first ever start (in a mostly forgettable effort save his intelligent run and smart pass to Mike Magee for the goal), while putting Magee up top. I’ll say this. Magee was better than Bowen. But Michael Stephens and Juninho were better than both of them. If there’s one point that Borgetti makes (what? I called him that twice in a row? Huh.) that seems cogent it’s the lack of depth in the attack for the Galaxy. Mathis could be a tremendous addition. But Magee is erratic, Gordon is, well, Gordon, and Bowen showed that he needs a lot more work. I don’t even want to talk about Kirovski who continues to show a great work rate and the ability to get lucky about twice a year.

But the Galaxy struck on the counter, Klein finding Bowen on the run and Magee finishing with a simple unhurried touch. Then the defense put it on lockdown. Donovan Ricketts had his most active game of the season with a few tremendous saves and was helped by some atrocious finishing by Jeff Cunningham and Brek Shea. Omar Gonzalez kept his give-aways to a minimum while winning everything in the air while Todd Dunivant and Berhalter had their usual steady veteran game.

The defense is so good this year that it has set an MLS record for fewest goals allowed through 10 games with two. That’s on pace for six goals for the entire year. I don’t think that’s possible, but it sure is something to aim for. This game was the 8th shutout of the season for the team as well. And, if the team can stay on track for two more games, then they can tie the record for most undefeated games to start a season. A record that is held by the Columbus Crew and the 1996 Galaxy.

Personally, despite the Crew’s great form, I think the Galaxy is clearly the best team in the league right now. The depth is there, even if I wish it had more sure options in attack. But it didn’t have much after Donovan and David Beckham last year and they went to the MLS Cup. They’ll resort to last year’s grind-it-out grit, refusing to lose, relying on the league’s best defense and finishing enough chances earned from counters to stay in front of the pack. Don’t discount the fact that they will gradually add attacking options as players come back from injury or regain match fitness as well.

Speaking of the Columbus Crew, they are the Galaxy’s next league opponent on May 29th in Columbus. That should be the first must-watch game of the 2010 season and the true test of the Galaxy’s depth.

What about you guys? What did you see? Who did well? Who didn’t? What do you think the chances of the team maintaining it’s league-leading form are? Is the Galaxy the best team in MLS at this moment? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

MLSSoccer highlights here (their code won’t embed in this blog).

Highlights from FSN via the LA Times.
 

Jen will be doing a post-game analysis later and I’ll chime in as well. In the meantime, feel free to drop in your own thoughts and comments about the game and the send-off the team and fans gave Landon and Edson for the USA’s World Cup training camp.

And what else is there to say?

Of all the teams I would prefer not to have to rely on…

I was so looking forward to the game last night, but mother nature had other plans. A windstorm knocked out our power at 3:30 yesterday afternoon. So I ended up at a local sports pub, staring at freakin’ Cleveland and Boston, thinking, “How long can two innings possibly take?!?!?”

A long time. That’s how long. I hate baseball.

So I missed the first half entirely, which means I missed both goals. I did get to see the second half, which means I saw strong play on defense and in the midfield, an unfit Beckham who shouldn’t have been on the pitch, and an offense unable to break down the wall. Does that about sum it up? Anything more to add?

*Sigh*

Curse you, Galaxy and Red Bulls! Do you know how painful it’s going to be for me to root for effing Dallas?!?!?

*Yes, I DID see “Spamalot” last week when it was here on tour. How did you know? And now, for the rest of the day, I will be singing this song. And, if you’ve seen the play, so will you:

DAD:
I am not yet dead
I can dance and I can sing
I am not yet dead
I can do the highland fling
I am not yet dead
No need to go to bed
No need to call the doctor
‘Cos I’m not yet dead

And…um…wine. (Which does make the Galaxy games much easier to watch. I highly recommend it.)

Seriously, though, what a great day! I dragged myself out of bed this morning to watch my beloved France National Team take a 6-0 win over the Faroe Islands, and then tonight I watched my beloved Galaxy keep their playoff hopes alive. Does it get any better than this? It think not.

(Well, technically, it would have been better if Georgia had beaten Italy and bumped them out of Euro qualifier position, and if DC had beaten Chicago rather than settling for a nil-nil draw. But we’ll take what we can get.)

And what we can get is three points! Yea, woohoo, etc.

