And those words are: Western Conference Champions!

In another step in the worst-to-first journey that MLS Coach of the Year Bruce Arena has taken the team on, the Los Angeles Galaxy turned away a stiff challenge from the Houston Dynamo in 30 minutes of extra time with a 2-0 scoreline.

Jen put together a nice photo montage here. Go and look. Look and revel. Revel and comment (which you can also do below at the bottom of this post).

Over 25,000 people showed up to watch one of the longest MLS games ever. Not only did the teams battle to a 0-0 tie at the end of regulation, “power dips” on the Southern California Edison industrial grid, of which the Home Depot Center is a part tripped the breakers on the stadium floodlights. Twice. Once in each half. Each time for 18 minutes. By the end of the game, the lights had gone out on Houston’s season as well.

The game was definitely a slug-fest and it wasn’t pretty, but it wasn’t boring to watch either, despite pitting two of the stingier defenses in MLS against each other. The keys to both teams lie in their midfields, which are built to maintain possession and deliver creativity and both teams worked hard to establish their midfield games.

But they also got frustrated and impatient. The Dynamo tried time and again to counterattack quickly through to Dominic Oduro in an attempt to burn a Galaxy backline whose biggest weakness is a distinct lack of quickness centrally. But Gregg Berhalter and Omar Gonzalez owned anything coming in the air and were too smart to get trapped in compromising situations that Oduro could expolit. In fact, Oduro was caught offsides 5 times on the night.

The Galaxy were no better. They too played an impressive number of balls forward from the defensive third straight to the heads of the forwards. Like the Galaxy’s center tandem, Bobby Boswell and Geoff Cameron also owned the air above Edson Buddle and Landon Donovan. While I can’t speak to the Dynamo’s tactical decisions in the game, I was puzzled and frustrated by Arena’s decision to start Mike Magee on the left wing and Landon Donovan up top. While it is true that the Magee-Buddle partnership hasn’t gelled as well as it maybe could have, Donovan finds the game much better attacking from the wing. And, frankly, Eddie Lewis‘ wing play is a level above Magee’s, though Lewis isn’t going to give you the same kind of 90-minute production that Magee will.

Consequently, the Galaxy’s decisions to bypass the midfield for large chunks of time for air balls to Donovan were largely wasted efforts as they play to the biggest weakness in his game – his relatively mediocre play in the air. At the same time the team was deprived of the creativity and vision Donovan brings to his wing play. While I’m not expecting Eddie Lewis to start (so nice to bring that kind of veteran experience and skill off the bench), I was expecting that Magee would have left after about 60-65 minutes in favor of Lewis, especially since there was no tactical shift to put Magee back up top and move Landon to the left.

Luckily, the Dynamo were having similar creativity problems thanks to tough play from Dema Kovalenko, David Beckham, and Chris Klein. But, there were stretches when the Dynamo’s short passing game got unstuck and made the team exceedingly dangerous. The most stressful stretch of this for me was the second half of the second half when they really took to the game right to the Galaxy. From about the 65th minute to about the 85th minute, the Dynamo was able to find midfield spaces, move the ball quickly, and get the ball in dangerous positions. This led to Brian Ching’s heart-stopping header that Donovan Ricketts unbelievably parried into and then over the crossbar. And then Houston put the corner in the back of the net, but the goal was waved off for a foul suffered by AJ Delagarza in the box.

The Galaxy also had it’s moments of fluidity that resulted in danger and forced Pat Onstad into his share of big saves. Buddle had a decent night, making smart runs and showing his penchant for running a defenses, but at times his frustration seemed to get the better of him when he chose to take a difficult shot instead of making the smarter and more dangerous pass. At least once he tried a shot from distance even as Chris Klein crashed the goal with no defenders around him.

Either team could have won this game, but the Galaxy were able to get it done in the end, getting the crucial goal they needed from an unlikely, though thoroughly deserving source. Gregg Berhalter, who is the most important component of the Galaxy’s defensive resurgence — his veteran experience has provided crucials leadership to a set of young defenders and his organization of the defense has been first-rate all season long — played perhaps his best game of the season owning the air, frustrating Brian Ching, and even making a few runs out of the back to join the attacks. It was fitting that he was the one who corralled Omar Gonzalez’s deflected header off a corner, punching it into the right side of the goal as he fell to the turf. Donovan’s record-setting penalty kick (most playoff goals in MLS history) was the icing on the cake.

One thing that seemed apparent to me was that the team did a much better job in pasing and attacking once Eddie Lewis and Alan Gordon came on the field. I continue to be unimpressed with Jovan Kirovski, though I understand why he gets the call — he is dependable, plays his position well, plays good defense, and has good vision. Of course he also turns the ball over with regularity, passes poorly, and takes the expected shot, so I’m never excited to see him come into a game. On the other hand, once Lewis was in the game, space and passing lanes opened up and Alan Gordon showed more mobility and better use of his head than Buddle did. It seemed that Buddle was hungry to score while Gordon was hungry to make the best play. The team needed more of the latter against Houston and got it from Gordon, an admittedly unlikely source.

Both of the Galaxy superstars delivered strong games, though I was annoyed by putting Donovan up top and was frustrated by how often Beckham drifted back into the defensive third to get the ball and how many times his crosses were off or were blocked by the nearest defender. Despite these niggling criticisms, both players were instrumental in the team’s success on Friday night with Donovan forcing two saves from Onstad and Beckham provided good dead ball service and veteran leadership all night long.

