Beckham did not receive a kind reception from fans in The Riot Squad during the AC Milan match yesterday.

As long as he plays his ass off and keeps the drama down to a minimum then I’m fine with his return to the team. He is definitely fitting in much better (playing-wise) than he did at the end of last season.

Some video and links about his unwelcome debut:

BBC Sport
LA Times
ESPN Soccernet
Kansas City Star — Beckham a Bad Sport?
Goal.com — Beckham Taunts Riot Squad

I not going to do a real post-game analysis, just leave you with some thoughts and impressions and invite everyone to leave their own.

*****
I’m warming up to the idea that you don’t have to be the best team in the league, just the best team in the stadium. Obviously the Galaxy weren’t the best team in the stadium tonight, but they played well, well enough to earn a draw playing their “A” line up against a “B” line-up from AC Milan in the first half. The second half, in which there were a total of 9 subs by the Galaxy and something similar from Milan isn’t really worth talking about in that manner.

*****
How much of my Galaxy commenting and blogging life have I spent dogging out Alan Gordon? Frequent readers, know it’s been a lot. Well no matter what I or anyone else ever says about Alan Gordon ever again he can always point out that he scored against AC Milan. That’s right, he buried a dandy cross from Landon Donovan in the corner of the net, one-timing it so the keeper had no chance. Good for him.

While I’m at it, good on Bryan Jordan from blasting a corner into the back of the net for the second Galaxy goal, tying the game in the second half.

That’s right, the Galaxy’s two goals came from Gordon and Jordan. There’s got to be a silly chant there someplace.

*****
I was disappointed not to see Oguchi Onyewu on the Milan side. Where was he? Will he be on any part of the tour?

*****
Edson Buddle went out after about 20 minutes with an injured foot. I hope it isn’t bad, but I would surprised if he plays in the next game. Thank you Mr. Arena for that depth I was talking about yesterday.

*****
Lots of booing of David Beckham for the first 30 minutes or so, but by the time he was subbed out in the 75th minute he had a lot more people on their feet than booing. I feel for the die-hard fans who feel wronged by him – I wanted the circus to leave town and make the loan permanent back in pres-season – but he’s played good futbol in the two games I’ve watched. He’s playing hard and making smart plays and the team is better when he’s on the field. Now if he could just get his deadball touch back and stop blowing long-range passes…

*****
This bugs me about futbol fans in the US: cheering for a foreign team over a home-grown domestic side. I get that in many cases fans are born into cheering for a specific team, much like people get born into a religion. So I get if your family has AC Milan roots or whatever. But showing up to the HDC to support Milan over the Galaxy is a bit like showing up to battle between the Rebel Alliance and The Empire and rooting for the Death Star. It’s like being on Darth Vader’s team. Not that the Galaxy-as-Rebel-Alliance analogy really stands much deep scrutiny, but you get my drift, right? Where are you people during the regular season while MLS is helping to build futbol culture in this country? Watching TiVO’d Euro-league games probably. That’s weak.

*****
That game makes me feel even better about how the Galaxy will do over the rest of the season, pending the status of Buddle’s foot.

Here are some of the stories about the game.
Andrea Canales at Goal.com with a game recap
Agence-France Press focusing only on the booing
Jahmal Corner at Reuters
The Associated Press
Larry Morgan with the MLSNet recap
Nick Green at 100 Percent Soccer has a mess of posts including this one from the game itself
Full AP story in the LA Times (what? No Grahame Jones?)
The party line from the Official LA Galaxy blog run by Jaime Cardenas (he says Buddle has a hyperextended big toe)
Running blog from MLS Rumors

Here’s fan-taken video of Bryan Jordan’s goal off of a corner from Becks (DAVID if you are reading this, it looks like it is shot from your STH seats!).

What about you guys? What did you see? How did you feel about Beckham’s home debut? Were the boos justified? Did his workrate help calm anger? How do you feel about Gordon and Jordan getting the Galaxy goals? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

This Edmonton Journal article captures the game well.