I’m not buying into those Galaxy-must-get-into-the-playoffs conspiracy theories, but luck in the form of things like red cards does seem to go our way lately, doesn’t it? Yes, the last Toronto defender pulled Gavin Glinton down in the box, which is technically a red card offense… But I can think of at least one Galaxy defender who’s done the same thing with just a yellow. So…well…make of this what you will. Because we won!

The goals were a Landon Donovan PK after that Glinton pull-down, and then a Donovan-to-Chris Klein-to-Edson Buddle-to-goal thing that was really pretty. It has to be an amazing feelingfor Edson Buddle to score the game winner against his former team, particularly since he hasn’t been fit and on the field much lately. And I am loving Chris Klein more every week.

And the more the season goes on, the more I’m also loving Frank Yallop. His starting and substitution choices are exquisite. He really has a feel for what this team is capable of at any given moment. (And I’m glad that the Klinsmann thing was just a rumor.)

You know what the best part was, though? Seeing David Beckham, in his suit, coming down to congratulate the team and knowing they did it without him. Not because there’s anything wrong with Beckham, of course, but because the team was created earlier this year with the apparent belief that the season couldn’t be complete without him. And yet it has been. Who would have thought this possible in the middle of the year?

Whether or not we make the playoffs, I am so proud of these guys for surviving this year with style. Go, Galaxy!!

I figured Jaqua would score because he had something to prove. And the fact that it came off a Ngwenya assist added a touch more irony and payback to the goal. But I figured Carlos Pavon was not just due but overdue, and sure enough, he managed to put one in seconds before the half to give the Galaxy that all-important psychological advantage.

And then all it took was Gavin Glinton to finish off a Cobi Jones assist in the second half. How right does that combination feel? I’m loving Gavin Glinton.

I ended up being home but couldn’t see the game. Stupid cable company. As always, I spent the first ten minutes on my couch morosely flipping through all of my 200 or so channels on the off chance that Comcast had miraculously decided to offer me the game. Alas, no. (Of course I know better, but still I hope.) So I listened to the streamed game on the radio, and I got enough of a feel for the game to feel heartened. This team has finally become the real deal. TEN shots, including seven on goal. They want this bad. (The number of corners given up — seven — is a bit disturbing, but the team does seem to at last be figuring out how to defend set pieces.)

Alas, Chicago and New England did us no favors by allowing Chicago to win. But the playoffs are still a possibility. It could easily come down to that last Chicago vs. LA game, Blanco vs. Beckham. Do you think the MLS marketing guys are hyperventilating at the prospect?

If you saw the game, give me your thoughts. (And anybody who would be willing to send a copy of the game my way, I’d be forever in your debt. I have had to miss all three Houston games this year and would love to see this one.)

Oh, P.S. Who knows what “team rule” Mike Randolph broke to get himself bumped from the starting spot? Has our Mikey been a bad boy?

(Thanks for the link to the audio, Lee!)

– Boy, that Troy Roberts goal was flukey, wasn’t it? I’ve watched it a few times and I’m still not sure what body part caused it to dribble into the net. (Kind of like Nate Jaqua’s one and only goal awhile back.) I have to credit bad Crew defense more than stellar Galaxy offense, but whatever. We’ll take it.

– The second goal, though? The one by Kyle Martino? Really pretty. Hey, all you Martino haters! He can dribble past defenders and blast it directly in the goal. And that nutmeg on the way into the goal made it even more fun to watch. For me at least.

– And to continue along those lines, I found it touching how many fans Kyle still has in Columbus. His goal got almost as many cheers as the Crew goal. (Question for you: Are there any former players you’d cheer for if they scored against your team?)

– Something the mom in me noticed. A few weeks ago, right after Josh Tudela started playing but before he was playing well, I noticed that he went up to join in a goal celebration and was kind of frozen out. Not intentionally, but it was kind of like the circle was complete without him. On Sunday, though, he was definitely right in the thick of the group. This warms my maternal heart, and I also think it speaks well to how far he’s progressed in the past few weeks.

– And the Galaxy continue to not play badly as other teams fall apart. How odd is it to watch things finally come together this season after everything the team’s gone through? I’m almost afraid that getting back the injured players will somehow jinx it.

Starters
1 – Joe Cannon (GK)
2 – Mike Randolph
3 – Ty Harden
7 – Chris Klein
8 – Peter Vagenas
10 – Landon Donovan
12 – Troy Roberts
13 – Cobi Jones 88
18 – Kyle Martino 71
19 – Josh Tudela
21 – Alan Gordon 19

Substitutes
4 – Ante Jazic 88
6 – Kevin Harmse 71
9 – Gavin Glinton 19

Have you got it figured out?