And though he didn’t have the same game he did against Chivas a game earlier, Kovalenko’s disruptive game was valuable in the midfield, helping to contain Stuart Holden and Ricardo Clark.

I’ve spent most of this posting looking at the Galaxy side of the equation, but I would be remiss if I didn’t say that Geoff Cameron, who spent most of the game at centerback, had a typically tremendous game, denying everything in the air to the Galaxy forwards, running step for step with Donovan, and making the smart passes and clearances. Then he stepped into midfield in exra time. He deserves a long look from Bob Bradley in January, especially in light of the US MNT’s injury woes in the back.

All in all, the game was hard-fought, showcasing the defensive strengths of both teams. The Galaxy took the game they way they have all season long: gritty, team-oriented performances that got the best out of every player at every position, including AJ Delargarza, starting on short notice for the ill Todd Dunivant, who nailed down the left side of defense all night long, including a cracking tackle on Brian Ching in the second extra time period deep near the corner flag that shut down a dangerous build-up.

All in all a performance to be proud of in a season to be proud of. Next up: MLS Cup in Seattle vs. Real Salt Lake on Sunday Nov. 22 at 5:30 PST.

Man of the Match: Gregg Berhalter

What did you think of the game? What about those black-outs? Who did well? Who needs to do better? What do you think of the match-up with RSL? Who wins MLS Cup?

What others are saying:

Eric Altshule at MLS Talk
Reuters at the NY Times
Peter Howard at the Daily Football blog
Jim Hughes at Mirror Football
Luis Bueno at the Press Enterprise
Angel Magana at LAist.com</a>
Grahame Jones at the LA Times
Scott French at LA Soccer News
SkySports News
Charlie Corr’s Chicago Fire blog at ESPN
Martin Rogers at Yahoo Sports
Andrea Canales at Goal.comwith post-game perspective
Andrea Canales at Goal.com Game Summary
Zac Lee Rigg at Goal.com with player ratings
The Sun
The MailOnline
Jose De Jesus Ortiz at the Houston Chronicle
CNN International on the “controversy” from the summer
BBC Sports
Jorge Flores at The Examiner.com
The Telegraph
Phil Collin at the Daily Breeze
Nick Green at 100 Percent Soccer
LA Galaxy Blog with the game summary
LA Galaxy Blog with post-game quotes
Luis Bueno with the MLSNet game summary
Luis Bueno with the MLSNet Galaxy perspective
Ivan Orozco with the Dynamo perspective

Game Highlights

So here we sit, anticipating the second leg of the first plyoff series the Galaxy has been in since 2005, against SuperClasico rival Chivas USA. And i have to say that the way the first game was played offers precious little in the way of predicting what will happen in the second.

Yes, the teams put a combined four goals up on the score board, which seems like an offensive-minded game and certainly upended my own predicted series aggregate score of 2-1 Galaxy. But those four goals all came from horrendous defensive miscues, including a few bone fide bonehead plays. Those were atypical of both teams which have notched 12 shutouts each this season and featured stifling goals-against averages.

Yes, Landon Donovan and David Beckham played in their first playoff game together and played adequately. But neither one of them put their stamp on the game and were, for the most part, marked out of having an impact. Donovan’s miscommunication in the midfield led to the first Chivas goal, and Beckham spent too much time too deep in his end of the field to spark the kinds of quick-passing attacks that have led to many Galaxy goals over the season.

And, yes Zach Thornton is MLS Keeper of the Year, but his defense did him no favors last week.

So where do we sit, hours before the deciding game? Here’s the breakdown:

Keepers: Still even. Both keepers were mugged by their own defenders on the four goals and both came up with difficult saves to keep their teams level. Going into today there’s no reason to expect that either one of them have had a dip in form. If anything Donovan Ricketts might be motivated to show-up Thornton for getting an award that Ricketts could have conceivably been offered.

Backline: Last week I said that the Galaxy had the edge here for their mix of veteran leadership and youthful passion, not to mention the apparent skill of one past and one (potentially) present Rookie of the Year. Factor in the relative stability in the defensive corps for the bulk of the season and it seemed like a lock over the ever-shifting back four Chivas has been foreced to field due to injuries and drop in form. I mean, Jonathan Bornstein as a centerback? Really?

But after last week, I’m feeling slight trepidation in the Galaxy’s lock here. It all depends on how Gonzalez responds. Does he raise his intensity and concentration or does he let last week’s performance get inside his head? If he performs with the maturity he’s shown all season, then I think it will be the former. And if that’s the case, I have to go with the Galaxy backline over Chivas and count on defensive slips as the Chivas defenders still figure out how to play with each other.

Midfield: Last week I gave the Galaxy the edge here as well. This week the edge on paper still goes to the Galaxy, but last week’s performance has to be thought of as even at best. The combination of the league’s best passer with its best creative force should have outclassed a Chivas midfield made up of two bruisers and an out-of-form creative engine. Not so much. Apparently putting Chris Lahoud on man-to-man duty on Becks is enough to take him out of a game. And, though Donovan showed sparks of creativity, he didn’t deliver the kind of game we saw in the intense game against Chicago at home. I still think the Galaxy midfield can outclass who Preki can put on the field. But they have to play like it or Chivas wins.