Playing minus Carlos Ruiz and Landon Donovan, Major League Soccer’s leading goal scorer (thanks hugely to Beckham) and with a full set of second stringers, the Galaxy lost 2-1 to an inspired Vancouver side.

Beckham set up his team’s only score, by Alan Gordon, who converted a sublime cross from Beckham to tie the game 1-1 in the 43rd minute.

Overall I think both sides got what they wanted. The Whitecaps got great ticket sales (over 30,000) and a good showing by Becks. The Galaxy got some good practice in with several junior roster players getting minutes. It also gave Ruud and Cobi a good look at the reserve players.

But I swear I’m going to start a petition or something to get Ruud to play Wicks. He must be seeing (or not seeing) something that we aren’t privy to.

I’ve poked around on cbcsports.ca to see if there will be a video of it and I can’t quite tell. If you know where it will be broadcast, please post and let us know. Meanwhile, I’ll be dusting off some more of my Canada jokes.

AP Newswire – This just in, Landon Donovan creates international incident when he purposely crosses himself 50 million times before taking a penalty kick. After completing his hat trick, Donovan mimics the use of a bow and arrow and playfully “attacks” coaches and players on the Iranian bench as if he was a Crusader. Donovan ends his display with running with his arms extended, which looks like the “bomber run” done by British Players, but might be construed at creating a “cross.”

Yet another one of those things I wish I’d thought of first.

Whatever. Our boys are apparently going to play Iran in May. (Despite previous Galaxy front office protestations to the contrary.)

Iran. You know. The country that won’t let women come to their home games? Yeah, that Iran. (Is this still the law? It was, then it wasn’t, but now I think it is again.)

I’ll let Andrea Canales tell you all about the game itself in her ESPNsoccernet article, including some interesting bits about the Iranian community in LA and how its history intertwines with that of the Galaxy, and about the whole “soccer diplomacy” thing.

For my part, I’d like to give you what I thought were some fascinating links I stumbled across when I was researching news about Iran’s coach search. (As of a month ago, they were in the middle of managerial musical chairs. It’s apparently not quite resolved.)

But while I was looking into that, I found a fascinating page called Iran Sports Press, which pulls no punches in its criticism of the Iranian sports hierarchy. (And remember here that Iran doesn’t exactly have free press. And also that Iran recently faced FIFA sanctions for political meddling in football.) My guess is that this site is run by Iranian ex-pats, but I’m not certain of this.

TEHRAN- Iran’s coach Ali Daei launched a furious tirade against his football federation on Tuesday, threatening to quit and revealing he is still waiting for a contract to sign.

Daei, the holder of the world record for international goals, was appointed in March to reverse the flagging fortunes of the Team Melli in its World Cup campaign. However with crunch qualifying matches approaching in June, it appears that relations between the ex-Bayern Munich striker Daei and federation head Ali Kafashian have reached an all time low.

“If Kafashian does not have time to talk with me about friendly matches and my contract, then I am not free either,” Daei told the Hamshahri newspaper. “I have not won my honour so easily that I can lose it this way. If things go on like this, we should think about something else and they could appoint someone else who they like.”

Also on the same site, I found this description of challenges facing the Iranian game:

Clemente [Former coach, who was fired before taking the job] is being handed a shattered National team, who have not trained together for more than a week in the last 6 months, half of the foreign based players are regular benchwarmers, players are psychologically frustrated at the shortcomings in Iranian football state in the past year or so, and the team is under pressure of expectations to smoothly qualify for World Cup 2010.

Works for me. If we’re going to turn our boys loose against the best team another nation has to offer, let’s at least make it a dysfunctional one.

Hong Kong United 0-3 LA Galaxy

Okay, that’s the game! Ruiz gets a hat trick! Lots of growth this game. I’m relatively happy, but it’s going to be work getting all of the young players on the same wavelength.

90 + 2 Alvaro gets a yellow for a very rough tackle. The free kick looks dangerous and hard but goes high.

90 + 1 Two minutes of stoppage time. Hong Kong had a free kick, and I think Wicks was involved, but my attention span and ability to multi-task have given out. I think it’s past my bedtime.

