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.

The Galaxy were knocked out of the US Open Cup by a USL Division Two team last night, the Richmond Kickers, 1-0. What does this mean, exactly?

On the one hand. Damn. In a mismatch like this isn’t an MLS team supposed to, like, y’know, win? Isn’t this why we’re MLS and they’re not?

On the other, though? Whew! No more extra games. On top of SuperLiga and World Series of Soccer Football and various and sundry friendlies. Oh, yeah, and the MLS league games. Almost forgot about those. If we’d won, if I’m reading correctly, the next US Open Cup game would have been on 8/7. Which would have given us games on the 5th, the 7th, the 9th and the 12th. And we have how many players over 30?

Seems Frank wasn’t all that certain how seriously to take this one either. We had a lot of the usual starters, but not enough to win. The back line was the same as in the past few games, except without the cup-tied Chris Klein. Correct me if I’m wrong — I think Quavas Kirk started at rightback? (It was eventually Kelly Gray, followed by Troy Roberts, I think. But was that after the half? This is so confusing.) Steve Cronin played in goal and from what I can tell (remember, I only listened to the second half) didn’t have the magnificent game he did against New York.

The starting midfield, again as far as I can tell, was Kyle Martino Kelly Gray, Josh Tudela, Mike Randolph. And up front we had Gavin Glinton and Edson Buddle. And subbing in we had Landon Donovan, Alan Gordon, Troy Roberts and Pete Vagenas.

For the record, Klein was cup-tied, Cobi was suspended (oh, yeah, forgot about that one) and for some reason Pavon didn’t make the trip — he was in Honduras.

I don’t know. I kind of get the feeling that Frank thought that if the B+ team could win against RBNY, they could win here. And if not, oh well. And it didn’t sound as if the team was giving it 100% either. One of the BigSoccer comments from a Richmond fan: “I was at the game, Galaxy dominated possession, but Richmond had many more quality chances. Your boys seemed lazy even in the final minutes.”

I don’t know. It’s disappointing, it sucks, and yet I’m still pretty much ambivalent.

But the good news? Now I can root wholeheartedly for the team that I am quite certain will be the eventual champions: The Seattle Sounders. You heard it here first.

The Galaxy homepage has a great post-game interview with Steve Cronin. Cronin masterful in Galaxy victory.

“It’s really kind of a blur at this point,” said a laughing Cronin, who appeared to be in disbelief of his own performance. “As far as my performance goes I’m thankful for [Galaxy head coach] Frank [Yallop] for giving me these opportunities and I’m glad my team’s behind me.”

Well, yeah, but it might have been nice if he’d had more of his team in front of him.

Here’s the save of Jozy Altidore’s PK. The video was taken by Luis Bueno from Sideline Views.

–Cobi Jones got red-carded in the 54th for violent conduct. This was immediately after he got fouled, so I’m guessing some kind of retaliation? Anybody see the match who can provide details? LA seems to have played just fine without him.
–RBNY’s Dema Kovalenko got his second yellow in the 73rd, dropping both teams to ten players.
–It sounds like Steve Cronin had a fantastic game, with 14 (FOURTEEN!!!) saves, vs. 2 for RBNY. It’s nice to have somebody this solid to back up Joe Cannon. But what the hell happened to our defense that fourteen saves were required?!?!?
–Juan Pablo Angel played his first MLS minutes, coming in in the 62nd. His was the only score for RBNY.
–The discipline summary reads like an LA Galaxy who’s who. Sounds like our guys really took this seriously.
–A newly healthy Santino Quaranta got a goal and an assist. Welcome back, Santino!!

Next step, the REAL US Open Cup. (After demolishing all opponents in league play in the interim, of course.)

Scoring:
LA — Landon Donovan 1 (penalty kick) 93
LA — Kyle Martino 1 (Santino Quaranta 1, Landon Donovan 1) 103
NY — Juan Pablo Angel 1 (unassisted) 109
LA — Santino Quaranta 1 (Landon Donovan 1, Peter Vagenas 2) 120
Discipline:
NY — Dema Kovalenko (caution; Tackle from Behind) 9
LA — Steve Cronin (caution; Professional Foul) 12
LA — Nate Jaqua (caution; Reckless Foul) 46+
LA — Kevin Harmse (caution; Dissent) 46
LA — Cobi Jones (ejection; Violent Conduct) 54
NY — Dema Kovalenko (ejection; Second Caution) 73
LA — Chris Albright (caution; Pushing, Holding) 92+
LA — Nathan Sturgis (caution; Reckless Foul) 109

No such luck. Ives Galarcep reports that Angel is now legal and ready to play.

He looks as good as you would expect, deadly in the air, fast, a blistering finisher and very good with the ball at his feet. The team played full-sided today so it provided the first glimpse of a Red Bulls attack with Angel and I have to say that it was pretty impressive after watching him for two days.

Yeah. Great.

Of course, there’s a chance that New York may not want to risk playing Angel in an Open Cup game and will instead choose to save him for the weekend game against the Colorado Rapids. I’d be good with that. But LA Soccer News says:

Angel’s debut will likely be against the Galaxy. In what role, however, remains to be seen.

Hey, Mr. Arena? I think the role of benchwarmer would be best for us all, okay?

I guess the question for both teams is how seriously to take the Open Cup. On the one hand, silverware is silverware, and it would be nice to end the season with something. And it would be pretty embarrassing for the Galaxy to not even MAKE the cup, which will be the result if we lose tomorrow.

On the other hand though, don’t we really need to focus our energies where they’ll count?

I’m very curious as to who we’ll see playing tomorrow. On both teams.

(Personal note: I’m traveling all day tomorrow and will be out of town into early next week. I’ll have a computer but I’m not sure about a reliable internet connection, so my posting may be sporadic. On the positive side, this Saturday’s game appears to be one of the .003% of the Galaxy’s games available on MLSnet, so I think I may be able to see it! Color me happy. I’ll be back to normal next Tuesday.)

Well, not the world, exactly. More like New York. And not tomorrow. How about May 8 instead? May 8 at 7:30 at the Home Depot Center. That’s where the Galaxy will have their next opportunity to prove that they have what it takes in the US Open Cup.

Seriously, this one worries me. I just watched my first RBNY game of the year tonight. They’re not unbeatable, but they’re definitely strong. As our RBNY Offside says, “Rather than bringing in star names, Bruce has remained true to form by recruiting a combination of experience and youthful promise.” And they do have a strong team, particularly defensively. They seem to be great at holding off the opposing team until they can get that one great strike.

On the other hand, we have a couple of star names, but one won’t show till July. And in the meantime… Well, it’s a home game. We have that in our favor, for starters. And we have a combination of experience and youthful promise too, right? I mean, we range from Cobi Jones (36) to Quavas Kirk (19 two weeks ago.) How much more range can you have? And I’m a little more comfortable after watching the game tonight, because RBNY is not unbeatable or perfect. But we’re definitely going to have to muster up some more offensive power if we don’t want our US Open Cup dreams ground to dust beneath those Red Bull-powered cleats. Know what I’m sayin’?

The Galaxy can do this, but it won’t be easy.