Forwards: And here’s why the Galaxy mdfield has to perform: Chivas’ attack. It’s true that Chivas is the only team in the league that has failed to score at least three goals in a game this season. But their attack has suffered all season long from injuries and inconsistent personnel availability. Now that Maykel Galindo has shown his fitness and Justin Braun has shown his ability to partner well with whomever else he’s working with, the Chivas attack is at its most potent. Preki can also bring offense off the bench in the form of Lillingston, Lahoud, Padilla, and Flores.

The Galaxy, on the other hand, are going with the spark-less duo of Mike Magee and Edson Buddle. On paper these two should click. In practice, they just don’t. Last game was filled with way to man Buddle give-aways, runs not anticipated by Magee, and collective lack of concentration. Magee’s creativity took a break from this game and he left Donovan to do most of the work here. The bench of Kirovski, Gordon, and Jordan do not inspire much confidence either. In fact, the biggest offensive sparks off the bench are likely to be Eddie Lewis and Chris Klein. Who are both in the midfield.

Outlook for today: The Galaxy will gain a bit of momentum by having the majority of the crowd behind them, but Chivas fan will be out in numbers for this match-up, taking away some of the home-crowd edge. The Galaxy can take comfort from knowing that it was their own mistakes that cost the win last week, not getting outplayed. But so can Chivas.

However, the Galaxy can look directly at its two best players and see that if they play the kind of game of which they are both supremely capable, then they can dominate Chivas for most of the game.

The biggest question mark for the afternoon is how the increasingly confident Chivas attackers will fare against a Galaxy defense that relies more on guile and strong communications than speed and technical ability to shutdown opponents. If the Galaxy can recapture the defensive form that got them here in the first place, then their midfield should, in the end, create enough to defeat the Goats and put the Galaxy into the conference final. If the defense can’t handle the Chivas attack, it will be a long and disappointing afternoon for the team and fans.

Prediction: Galaxy 2-1, 4-3 on aggregate.

What others are saying:

Three stories from MLSNet here, here, and here.
Luis Bueno at SI.com
Grahame Jones at the LA Times
Andrea Canales at Goal.com
Luis Bueno at the Press-Enterprise
The AP at CBSSports (where they inexplicably say the game will be played at the Rose Bowl).
Ives Galarcep at ESPNSoccernet
Angel Magana at LAist.com
LA Soccer News
Phil Collin at the Whittier Daily News
Mark Rogondino’s View From The Booth

What do you think the Galaxy needs to do to win? Who needs to step up? Share your thoughts below.

And those words are: EPIC FAIL! Or maybe I’ve got five words: What the @#$%&! was that? 6-3? That’s a team record for goals allowed in a game. 4 FCD goals game after the 70th minute. Three came after the 81st minute. It was an unbelievable set of breakdowns across the board and a new-look, increasingly confident, and very fast Dallas team took full advantage.

Where to start. The game itself was a back-and-forth affair, but FCD had the better of the play for most of the game. In fact, for the first 22 or so minutes they basically owned the Galaxy, attacking in waves with Jeff Cunningham making slicing, speedy runs through the central defense. An off-target shot on an open net in which he burned and juked all the defenders was just a taste of things to come from what would be a two-goal, two-assist performance.

After 22 minutes the Galaxy started marshalling an attack, running it through Landon Donovan but were consistently let down by poor quality passes through the middle or from some mediocre forward play. I’m so calling out Stefani Migliolaranzi and Jovan Kirovski here. When Mike Magee disappears in a match, there’s no percentage in pinning your hopes on Kirovski. At least two good runs on his part with good balls from Donovan ended up in a tangles mess at his feet as he dribbled too much and lost the ball or took horrible touches and blew the play. And I’ve consistently been underwhelmed by Miglioranzi as well. He’s tenacious in the middle, but his passing is pretty crap and his offensive instincts are generally wrong.

A couple of games ago I heard/read a comment from a fan saying that he and Kirovski must have naked pictures of The Bruce with little children in order to get the kind of playing time they’ve seen this year. A little part of me couldn’t help but wonder if this were true. Of course, the reality is that the Galaxy strike corps is depleted enough to give Kirovski chance after chance and that injuries have kept any challenges to Migs from being able to take his job away from him.

Too bad.

Of course, it wasn’t just those two guys who had the kinds of games you forget the moment you step off the pitch. Eddie Lewis gave away ball after ball with horrid passing, in one case it led directly to an FC Dallas goal. It was probably his worst performance all season.

And he was joined there by David Beckham. Lackluster passing, cutesy passing, tepid set pieces, off-target crosses, it was a night of frustration and mediocrity from the league’s highest paid player. I’m willing to give jet lag a bit of the blame here, but mentally it wasn’t a sharp performance from the man given the playmaking duties.

In the end it was the kind of game where everyone who needed to play consistently well on the Galaxy side didn’t and the other team was already primed to go after the teams pre-existing weaknesses, in this case lack of speed and weak midfield passing. When the front runners either completely disappeared or actively sucked along with season-low games from two key midfielders, it had the makings of a disaster.

And the new-look FCD was poised to take full control. They are a fast and young team but with quality across the board. They buzzed around the Galaxy players like they were asleep for long portions of the game. Their passing was sharper and their runs crisper. And they eventually ran circles around the 30-somethings that make up a such a large percentage of the Galaxy line-up.

But it wasn’t a complete trainwreck until after the 70th minute. In large part this was delay in destruction was due to the defense, though it was constantly seemed to be scrambling to keep up. For one thing AJ Delagarza had a career night, causing one own-goal and scoring his first MLS goal. I’ve been wanting him to get more into the attack all season and Arena clearly told him to take on the left-side player like Dave van den Bergh. He was pushing up all during the first half. Then he got injured, on the own-goal.