89′ Alvaro makes a nice charge up the middle, but his pass goes out after a deflection for a corner. I think (I was typing) it was a short corner to Franklin who delivers to Jordan who puts in a pretty aerial attempt that goes wide. Or was it high” I’m ready for the game to be over.

88′ Hong Kong drives up the right. Somebody knocks it out for a corner. (I keep hoping they’ll show these things in replay or at least name names.)

86′ Troy Roberts has to knock the ball out for a corner. Is this Hong Kong’s first? Corner’s delivered to the middle to an unmarked player and sent into the side netting. I thought that one went in.

84′ See, here we go again. Somebody just had a beautiful run down the middle past multiple defenders, and I have no idea who it was. Bryan Jordan, maybe?

82′ GOAL!!!! Ruiz for the hat trick!! Ely Allen comes up the left, delivers a throughball to Ruiz who runs onto it and knocks it past the keeper.

80′ GOAL!!!!! Carlos Ruiz! McDonald to Sean Franklin who delivers to ball to Ruiz. Quality. The ball from Franklin was perfect. Ruiz didn’t even have to stretch to knock it in.

79′ Everybody’s looking as asleep as I feel right now.

77′ I’m having a hard time writing anything. I really can’t tell who’s on the ball. I need to memorize the rookies’ numbers before the season starts. But eventually you start recognizing how they move and you don’t need numbers.

75′ Hong Kong gets a good shot, but it goes wide. Wicks probably would have saved it, but it looked dangerous.

75′ There are so many rookies on the field I am having a hard time keeping track of who’s who. Michael Gavin is the only easy one because of his hair.

74′ Ruiz gets a hug from behind, gets slowed down. Drama. But there was a foul.

73′ Wicks makes a save.

73′ McDonald is going a little more right, Vagenas more central. And we almost blew it. All of our defenders were in the box, but nobody seemed to have any idea where the ball was. In the end Gavin cleared it out.

71′ Beckham’s out, Vagenas is in. Beckham looks worn out. Vagenas looks happy to be here.

70′ Ely Allen gets a chance. He runs onto a ball but…I was typing and didn’t see what happened.

69′ Beckham is taken down and is slow to get up. We need to get him out of there. But then right away he’s there on the defense.

67′ Beckham steals the ball and sends it up the field where it’s knocked out for a throw-in. Becks throws to um…Alvaro, who loses it. Hong Kong takes it up the field, where Hong Kong gets a great opportunity, but Wicks is there. Central defense booboos set it up, but we survived.

66′ Great chance for the Galaxy. I can’t tell you who delivered the ball to Ruiz, but he runs onto it and delivers the shot — a toe poke that goes wide.

65′ Vanney heads a ball out of the box but straight to a Hong Kong player. Fortunately Wicks is there for the shot. Becks is limping. I didn’t see it, but the commentator says that he caught a foot in the turf.

64′ Our possession looks so much better this half. Another stretch of possession, but in the end we lose it in the box to one of a mass of defenders.

62′ Alvaro takes down a player from behind. Alan Gordon is out, Bryan Jordan is in. Gordon hasn’t looked 100% this half. Free kick goes high, possibly deflected off a Hong Kong head. Goal kick.

61′ Ruiz delivers a shot, but it doesn’t have any real power and the keeper stops it easily.

60′ Hong Kong gets a chance, but the defense is up to it. Unfortunately they get it right back. But then we get it back in our own thrid and send it up the field.

58′ We had a very nice string of possession there, probably twenty passes without losing the ball. In the end Sean Franklin is under pressure and knocks it out for a goal corner kick.

57′ The ball is moving end to end and side to side, but nothing is really happening. Many changes of possession. It’s kind of hypnotic and hard to write about.

55′ Gordon fouls just outside the Hong Kong box.

54′ Sean Franklin chases down a long ball and saves a goal kick. Now we’ve got some speed back there.

52′ Back the other way, but we lose it on a foul. Hong Kong free kick goes long to Wicks

51′ Goal kick for Wicks goes to four players without touching the ground, then Hong Kong takes it fast up the right. It’s delivered into the box and straight to Wicks.

