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.

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.

And while I was scrolling through photos of the game from Getty Images I came across these two photos. At first I thought they were duplicates. And then I saw that they were different, and perhaps looked photoshopped. But then I realized that it’s probably the same shot taken within a second of the other by two different photographers. Yeah, I’ve got nothing better to do with my time.

Both Landon and Becks have reunited with their respective national teams in London for Wednesdays friendly. Several sources are reporting that the US is looking good to defeat England. I’m not so sure about that, but it should be a good game nonetheless. Jeff Carlisle has a good article previewing the match. As we all know, this will be Donovan’s 100th cap. Congratulations Landon! But I’m particularly interested to see his play on Wednesday. He has been doing more strength training this season and has been punishing defenders so far this season, so it’ll be interesting to see what he can do on the national level — especially when there are so many other good US players that need to be marked. Mark him one v. one and he’s guaranteed to slip dangerously by his defender several times. Can you tell I’m a big Donovan fan? Oooh, it’s going to be so fun to watch!

Of course, Beckham will be there for his 101st cap (a much greater feat when playing for England). It’s quite possible that he and Donovan will be marking each other. The media is reporting a big to-do about David Bentley going after Beckham’s starting spot. I’m not sure why the hoopla, of course that’s what Bentley wants to do. And Capello hasn’t decided yet whether or not the right wing spot is Beckham’s to lose. For the 2010 World Cup Bentley may become a better choice than an older Beckham, but let’s wait and see how things play out shall we?

The Galaxy’s next game is Saturday, May 31st, against Streamer FC Toronto FC. It will be broadcast on Direct Kick, and Fox Sports West.

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.

Nowak says he wants to see more talent and team options before naming his Olympic squad.

This is great news for these three — and it will benefit the Galaxy as well. More playing experience, especially internationally, can only increase the skills and experience they bring to the Galaxy. And wouldn’t it be nice to grow one of our own players for a future starting job on the senior roster, rather than trading all of our developing talent away? I am a big fan of Julian Valentin too. I’m hoping he can break into the starting defense sometime this season.