For another thing Omar Gonzalez had a pretty good night, all things considered. Until he and Gregg Berhalter were exposed again and again as not exceptionally speedy. Still he played hard, won numerous balls, poked them away, stood attackers up and made clutch plays. Had Delagarza stayed on the right instead of Tony Sanneh, maybe things wouldn’t have been as horrible as they were.

That pretty much leaves the Donovans. Landon, playing his 3rd game in a week after coming back from international duty, still looked good. He just didn’t have anyone to connect with. He was all over the field trying to spark the attack, make incisive passes, and generally be dangerous. He did have two clear shots at goal, but he skied one over the net and the other went right to the keeper. Ricketts was mostly hung out to dry by his defense. He had three huge saves to keep the game tied, but after that the bottom fell out.

Wait a minute! Edson Buddle made he long-awaited return to the line-up as a sub in the 69th minute and had an immediate impact, causing confusing in the FCD backline, though he wasn’t able to break through in the flurry. His 90th minute goal was a reminder of his quality, especially his heading, which, combined with his footwork, puts the Galaxy attack on a completely different plane.

Oh and Todd Dunivant had a pretty solid game on a backline that was beaten like a crate of eggs at a home-style diner on a Sunday morning. Brutally and often.

Despite the scoreline and my frustrated words above, all was not horrible from the Galaxy. For one thing, the did score three times in one game, a rare thing this season. For another the rookies in the back continue to shine. I hope AJ’s injury isn’t serious because he was starting to add the offensive dimension to his game. Finally Edson Buddle returned and put one in the back of the net.

I should also note that the refereeing was probably the weakest I’ve seen all season. I always ask for consistency, but I don’t mean “consistently bad”. Missed handball in the box by a Dallas defender just after the call on Becks led to the van den Bergh goal. Phantom offside call on Chris Klein’s goal which could have made the final score at least 6-4 or more depending on how much fire and confidence that gave the team. To the ref’s credit he didn’t loes control of the game, but that’s about as far as I’m going to go with praise. Especially he wasn’t responsible for the truly horrific play on the field from the home team.

If this team wants to go deep in the playoffs, it needs to respond to this embarrassment. You’d never know the team had a week off to rest and prepare. Well, they don’t have any more rests. The midfield especially needs to step up. When Lewis, Migs, and Becks all have horrible games, salvaging something is going to be a challenge. Getting Buddle game fit is a crucial part of this because it gives the Galaxy more firepower and unpredictability. Dealing with the exposure in the back is a priority as well, depending on the severity of Delagarza’s injury.

Five weeks left. They probably need 42 or 43 points to be in the playoffs. The Galaxy could have taken over first place in the West or at least cleared some space between themselves and Colorado and Seattle, especially after the favor Toronto FC did for the team by beating Colorado. No such luck. Chicago and Columbus still on the docket. Time to man up.

Man of the match: AJ Delagarza

What others are saying:
Nick Green at 100 percent soccer
Jeffry King at MLSNet with the game recap
Jeffrey King at MLSNet with the FC Dallas perspective
SoCal’s own Luis Bueno in The Dallas Morning News
The AP on Google
SoCal’s own Andrea Canales at Goal.com on the Galaxy defeat
Andrea Canales with the game report for Goal.com
Andrea Canales at Goal.com with a story on the post-game fracas that might result in discipline from the league
Angel Magana at LAIst.com
Phil Collins in the Daily News/Daily Breeze chain of papers
Grahame Jones in the LA Times
Luis Bueno at MLSNet.com with the Galaxy perspective
The party line at the official LA Galaxy blog

What about you guys? What did you see? What was the most embarrassing? Who shone through the crap? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Last week I was all about “No More Ties!”, not because i have a vendetta against neckwear (and a penchant for lame puns), but because winning teams know how to scratch out wins from adverse conditions at crunch time. The frustrating game in DC was the catalyst, though it was the third game in a week played in the aftermath of a hurricane at the end of August in DC’s home stadium.

This week, nominally a home game after a week of only the one game, the Galaxy faced a Chivas USA team just off a 4-0 pasting in Sandy, UT, but that has substantially revamped itself during the summer transfer window after a season-long injury epidemic had decimated its roster.

For the first 40 minutes or so, though, you wouldn’t know that the Galaxy were the home team and that Chivas had just been embarrassed by an inconsistent Real Salt Lake side. Chivas had the better chances, squandering a couple of wide-open looks on poor finishing, or getting robbed by excellent defending and goal-keeping. While the Galaxy, who just took 4 points on the road from traditionally superior teams, looked content to sit back, absorb the pressure and then dink it over the top to Mike Magee and Jovan Kirovski.

The new-look Chivas midfield, to go with the new-look Chivas backline (Marcelo Saragosa at right back? Really?), was much more dynamic in the first half than the Galaxy’s seemingly superior diamond-shape with David Beckham directing traffic, Stefani Miglioranzi cleaning up the messes, Landon Donovan marauding from the right and left, and Eddie Lewis playing the wing on the left and right. That midfield should really create a lot more possession and a lot more chances than it did last Saturday night. It showed what it is capable of in the finaly 25 minutes or so, when it played a lot of one-touch passes through the middles, deftly switching fields and then finding dangerous runs.