51′ Three Galaxy guys go for the ball in the midfield. Communication will come with time, right?

48′ Allen is taken down just to the left of the box. Free kick goes straight to thehead of a defender. Allen gets it back at midfield. Beckham’s on the left again. The ball goes back and forth like a pinball between LA and Hong Kong.

47′ Josh Wicks is in, Cronin out. Troy Roberts in for Xavier. Sean Franklin in for Klein. Ruiz takes somebody out from behind.

46′ Beckham’s back for second half. Some changes apparently, but we don’t know who yet.

45 + 2 And that’s the half. We’re up 1-0.

45 + 1 GOAL!!!!!!! We finally see the Beckham to Ruiz thing!!!! Beckham charges up the right and Ruiz is right there in front of the goal. He heads it in and it’s gorgeous.

45′ Gavin throw-in straight to Hong Kong, but he eventually wins it back. There is somebody playing on the right that I’m just not immiately recognizing up front. Isn’t that weird? Is it Alan Gordon?

44′ Another long shot for Hong Kong, but it goes wide. Then there’s almost immediatelly more pressure on the defense. Vanney has to chase down the ball to prevent a corner.

43′ Allen takes a shot from just outside the box. It’s hard but goes high.

42′ McDonald delivers a nice ball to Allen … and I just got distracted by play on the field and forgot what I just saw. sorry. Something to do with allen and Gavin and no goal.

40′ Ruiz gets knocked down at midfield from behind, Cordeiro gets yellow.

39′ Klein delivers a nice cross to Alan Gordon. The keeper is out, but Gordon can’t reach it. On the corner Gordon goes up and gets punched in the head by the keeper as he punches the ball out. He’s on the ground now and looking dazed. The keeper also took out one of his own players.

37′ Beckham’s on the left side. Alvaro to Allen who delivers a long ball from the left into the box. If it was a cross, there was nobody there. If it was a shot it was wide.

36′ Another foul for Ruiz. Short kick by Beckham trying to shake things up. It doesn’t work.

35′ Good opportunity for the Galaxy. Gavin in the box but can’t get the shot off. Sends it back to McDonald who delivers it to Ruiz, who heads it high.

34′ There is absolutely no flow to this game on either side. It’s not horrible, but it’s not sexy football, either.

33′ Another Xavier moment, where he’s the only defender in the box. He’s up to it and delivers a nice tackle, knocking the ball away.

33′ And down at the other end, Hong Kong delivers a very nice cross which is headed high and goes just over the crossbar, bouncing off the top of the net.

32′ Free kick goes straight into the wall. Alvaro takes the follow-up kick good chance, but it goes high.

30′ Ruiz is taken down and goes hard just outside the box. Hmmm… He goes down and rolls a bit more than is absolutely necessary, but we get the free kick in great position. Becks protests the position of the wall.

29′ Gavin makes a nice overlapping run, Allen delivers the ball to him in the box, but he cuts back and hesitates a bit too long and gets the ball stripped away.

28′ Free kick for Beckham. The crowd goes insane. The ball is on target but nobody is there. Then somebody from the midfield sends a long ball forward to Ruiz, but it’s too hard and goes out for a goal kick.

26′ I was away for a sec and apparently missed Xavier to someething good. We move the ball down the field again, but…um… I didn’t see what happened.

25′ Alvaro gives up the ball in the midfield, but Hong Kong doesn’t control and Cronin gets it again.

24′ Beckham delivers a nice ball directly in front of the goal, but the keeper fists it away.

23′ A lot of pressure on our defense as we play keep away, eventually sending it back to Cronin. He sends it forward but we lose it again. Fortunately the Hong Kong player is way offside.

21′ Xavier keeps ending up the last player in front of Cronin. Not good. At the other end of the field we get some play in the box, but it goes out for a Galaxy throw-in. It goes across to Klein, who delivers a good ball to Allen,but he heads it high.

