I drove past the HDC while in SoCal and gave it a wave. My husband thought I was nuts. I probably am, but goodness I miss watching the Galaxy live.

I was also able to find a store willing to create a nonBeckham shirt for me. I have been looking and looking for a new Donovan t-shirt to expand my wardrobe. You just can’t find them. But fortunately I went to one of my old haunts, ProSoccer in Pasadena, and they were able to put Donovan’s name and number on a shirt for me.

That’s my daughter in the picture using it as a blanket while waiting for our red-eye flight home.

So on to the preview of Saturday night’s match.

Our match against Colorado may have resulted in a tie, but it was exponentially cleaner and showed more focus than previous games. This week’s game should see all of our best starting XI on the field at the same time. Wow! Ricketts, Dunivant, Berhalter, Klein, Donovan, Lewis, and . . . Buddle! I expect Buddle to start and make it to about 60 minutes before Gordon or Jordan comes in.

New York has not had a stellar start to their season, at 1-4-2. They have allowed more goals than the Galaxy and have a more porous defense. I keep saying that about our opponents though, don’t I. Hmm.

Juan Pablo Angel will be a tough mark for Omar Gonzalez. Omar has yet to tightly mark a speedy, footwork-oriented forward with great success. But if Gonzalez and Berhalter can keep Angel and Kandji off their game then we will win.

My prediction: Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 1

Other previews:

Dave of the Offside’s Red Bulls site and the MLS main page has written a beautiful preview with a crappy prediction. I’m not sure how he thinks RBNY is going to win . . .

Mark Rogondino’s View From the Booth.

Larry Morgan from mls.net.

A more biting critique from World Soccer Reader.

I have to relay to you a conversation I had today in the car with my seven-year-old chatterbox. We had been talking about flying, which she has never done, and how we will be above the clouds and can see the features on the ground, etc. Then she thinks a minute and asks:

“Mom, how fast will we be going in the plane?”

“Oh, I don’t know honey, about 500 miles per hour?”

Silence. I can tell she’s thinking.

More silence.

“Mom! That’s above the speed limit!”

So Nathan will be holding down the fort while I’m away. I hope to catch this weekend’s match against Colorado on tv and may be able to pop in with some comments. But if you see a weary, half-crazed woman driving the freeway . . . give me a wave!

It’s Friday at the end of Spring Break, which means I’ve been alone with two young and nonstop-talking girls all week. Girls who like to goad each other.

So I’ll be back later this evening with a preview of our Chivas match. Because right now if I don’t get to the gym and exercise I’m going to either:

A. Become homicidal,

B. Explode into tiny little pieces, or

C. Need to patch and spackle the wall from my head going through it.

Enjoy your day and I’ll be back soon — more sane, I’m sure.

When things go well on the field, the tendency for other things to rankle is lessened. When things go badly on the field, the rest of the Galaxy game experience gets put under the microscope. We are nearing the end of the season and the team has to put together a run just like they did last year in order to have a hope of qualifying for the playoffs. If not, they will be out for a record-setting third year in a row. Regardless of how that shakes out, the team is currently in the middle of a record-setting winless streak.

These issues have been exacerbated by the League scheduling inanity. This past weekend was a debacle. Not only are teams missing key starters in the final thrid of the season due to call-ups (37 MLS players in total), but teams like the Galaxy were missing players who completely change the complexion of their teams. Pity poor Toronto missing 9 of their starters in a home game against a Chivas team with a raft of injuries. Wouldn’t they have liked to face that game at full-strength? And the G’s were facing RSL which to that point only had taken 4 points from away games. We needed the full three, especially at home.

So: Poor performance on the field (and I could write more about that, but, then, I already have in numerous blog postings which can be found at Soccer By Ives). Crap scheduling by MLS. Add to that, the fact that last year, the team used up all its “bonus games” and this year it has used just one (unless I missed one while I was out of town, which is totally possible). So I’m essentially paying more this year for each one of my MLS games than I did last year and getting just as crap a performance.

What does all that add up to? Questions about renewing season tickets for next year. If the team isn’t commited to dealing with two issues, then I’m probably not going to invest in season tickets again.

First, fill out the full contingent of bonus games. I realize these games aren’t guaranteed. That’s the nature of “bonus”. But last year I saw Chelsea (a preseason, undermanned, not in form Chelsea, but Chelsea nonetheless). I saw Pachuca. Twice. Hell I even saw Steve Cronin make like 12 saves in a US Open Cup match. This year I saw… a crap US Open loss.

Second, don’t raise the prices of season tickets for next year. It would be the height of fan abuse to make us sit through two garbage seasons and then raise the ticket price, especially when it is pretty clear the team in making a mint off of jersey sales, touring Asia, and the wretched, wretched Pan-Pacific Championship (can we please just kill that now – it is nothing but excrement masquerading as futbol). Related to that is, don’t raise the cost of parking again. It was $10 when I first watched games at the HDC as a visitor to LA, then when I bought my first season tickets it was $15 and I’ve paid as much as $20 for certain games. I can spend just as much someplace else where I don’t have to drive 23 miles to get to and where the beer doesn’t cost $12 and I can watch the game on TV.

In the past two years, of all the home games on offer, I’ve only missed three and that was because I had to be gone for work. I arrange my schedule around Galaxy games. I love the fact that we have Becks. I love watching him and Landon and Edson kick ass. I love the Eddie Lewis acquisition (glad that the Cory Gibbs deal never happened).

But I don’t think I can do a third year of this if the front office doesn’t take the fans into consideration. I’ll probably just buy the occasional single game ticket and mostly just watch the games over the internet or at a friend’s house with cable.