But for the first 65 minutes Chivas played as well or better using a resurgent Sacha Klejstan and newcomers Jesus Padilla, on loan from Chivas, Sr, and Maicon Santos. I cheated by putting Santos in there since he’s a forward, but that combo was much more interesting to watch then our own midfield combining with Mike Magee and Jovan Kirovski. Now, I have to say that Magee has been becoming a consistent contributor lately and provided his fair share of cheeky passes and moves to get free in the box. And Kirovski works hard and battles. But I am pining for Edson Buddle and Alecko Eskandarian. Fer reals.

But that brings me back to the “no more cravats” mantra. Did you know the Galaxy have lost only once in 10 games? For true! Did you know that seven of those games were wins? Also for true. And they’ve mostly been doing with guys who I constantly dog out, like Miglioranzi and Kirovski. This team, which decided early on that it would do whatever it takes not to lose, is starting to turn the corner in terms of doing what it takes to win. But, oh lordy, do they do it in the most inelegant and workmanlike ways. But then, we have to. We’re working with Kirovski, Alan Gordon, Bryan Jordan, and Magee. Magee’s the only one of that bunch that’s really a creator of any type and the guy who cleans up plays and starts attacks is Miglioranzi who is not known for his creative passing.

So during the game, the thing that really kept the Galaxy in position to absorb the Chivas attacks was really, once again. a defense that refuses to quit. On Saturday night Omar Gonzalez had numerous huge plays, but the one that really stuck with me was a play midway through the first half when, after a horrible giveaway by a midfielder down the middle channel of the pitch, Gonzalez, as the last defender back, steps up and sticks the ball away from Maykel Galindo or Santos or someone like that. He basically didn’t allow him any space, dinked the ball away, stopped the attack, and created a turnover all at once. It was a veteran move from the rookie.

And is it just me or does the intensity of AJ Delagarza’s stare remind anyone else of a coked-up lemur? He’s like the second coming of Mike Singletary’s eyes. He’s getting into the attack more these days, but I still wish he had more of that dimension. It would be a real boon, both because it would mean more quality service for a strike corps that can’t really create and because it would give Donovan that much more freedom to buzz around the field creating havoc.

I should note that Donovan Ricketts, who generally gives me the kind of confidence you get when you place mountains of granite between the posts, gave me heart palpitations when he did his best impression of a centerback in the first half. Yes, you are very good with your feet. Good show. Now stay inside the 18!

So what does all this mean? It means that the Galaxy are learning how to win as grittily and workmanlike as they earlier learned how not to lose. And they are going to need that. I know they look all pretty and shiny sitting there on second in the Western Conference, but they’ve played two more games than Colorado and Chivas, both of whom are only five points behind them. They have a bye week and then finish with six games that include Columbus, Chicago, and Houston, all in a row. Take points in those games and maybe a deep run in the playoffs isn’t out of the question. But those teams aren’t going to squander nearly as many chances as Chivas did last Saturday.

When are Buddle and Eskandarian due back?

Man of the Match: Omar Gonzalez

What others are saying:

Great post-game quotes and color from 100 Percent Soccer’s Nick Green
Grahame Jones in the Los Angeles Times
Quicky Galaxy Season Update from the blogs at the Wall Street Journal (!)
Andrea Canales at Goal.com on David Beckham’s 6 weeks back in LA
Angel Magana with the recap from The LAist
Zack Lee Rigg at Goal.com with the Chivas perspective
The AP by way of Google and The Canadian Press
Andrea Canales at Goal.com with the Galaxy perspective
Matthew Hall at The Examiner.com (This is a truly horrifying newspaper that exists mostly online – the amount of lies and distortions it prints as “opinion” is off the charts, it’s like a poor man’s Washington Times – but its futbol reporting is decent.)
Very deep analysis from the knowledgeable futbol crew at RadarOnline
AHN Sports wire report
Miguel Melendez at the LA Daily News
Luis Bueno at the Press-Entreprise (with podcast)
Simon Jude Semano at MLSNet.com with the game summary
Simon Jude Semano at MLSNet.com with the Galaxy perspective
The Party Line from the Official LA Galaxy blog
Post-game info and pics of the SuperClasico win from the same source

What about you guys? What did you see? Did you think the SuperClasico was super? Did Chivas favorably impress? Who played well and who didn’t?

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 those words are: Don’t get cocky.

That’s 4 wins in a row for the Galaxy, which is not the longest win streak since 2006. (The dismal 2007 season featured a 5 game winning streak from September through October.) All of a sudden the team is tied for third in the West and sitting pretty in a playoff spot (granted it has still played a game more than most of the West) and it is surging rather than falling.

Last week I wrote this:

But to get there, we’ve got to score goals and do it in a way that shuts teams down, doesn’t allow their midfield into the game. I’ll still take those 1-0 victories, but if we’re going to make this thing competitive we need to score more than once a game.

Mission accomplished. Granted it was against the worst team in the league, a team that is experiencing a nightmare season, on track for the most futile season in MLS history. But it was Landon Donovan who smoked Alfredo Pacheco like a Cohiba. It was Alecko Eskandarian who Sombreroed Alberto Celades. It was Eddie Lewis who one-timed a shot past Danny Cepero like, umm, Eddie Lewis. And it was David Beckham who orchestrated the attack from a central midfield position.

While the 3-1 scoreline was perhaps a bit generous to the visitors, it was a product of something that has been sorely lacking from the team for 3 years – confidence. And of a midfield that has been the biggest weakness on the team since it became clear that Bruce Arena had shored up last year’s worst defense. Arena himself put it like this,

We’re a team where we were very suspect in the midfield and all of a sudden, it got real good when you have David Beckham and Landon Donovan in the midfield. And I thought (Eddie) Lewis and (Stefani) Miglioranzi played well and certainly, we took our goals well.