19′ Somebody — Gordon? — the ball from the right to Ruiz, but he goes flying.

18′ Hong Kong is dominating possession again. We keep losing it in the midfield.

17′ Hong Kong is really good at chipping the ball over defenders and then running past them to beat them to the ball. They’ve got our back line’s number. Yet no real threats on goal yet.

16′ Vanney comes in hard from behind and takes down a player for a free kick. Gavin gets to it first and backpasses to Cronin.

15′ Backpass to Cronin, longball from Alvaro down the middle, but Hong Kong gets to it first.

14′ Another long ball for Hong Kong delivered with Beckham-like precision, but fortunately Cronin gets there first.

14′ Klein is the only defender playing decently. He handles another ball that would otherwise have been dangerous.

13′ Ruiz gets the ball right in front of the goal, beats the keeper and gets called offside. Very iffy call.

12′ Beckham gives the ball away and Hong Kong takes it up the field. Vanney knocks it away but Hong Kong gets it back and shoots straight to Cronin.

10′ Free kick for Shanghai maybe ten yards out of the box for a shove from behind from McDonald. The free kick looks dangerous but goes wide.

9′ Spoke too soon. Hong Kong delivers a longball to a player and nobody’s there Cronin has to come out. Then the same thing happens again and Chris Klein charges across the field to clear it. We need a speedy central defender bad.

8′ So far the long balls aren’t coming from Beckham, and they’re not looking too bad. Our first couple of minutes sucked, but we’re finding a rhythm now.

7′ Klein delivers a beautiful long cross from the right side. The keeper comes out and misses it entirely, but there is no Galaxy player close enough to convert. On the next play Ruiz fires from distance and it goes just wide. That looked promising.

6′ Beckham touches the ball and the crowd goes wild.

5′ Yellow to Alan Gordon for a rather nasty knee-high studs-up tackle. The hong Kong player is carried off the field and looks in pain.

4′ Do these jerseys look darker to anybody else? As in…green? Nnice play up the left. McDonald to Gavin to Allen to Ruiz, but not quite there.

3′ Gavin gives the ball away in the final third, but Cronin charges off his line and dives for it. Nothing like a defense that sucks to make a good goalkeeper.

2′ another long shot. Hong Kong striker breaks through, but there’s nobody there so he takes a long shot that doesn’t have much behind it. Cronin clears it away easily.

1′ Hong Kong gets off a long, high shot that Cronin grabs just under and outside the crossbar.

1′ Turnout is better than all of the previous games. And we’re off

Galaxy commercial on right now. If you just watch the highlights, you’d think we were pretty good last year.

lineup says
Cronin,
Klein, Xavier, Vanney, Gavin
Beckham, Alvaro, McDonald, Gordon,
Ruiz, Allen

although I think it’s 4-4-1-2 again, with Gordon behind Ruiz and Allen today.

Anyhoo. Even though the game is not technically live, I am. Which makes it officially a live blog. Right?

Okay, my computer is saying 7:59, so it should be any minute. And here we are. “Combined all-star side from China and Hong Kong.”

I’ll be here at 8:00 PST tonight. (And yes, I have doublechecked my times this time.) If you’re hanging out with the Fox Soccer Channel, stop by here and leave comments.

Did anybody else who was watching the game know that we went to penalties after drawing in regulation time? Did they show it on TV? Did they say anything about it? I know my brain is fuzzy at 1:30 in the morning, but I think I would have heard if somebody had said penalties. But maybe not.

We apparently lost 2-1 on penalties last night after everybody but Becks had his PK saved. Since Beckham is not traditionally known for his penalties, perhaps that’s good news?

Oh, well. I think Ruud learned a lot of the things he set out to learn, and that’s what counts in the preseason.

A couple of things worth noting. First, according to the announcers, Alvaro has been officially signed. My thought: He’s Brazilian, he has some skill on the ball, and he has an almost Ruiz-like ability to get fouled in areas that could allow Beckham to deliver lethal free kicks. What’s not to like?