Okay, first, the obvious one. These were the players in yesterday’s game.

But (again, with the exception of Chris Klein,) what else do they have in common?

All were on the roster BEFORE Alexi started slashing and burning to make Beckham’s team. Every single one. And if Chris Albright had been able to stay healthy, he probably would have been playing at rightback instead of Klein. (Assuming he hadn’t been traded mid-season.)

What this means is that the Galaxy won the game yesterday without Edson Buddle, Carlos Pavon, Abel Xavier, Kelly Gray, or David Beckham — the players who were brought in to make this the all-star, super-colossal, truly amazing team.

Wonder if this also means that, like Dorothy in Oz and her ruby slippers, the Galaxy had the power in them all along.

Oh, by the way, Nate Jaqua scored a hat trick for Houston a few weeks back. Just thought you’d want to know.

It’s a little like trying to figure out those impressionist pointillist paintings made up entirely of little dots. You squint your eyes and step back twenty feet and try to figure out how this point connects to that point and how either of them connects to the big picture.

Point A, minute 2: Uh-oh. That looks like a Crew goal celebration. Check scoreline. Yup. 1-0 Crew. Could be a long game.

I shut down the desktop, try the laptop. It doesn’t help.

Point B, minute 13: Is that the Crew keeper, falling into his net with the ball? And is that defender TROY ROBERTS celebrating? Scoreline now reads 1-1. How the hell did Troy Roberts score a goal?

Point C, minute 19: Uh-oh again. Some guy in a white shirt being carried off the field. Can’t see the face, but he’s white and has beefy legs. That rules out Pete Vagenas and Kyle Martino and Landon Donovan. Ty Harden, maybe? I switch to Match Tracker and see that Alan Gordon’s been subbed out. Mystery solved. (Who knew Alan Gordon had beefy legs?)

And what the heck? The scoreline is now reading 2-1 Galaxy. How did that happen?

I give up on trying to watch the game and go to do other stuff. I come back in the 78th minute and the scoreline is the same. Guess I didn’t miss much. I kind of follow the rest of the game on MatchTracker. Nothing else happens. We had two shots on goal the entire game and somehow turned those into two goals, the second scored by Kyle Martino.

So, in conclusion, the game ends 2-1 Galaxy. All of the exciting action appears to have happened in the first twenty minutes. We have now eked out three wins in a row.

And yes, our playoff hopes are still alive. (Or at least not yet dead. Is that the same thing?)

Who woulda thought?

Seriously, think about that goal. Josh Tudela makes the run to draw the defender to clear the space for Mike Randolph to pass to where Gavin Glinton knows his head can be. Just one month ago that would have been way too many moving parts for this team, whose only real strategy for ages was, “give it to Landon.” (And, regarding Tudela’s run, for once I’m agreeing with Eric Wynalda about it making all the difference.)

But of course, in reality, it all came down to those red cards. We were once again able to capitalize on having a personnel advantage. And when was the last time you saw a team get two red cards in one game, barring a massive brawl? I thought the first one was completely deserved and could have been a leg-breaker, but the second could easily have been a yellow if there hadn’t been such a sense of deja vu about the “let’s take out Pete Vagenas at the ankle” aspect.

And speaking of Vagenas, did anybody else feel there was an element of penance to those tackles? As in, “I will allow them to break my legs to make up for that SuperLiga own goal and missed penalty”? Those red cards won the game for us, Pete. This makes it all even. We’re square. (NOTE: I am not in any way implying that Pete somehow personally brought on two tackles from hell. More that this felt a bit like a cosmic, karmic balancing of the scales.)

Joe Cannon pretty much got the night off, with the exception of having to save at least one own goal. (Oops. Love you, Troy!) Is anybody else getting a little worried about our Joe, though? He’s lookin’ like he’s been rode hard and put away wet. (ReLAX and get your mind out of the gutter. It’s an old cowgirl expression and refers to horses.) Am I the only one getting visions of Joe staring into the fire, alone, guzzling whisky from a tumbler and muttering, “Keeper of the Year. I was effing Keeper of the Year!”**

But since we currently have two, count ‘em, TWO back to back wins, and THREE games without a loss… Well, life gets better now, right?

Not much else to say about the game, except that if you didn’t see it, you should stop by MLSnet and watch the highlights. Because there actually are some.

**This and all other potentially libelous statements arise entirely from my imagination. This means: Hi, Joe! I am, of course, kidding. And: Please don’t sue me!