Ya think?

Let’s elaborate on the obvious just a bit more, shall we (since as a blogger that’s part of the job description)? The Galaxy went from starting Edson Buddle, Alan Gordon, Eddie Lewis, Jovan Kirovski, Mike Magee, and Stefani Miglioranzi to starting Edson Buddle, Alecko Eskandarian, Eddie Lewis, David Beckham, Landon Donovan, and Stefani Miglioraniz. The midfield went from below average to one of the top three (Houston and Toronto are the other two, no offense Seattle and United fans) in a matter of weeks. And Chris Birchall’s 20 or so minutes looked very very good. High workrate, good positioning, good defense, and quality distribution. It’s early days yet, but I’m having a fun time thinking about him as the Galaxy’s answer to players like Brian Carroll, Osvaldo Alonso, and Jesse Marsch.

I’m not a huge fan of Becks playing so deep in the midfield like he lined up on Thursday, nor do I like having Donovan out on the wing (in MLS – on the USMNT he looks great out there, but here I feel like it takes him too much out of the flow of the game), but its also hard to argue with results. I wonder if you could get even better results with a diamond midfield that features Lewis on the left, Birchall in front of the central defense, Becks in the Christian Gomez number 10 slot, and Donovan lining up on the right, but with the freedom to roam behind the front line like Jaime Moreno does.

The thing that makes this plausible is the inspired decision to pick up Esky from Chivas USA. Two goals in three games, including Thursday’s SportsCenter top play of the day, is fantastic. But he’s the complete package. He’s fast, he’s quick, he has great vision, he makes dangerous runs. He plays defense. He makes Buddle that much more dangerous because now defenses have to deal with two talented guys up top. You could see that against RBNY, though, again, it’s dangerous to predict future results based on schooling a team that’s having a private Lost Season.

Here’s why: the schedule for the final 12 games of the season include Chivas, Toronto, Columbus, United, Seattle, Houston, and the Fire (twice). It also includes at least two overlaps with World Cup qualifiers which will take Donovan and Becks out of the picture. In other words, there’s a lot of season left against the toughest teams and the Galaxy will need to get results from most of them to stay in the playoff picture.

On the other hand, the Galaxy finally has depth. On Thursday Arena brought in Magee, Chris Klein, and Chris Birchall. Missing Becks and Landon will not hurt nearly as much as it did earlier in the season when the team couldn’t buy a win. This notion is also starting to extend to the goalkeeping as well. It was fantastic to have Donovan Ricketts back. He came up huge twice, including stoning both Seth Stammler and Jorge Rojas on consecutive shots. Not to mention stopping the second Angel penatly kick (and how unucky was Omar Gonzalez to get called for two handballs in the box within five minutes). Not only is he a keeper with great athleticism, he plays smart, positioning himself well and organizing the defense. Josh Saunders isn’t at this level, but his last two outings were levels above his early starts this year. I’m no longer cringing when I see his name on the lineup card.

Just 10 days ago I was kind of not really looking forward to seeing AC Milan play the Galaxy because of the huge difference in skill levels will make for a crap game. Now, while I don’t think the Galaxy is close to Milan’s level, I also don’t think that the game will totally suck.

In fact, after seeing the game on Thursday, I’m starting to be cautiously optimistic about what the team can accomplish this season.

But don’t get cocky.

Man of the Match: Landon Donovan, hands down.

What others are saying:

Doug McIntyre with the MLSNet Game Summary
Dylan Butler with the MLSNet RBNY perspective
Doug McIntyre with the MLSNet Galaxy perspective
Kyle McCarthy with an MLSNet story focused on Becks
Ronald Blum at the Associated Press
Steve Goff at his Soccer Insider blog
Kristian Dyer at Metro International.com
Frank Giase at the New Jersey Star Ledger
Bruce Jenkins at the SF Chronicle with a little rain on the Beckham parade (no game recap, just some meta-analysis)
Ian McGarry with British snark from The Sun
Matt Hughes on the Becks booing in the TimesOnline
Dominic Fifield at The Guardian
SkyNews with Becks getting booed
The Guardian game summary
Guardian sports blog on Beckham’s relationship with MLS
The Philadelphia Star
John Jeasonne at the NY Daily News
Joshua Robinson at the NY Times
Kyle McCarthy at Goal.com
The CBC
Grahame Jones at the LA Times
Nick Green at 100 Percent Soccer
Ronald Blum in The Daily Breeze

What about you guys? What did you think of Beckham’s return? Is the midfield now good enough to compete for the championship? What about the depth issue? How will national team call-ups affect the team? Leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments below.

Eskandarian has been hobbled by injury for the past few years, and has yet to match the tantalizing promise of his 2004 season when he scored 10 goals for DC United and was the MLS Cup MVP. He was slowed by injury again this season with Chivas USA. He joined Chivas in January 2008 and has only appeared in 18 games, scoring six times in the process. This year he’s only started twice and seen the field in seven games.

Josh Tudela has been with the Galaxy since 2007 when he was drafted out of Indiana (Dema Kovalenko’s alma mater) and only recently moved off of the developmental roster. He was one of the survivors of the horrific 2007 campaign that saw a few games late in the season when only 14 players could dress because of numerous injuries. He held steady in the middle during the team’s improbable late season winning streak that almost saw them sneak into the playoffs. I thought he was improving this season, though I was never ready to label him ready to start regularly. I hope that some team picks him off the waiver wire – some place that needs a developing holding midfielder. The kid has heart, that’s for sure.