Also, when I re-read my liveblog last night, it came across as too hard on Xavier. X has incredible positioning skills and an ability to get his head on the ball where needed. He’s invaluable defensively on corners, free kicks and crosses and any time the ball heads toward goal in the air. Where he falls short is when it comes to keeping up with speedy forwards. If he’s going to be on the field, we’re going to need some faster defenders to compensate for this fact. He should never end up in a situation where he’s the only one between a fast player and our goalkeeper. Jiggle the defense however necessary, but don’t leave him back there alone.

Next. About Carlos Ruiz. This pains me a bit to say it, but I may have been wrong about him. He was nothing but professional last night. And you know those Beckham balls that sailed off into space last year and made you think, “Why don’t we have anybody who can get on the end of those?!?!” Last night it looked like we just might. He’s rusty, of course. I don’t know that he’s even played since his knee surgery, aside from the closed-door Houston game. But I saw serious potential in this game, and it made me hopeful.

But if replays at any time this year show him taking a blow to the leg and going down holding his face? I’ll cheerfully go out on the field myself and deliver the punishment blow, Rico Clark-style.

(Note to Galaxy security: I am joking.)

As far as the youngsters, would you believe I missed Tudela last night? Not that there was a gaping hole in the midfield for him to fill — there wasn’t. But I like the kid. I’m hoping there’s at least a spot for him as a sub this year.

Also, Ely Allen shows great promise and could be awesome with a little experience. Alan Gordon was a pleasant surprise in the withdrawn forward role, Bryan Jordan has a good workrate but is still a bit of a question mark for me. And I’m hoping Mike Randolph and Celestine Babayaro will click a whole lot better than they did last night. (Should their positions be reversed?) And I’m looking forward to Landon being better.

And I think I may have liked the look of 4-3-3. Or more kind of 4-3-1-2. It’s…different. But in a fun way. When Landon is better, are you seeing him up front with Ruiz, with Gordon behind them? Or Gordon and Ruiz up front with Landon withdrawn?

Does that about cover things? What did you think?

Seoul 1-1 Galaxy

Ruiz looked very promising. He does look like he could be that mythical creature who can get on the end of Beckham’s crosses. If he keeps heading down this road, I could take back almost every ugly thing I ever said about him. Allen also has potential. Cronin looked a lot better. I really don’t know why Gullit didn’t play Valentin or Franklin, becasue our back line looked incredibly porous.

45 + 2 Xavier clears the corner, and that’s the game. 1-1. The Galaxy was very lucky to get the draw. Seoul played the better game but couldn’t finish. (And that wasn’t due to good Galaxy defending.)

45 + 1 Vanney takes down a player just outside the box. Two minutes stoppage time. The free kick hits the wall and goes out for a corner.

45′ Back at the other end Ely Allen looks momentarily threatening, but he’s well defended and the ball goes out for a goal kick.

44′ Xavier clears badly, straight to a Seoul player, who shoots. But Cronin is there.

43′ Cronin to the rescue again. Korea breaks free again and gets the shot, but Cronin falls on it. It slips out of his grasp, but fortunately nobody is there to take advantage of it.

42′ Seoul somehow ends up two on one with just Xavier between them and Cronin. What is wrong with our defense?!?

41′ Seoul look dangerous again, but the ball is headed directly to Cronin.

40′ Beckham is looking very tired. Seoul has made nine substitutions. The Galaxy get an excellent chance. Ruiz collides with a defender and goes down, but Ely Allen collects the ball and looks threatening. He is looking good on the attack. Eventually they lose it, though. The Galaxy call for a handball, but don’t get it.

38′ Xavier gives away the ball, which gives Seoul another chance. Cronin shuts it down. He’s looking like a starting keeper this game.

37′ Klein delivers a nice cross to Jordan, who heads it wide.

36′ Seoul gets another shot, but it’s right to a well-positioned Cronin.

35′ A nice chance for our guys. Allen delivers to Ruiz just outside the six-yard box. Ruiz goes for a bicycle kick, but it’s not on target.

34′ Another yellow for Seoul for shoving Alvaro in the back.