Let me end on a somewhat positive note. I’ve always had great interactions with the sales team. They are responsive, give as much information as they have available to them, and are always willing to listen to the concerns of fans like me. I appreciate that and I appreciate that the Galaxy takes this seriously. Further I’m excited to see what Bruce Arena can do both in terms of coaching, but also in terms of personnel trades since we are woefully inadequate in the midfield. Given the parity in MLS, I think we could be two midfielders and a defender away from winning an MLS Cup and I’d like to be in the stands to watch it all unfold.

But not if the suits in the suites decide I’m better as an ATM than a fan.

What do you guys think? Do I have a leg to stand on here? Should I shut up and just not buy tickets, or suck it up and make the investment? Does the Galaxy have an obligation to fans to make the playoffs before raising prices again? Is the overall experience of being at the stadium worth the investment in season tickets or multi-game packages even if prices rise? What do you think of watching at the HDC versus TV or the internet? Share your thoughts below.

A little while ago Laurie invited me to be a part of this blog, which I can only imagine is a bout of temporary insanity, but before she gets wise and boots me off the blog, I’m going to take the liberty to post up thoughts and analysis on the Galaxy. (I’m using the word “analysis” in the broadest possible terms, you understand.)

As Laurie says I do a weekly Supporter’s View column covering the Galaxy over at Soccer By Ives, which ya’ll can check out by by clicking this link. Because of my agreement with Ives, I won’t be posting any of that content here, but feel free to leave me comments here and there if you want.

I’m hoping I can use this space for thoughts and tidbits I can’t get into that column for space limitations and to have wider ranging conversations about what’s going on with the Galaxy in specific and MLS in general.

See ya’ll in the comments!

NathanHJ

I’ve loved being here with you all and filling in.  I’ll see you in the comments soon!!

Go Galaxy!!!

It’s a slow Easter weekend in MLS so I thought I’d regale you with a brief history of my Galaxy fan-ness (as opposed to finesse, of which I have none).

I was living in Pasadena, just two miles from the Rose Bowl, when MLS began. That first season I learned of the Galaxy’s existence because of the traffic. Traffic jams, traffic rerouting. I could smell the hodas and hear the fireworks on the fourth. That season I caught a few games toward the end of the season and was addicted.

The next year I used some of my student loan (I was limping through grad school — and shh, don’t tell the government) to purchase season tickets. My tickets were behind the Galaxy bench, about fifteen rows up, and I believe were in the $350 range. If anyone is sitting in similar seats at the HDC, I’d love to know what the season ticket price is now.

And so for the next several years I had fifteenth row tickets to the best game in town. I saw some great and some not-so-great soccer. I saw Dan Calichman break his leg, and I got to chip the ball into the giant inflated Kellogg’s cereal bowl during the halftime festivities. (I missed off the rim. I blamed it on my running shoes. If I had only been wearing my turf shoes . . . I’ll never know the freedom of a year’s worth of free cereal.) And I used to have a running joke, albeit in my head, with Mauricio Cienfuegos. He was “allowed” to make only 5 mistakes per game. He was usually under that.

I got married, had my first daughter, and the Galaxy moved to the HDC. With a baby and the distance I couldn’t justify season tickets anymore. Then I moved to Virginia — the land of four seasons and affordable housing. I’ve lived here five years now and have followed the Galaxy each year via satellite and internet.

So I want to know — who else is not local to LA but loves/follows the Galaxy? What’s your story?

Who knew that others find the same joy in groin injuries that I do?

My faith in humanity is restored.

Also, I think I am the only female nominated. Which is kind of exciting. (Although my favorite guilty pleasure Kickette is in the running for multiple other awards, so there is that.)

You know when they say, “It’s such an honor to be nominated”? In this case, looking at my fellow nominees, it’s really true. But…ummm… Here’s the link. Just in case.

(Because if you can’t pimp for yourself, well, who can you pimp for?)

Oh, and The Offside is up for Best Overall Blog. So while you’re in the area, feel free to vote for us there, too. And know that you’ll earn our undying gratitude in the process.

Voting closes February 17. And I hear that you can vote multiple times. So feel free. If you’re so inclined. And if you don’t want to vote for me, then you can always vote for my brother-in-blog Chris over at Roma Offside. I’d be good with that too.

What are you still doing here? Go vote!

Think back a year. Beckham had just signed with MLS. He was benched at Real Madrid. He’d been dumped from the England NT. And we thought the Galaxy had a shot at the Cup.

A year is a long time, isn’t it?

But surely things will get better this year. Right?

Whether you’re a longtime reader or a first time lurker, thanks for stopping by. And a special thanks to everybody who has enriched this blog with your comments. It makes me happy to know you’re out there.

Laurie

On an unrelated note, if you read the main page at The Offside (and if you don’t, well, why the hell not?!), you have seen that Bob, the guru and god behind both World Cup Blog and The Offside, is leaving to pursue other opportunities. (I know everybody says that, but in this case it’s true. He’s heading back to his non-profit roots, leaving the rest of us to feel the guilt at devoting our lives to writing about groins and CoJones.)

But fear not. The site WILL go on. In a measure of what Bob accomplished in two years, it’s taking four of us to replace him. I will be joining Martha, Chris and Daryl in making sure that the main page continues with its own unique brand of irreverent soccerphilia. And yes, I’ll be continuing to write this page and my France page as well. And yes, that’s a lot of soccer blogging. (And yes, I do have a life away from the computer. Thanks for asking.)

So in preparation, I’m planning to take the rest of the weekend off and do something a normal person would do. Like, I dunno, read a novel or go to a movie or something. (What is it you normal people do, anyway?) But I shall be back bright and early on Monday morning to finish up my thoughts on the Expansion Draft, etc. etc.

Have a great weekend!