As for Eskandarian, I’ll take him over Jovan Kirovski in a minute, even if he can’t stay healthy, even if he’s been having trouble being dangerous since he was shipped out of DC. If nothing else he’ll bring personality. I will forever remember him scoring against New York after the rebranding as Red Bull, grabbing a can of the stuff from the sideline, swigging it, and spitting it back on the field. More of that please.

But this isn’t the last roster change in the offing. With David Beckham (and you saw this note about our sneak peek at the new book about the Beckham Experiment, right?) the current roster lists 25 players. The roster limit is 24 and it still seems like Chris Birchall is coming on July 15th. That leaves two more players to get the ax. I’ve been chatting with some folks over email about possibles. Names mentioned include: Yohance Marshall, Tristan Bowen, Julian Valentin, Leonard Griffin, and Kyle Patterson. I think that the rules say you can’t cut someone who is on the Disabled List, so Marshall is safe until he comes off. Valentin is recovering from a broken foot, so he’s on the DL. Tristan Bowen is Generation Addidas and thus doesn’t count against the salary cap, so there’s value in keeping him.

So, what do you guys think? Was getting Eskandarian the right move? What about Tudela? Will you miss him? And, finally, who are your candidates for the cuts needed for Becks and Birchall to be on the roster? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

Next, head on over to ESPN or Galavision to watch the US Men’s National Team take on Honduras in Chicago at 5:00pm Pacific.

Both games are being broadcast in high-def. Ahhh, I can’t wait.

Hopefully the Galaxy will get on okay without Landon, and Buddle will be able to step up for a full 90, or at least 75.

Even more importantly, the USMNT needs to play exceedingly well and beat the crap out of Honduras after Wednesday’s mess in Costa Rica. It was bad. Like I could cry — bad. If Bradley is smart, he’ll play Torres for the full 90 — and if Torres and Donovan can connect well, they will create effective offense.

Post your match comments here in the comments section. I’ll be here for most of the Galaxy match but will be DVRing the US, Honduras, match.

And because I am an older, wiser person than I was just two days ago, it has. I’m going to be kinder and gentler than I might otherwise have been, but it turns out that I can’t shake that metallic tang of frustration the Galaxy seem to be specializing in.

We are now officially one third of the way through the season and one game away from losing the best player currently with the the team for the next four or so. Good time to take some stock of the situation. Dave’s reply to the game preview (and in-game comments, which are desperately in need of someone other than myself making the bulk of) in which he looked at the team as he does when he’s playing FIFA Futbol Manager, is a great place to start. He breaks it down front-to-back. But I’m gonna break it down back-to-front.

Keeper: Donovan Ricketts is a major upgrade from the past year. He’s a keeper, as it were. The Galaxy, which fixed something that wasn’t broken when they sent Kevin Hartman to KC and brought in Joe Cannon from Colorado, is back to having a top tier stopper in net. Backup Josh Saunders scares me with his inexperience and memories of that horrible Colorado game.

Game vs. FC Dallas: Solid, with three tie-salvaging saves. Continues to often be the best Galaxy player on the field.

Backline: So much better than Franklin and the Three Sieves we had last year. So much better. Berhalter and Gonzalez are making a great team and Franklin and Dunivant at the wingbacks have loads of offensive potential. Except for injuries and recuperation. Which is why I’m a bit worried about Franklin being out indefinitely with a hammy muscle tear and Dunivant sitting out games “for rest”. Like the roster at the rest of the positions, the backups for the defense are thin. Delagarza and Sanneh as the top two go-to guys.

Game vs FC Dallas: Gonzalez missed his assignment on Drew Moor and left his keeper out to dry. Not cool. But the rest of the game he helped contain a very active Kenny Cooper and cleaned up to occasional mess caused by Brek Shea’s shenanigans on the left. Delagarza did well enough is a difficult situation playing on the right for the first time, though he did have a shakey first 20 minutes dealing with Shea. Overall, same solid performance that has the Galaxy 5th best in the league in goals allowed.

Midfield: Last year the biggest weakness, outside of goal, was the Galaxy’s backline. This year it is the holding and defensive midfielders. Actually last year, this weakness contributed to how badly the backline did since there was nothing in the center of the park to protect the defense and help control the game. This year, Kovalenko has been a serious upgrade over Vagenas and Franchino, Lewis is solid on the left, and Klein and that British guy will have the right locked down. But the spot claimed by Miglioranzi and occasionally by Tudela needs an upgrade.

In fact, the whole midfield scheme needs an overhaul despite solid players to slot into various spaces. The real problem is that the midfield lacks two necessary qualities to capitalize on the much stouter defense and take advantage of Landon Donovan and a healthy Edson Buddle: one, someone who is an outlet for the defense to link with or for the other midfielder to dump-off to, and two, someone who can turn around and make that linking pass to the flank run, or make the smart distribution up the field to start an attacking sequence.