33′ Beckham gets chased all the way back to our own box. He botches a tackle and Seoul gets an excellent chance, but he shoots yards wide. They get another chance right away and the Galaxy get some anxious moments before Cronin saves. Our defense sucking again.

28′ These announcers are annoying me. I don’t want to hear about winter in the northwest. I want to know who just delivered the ball into the box. thank you.

26′ Beckham delivers a great ball, just a little too far in front of Jordan in the box. Allen gets to it but has to battle defenders, and in the end it goes out for a goal kick.

25′ Xavier gets beat bad and Cronin has to come out and dive for the ball.

24′ Pete Vagenas comes onto the field at last for Alan Gordon. More 4-4-2 now.

23′ this half is just all Seoul. they get another shot, which Cronin has to dive to save.

22′ Backpass to Cronin, who is immediately under pressure and just barely gets the ball off. alan gordon is now down on the field again and being taken off. He is walking, but…

21′ Hard tackle on Alan Gordon, who stays down for awhile and gets up limping. I think I forgot to say that Allen is on for Babayaro.

20′ Gavin has to head a ball out for a corner. Fortunately the Galaxy gets the corner cleared.

19′ Galaxy are looking tired and sloppy. Pass to Beckham slips right past him and out for a throw-in.

18′ Free kick for Beckham straignt to a Seoul defender. They take it down the field, but in the end Gavin blocks the shot and the Galaxy get it back.

16′ Corner for Seoul headed into the air and then out for a goal kick.

14′ Klein crosses to Allen, who sends the ball just over the crossbar and onto the top netting.

12′ Gavin saves a goal. Seoul has all the time in the world to deliver it, but fortunately Gavin is in the box to knock it away. It may have come off a Galaxy guy. did Gavin save an embarrassing own goal?

11′ Gordon takes down a player with a hard tackle. He may have gotten a yellow? (I thought I saw the ref going for his pocket, but maybe not.

10′ Becks delivers a cross to Ely allen, who despite some acrobatic maneuvers can’t shake his marker.

9′ Seoul gets a free kick that is headed away by the Galaxy. It eventually goes back toward the box, but goes wide of the goal for a goal kick.

8′ Xavier may not have great speed, but he sure positions himself well and is good with his head.

7′ For once Beckham gets a throughball delivered to him on the edge of the box. He runs onto it and almost gets the chance to shoot, but the keeper beats him to it.

5′ Koreal gets a shot, but Cronin is dives and collects it. It might have gone wide anyway. The second half minutes on the screen started with 1, so I will too.

49′ Yellow for a Seoul player for taking down Jordan a few yards outside the box. Free kick is deflected off the wall, out for a corner, which goes way out of the box to Korean players.

48′ Gavion’s in for Randolph. He gets beat, but the cross is poor.

47′ Nice cross into the box for Korea but Xavier heads it away. Corner bounces from player to player before Korea takes a shot. Cronin is off his line, so one of the Galaxy players (Vanney?) clear it off the line.

46′ We’re off. Some changes on the field for the second half. Ely allen is on, not sure for who.

Did they say earlier that Alvaro was offered a contract?

We’re looking better tonight, especially compared to the Gamba Osaka game, but we have some serious weaknesses. Big defensive question marks. When we’re playing this back line we have three players over 30. I don’t think that’s a good thing. Mike Randolph started rusty but is looking better as the game progresses. I think the biggest problem is that so few of these players have taken the field together. Ruiz is looking very promising. If he can be this kind of fox in the box I can maybe forgive the Dallas diving. (Which he won’t do for LA. Right?)

45 + 1 one minute of stoppage time… And that’s the half.

45′ Jordan has a lovely bit of play up the right, pirouettes away from a defender, but in the end he crosses where he probably should have shot. It goes to the Korean defense.

43′ We get some nice play up the left flank. Babayaro and Randolph have potential, but they’re not there yet. In the end the ball goes to the keeper.

40′ A one-on-one situation in the box. Cronin has to come off his line and dive for the ball. Our defense is sucking eggs.

39′ Beckham delivers an ugly hard tackle just outside the box on the right. It’s delivered right to a target — a completely unmarked player — but the header goes high.

38′ Seoul misses an absolute sitter after Xavier completely misses the ball on a desperate tackle.

37′ Alvaro and some Korean players get into a bit of a shoving match.

36′ BEAUTIFUL free kick from Beckham straight to Ruiz’s head, but the keeper saves it inches in front of the line.

35′ The past few minutes are all Seoul. We got one adequate counter, but Ruiz’s cross to Beckham goes out.

33′ Lord, our defense sucks! Another near breakaway, but Xavier is at last able to clear it.

32′ GOAL! Seoul. Cronin dives left, the penalty goes straight. 1-1 alas. They announcers are saying they deserved a penalty, but not this one.

31′ Free kick for Seoul. I didn’t see the foul. It goes out for a Seoul throw-in. When it’s thrown in, the Babayaro takes down a player for a penalty. Very soft penalty

30′ A nice shot on goal for Korea, but Cronin gets down for the save.

28′ Our defense is kind of sucking. Even though we’re all in the box, somehow a Korea player gets through and dleivers a shot, but fortunately it goes wide.

28′ Xavier goes in studs up and is lucky not to get a card.

26′ Babayaro delivers a ball across an open goal, but Korea gets there to clear before any Galaxy guys can get to it. It eventually goes out for Seoul

25′ Good chance for Seoul, but their player is called offside.

23′ Seoul gets a good chance. Xavier heads away the first delivery, but doesn’t clear it. It is delivered back to a mass of Galaxy defenders and eventually cleared away.

20′ GOAL!!!! Ruiz goes down. This foul is actually legit. Free kick goes to Alan Gordon. Yes, Alan Gordon, who chests it down to his feet and delivers it right into goal. Lovely. Korea seemed to be napping a bit.

18′ Another corner. Perfect deliver, but it’s headed out. Not completely cleared. It eventually goes to Beckham in the left corner and goes out for a Korea throw-in.

17′ We’re playing a very pleasant, attacking game. Getting the ball forward, crossing it into the box, controlling up the wings. Not too shabby.

16′ Beckham gets a corner. The crowd is happy. Perfectly delivered to Ruiz, but it goes high and there’s a foul anyway — a little bit of a push.

14′ Seoul crosses straight to Cronin. Cronin is looking more confident. Down at the other end, Ruiz gets a shot but it goes way high.

13′ Hmm. I guess I’m liveblogging. Going in to change the post title.

12′ Klein delivers a nice cross to the box, but there’s nobody there.

9′ Seoul should have had a penalty. Randolph clips a guy from behind in the box and takes him down (after being completely left behind.) Galaxy got very lucky. Then Ruiz is taken down, also no foul. What’s up with Randolph? That’s two he’s missed so far. Is he leaving for USMNT U23s tomorrow?

7′ Beckham’s taken down with a slightly late tackle. No foul, but Becks isn’t happy about it.

6′ Klein’s still at rightback.

4′ Gordon is technically withdrawn forward, not wing.

2′ Mike Randolph misses his mark and gives away a shot, but fortunately it goes wide.

1′ Galaxy are looking good so far. We’ve alread had a good chance, but the guys in the box weren’t quite in position.

The Fox Soccer guy says the Galaxy “look to continue to better their form.”

Yeah. What he said.

4-3-3 Randolph’s on leftback and Babayaro is on left mid. Up front we have Jordan, Ruiz and Gordon (on the right.) Except for Donovan this is not going to be too different from a real lineup. Also Xavier is back.

That Galaxy game is scheduled for tonight (yes, tonight, Feb. 29) at 11:30 Pacific. Be there!

I’m not sure that I’ll be liveblogging, but I’ll definitely be watching the game with my computer on, so feel free to stop by and leave comments.

It also looks like they’ll be doing a replay of the game tomorrow (Saturday) at 8:00 p.m.

Does anybody know if Celestine Babayaro’s work permit issues have been cleared up yet? I’m looking forward to seeing him play. Ruiz too, believe it or not.