If you want to see what a real midfield looks like in MLS, then watch Rico Clark, Brad Davis, Brian Mullan, and Stuart Holden play together sometime. There’s a reason Houston won back-to-back championships in 2007 and 2008 and those guys are a big part of it (switch Holden for Mulrooney and add DeRo to be real about it). Watching them dismantle San Jose, a team with a pretty good defense, was a thing of beauty. Rico Clark is a great ball winner in the Clyde Simms/Brian Carroll tradition and can then turn around and spark a dangerous attack like a Shalrie Joseph or Osvaldo Alanso can. Stuart Holden is coming into his own as an attacking midfielder with responsibility for finding the forwards. And the flank play of Mullan and Davis is probably without an equal at this point in the MLS season (though you gotta think that Chicago, once they settle on a line-up, will give them a run for the money).

But the Galaxy don’t have that kind of combination or those kinds of players. The midfield is, despite the presence of Eddie Lewis, Chris Klein, and Kovalenko, still mostly mediocre. The parts aren’t fitting well together.

Game vs. FC Dallas: Mediocre. If you can’t control the game with the other team goes down by a starting midfielder halfway through the first half, then there isn’t anything else to say, really. D-mid is better than last year. Link with the offense still missing. Working as a unit is missing. And some key personnel who can help life the game of the team overall are missing. Without serious attention here, then the team won’t be good enough to make the playoffs.

Forwards: Decent with the potential for danger. But only if Buddle and Donovan can be on the field at the same time for the full game. Buddle’s continuing injury problems have surely cost the team a couple of ties that could have been wins but for a sputtering attack. And Donovan depends on smart wing play to free him up to have the space to create. He does very well coming out of deep-lying positions in the midfield, running at players and dishing off or making dangerous slashing runs into the corners. Playing off of Buddle is ideal especially when Lewis and Klein can deliver good service to his feet.

But the back-ups are problematic. Magee runs hot and cold. He’s been hot enough to start the last two games and play fairly well, though he disappeared against FC Dallas for long stretches. Jordan is still just good for 20 -30 minutes of non-stop running and energy. Kirovski brings veteran vision to the game, but I’m just not that impressed with the rest of his game. I honestly don’t understand how he started so many games in Colorado. Gordon has terrible feet, is prone to reckless tackles, and comes back too deep into the midfield to get balls, but is tall and strong and scores just when you are ready to write him off for the rest of the season. Tristan Bowen is untried and Israel Sesay is still about 12 and plays like it. There’s not a lot of bang behind to the Donovan and Buddle and with Donovan leaving for almost all of June, it’s going to be desperate times up top.

Game vs. FC Dallas: Not horrible. Donovan scores off of a nice series of passes. Then the midfield fails to take over the game and continues to provide sporadically adequate service to the attack. Gordon needed to do better and Donovan needed to play a bit smarter.

So I think I’m laying the blame for this Dallas thing at the feet of the midfield. But I do want to say something about the mentality of the players. They’ve had a huge number of minutes to play as the team with the man advantage and in every situation except the Columbus one, they’ve failed to take advantage. It’s almost criminal how they’ve been unable to score goals with a man advantage. To me its almost like the team decides at that point that they don’t have to work hard to win. That the game will just work itself out. And then we get ties. It just can’t be acceptable to play so many games with a numbers advantage and not strike the killer blow to the other team. It’s like the team needs to be behind before they ratchet up the play to the next level. Giving the team an advantage (scoring first, a man up) and they take their foot off the gas and let the other team take the game to them. Part of it is personnel, I grant you, but part of it is mental. Winning teams win those kinds of games, even if they don’t quite have the right talent. The Galaxy should be winning these kinds of games. But they aren’t. And they aren’t because they are missing something mentally.

Luckily the Western Conference is still packed with teams within 5 points of each other and there are still 20 games to go, so playoff spots are still very much up for grabs. But with a mediocre midfield and the core of the offense leaving for a month, its is suddenly crunch time. But the crunch time mentality is out to lunch. Someone is going to have to step up so that when Becks and Donovan get back, there’s still something to play for.

What others are saying:

MLSNet Game Summary by Steve Hunt
MLSNet Galaxy Perspective from Steve Hunt
MLSNet FC Dallas Perspective from Steve Hunt
Fort Worth Star Telegram
AP Via the LA Times
Goal.com
Dallas Morning News Game Recap by Kate Hariopaulous
Dallas Morning News odds and ends by Kate Hariopaulous

What about you guys? What did you see? Am I missing key pieces of the analysis? Did someone have a stellar game that I missed or have a crappy game that I praised? After the first third of the season what needs to change? What’s good and needs to be left alone? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

There is no better way to start off this post than letting SoCal’s dean of futbol reporters say a few words about the refereeing. Here’s Grahame Jones from Sunday’s Los Angeles Times.

But it was referee Tim Weyland’s performance that drew all the attention. Referees are meant to be invisible. That’s the sign of a well-officiated game. Weyland, in contrast, loomed large.

He appeared unable to control the match without having to reach into his pocket, and by the time he blew the whistle for the last time, he had issued 11 cards and ejected three players.

Weyland’s seeming inability to distinguish between innocuous fouls and seriously unfair or dangerous plays ruined what could have been an interesting evening in Carson. Sometimes a word of warning far outweighs an ostentatiously brandished yellow card.

The game was in no way as ill-tempered or bad-natured as the spate of cards and the 31 fouls called by Weyland would suggest.

I think that’s pretty much spot on. The game, as a game, was heavily influenced by Mr. Weyland and ended up a choppy affair. That’s not to say it wasn’t entertaining. It was. Despite the 7 yellow cards and three reds (two of which came as second yellows), the game was played with pace and intensity.

For the first 20 minutes Chivas’ superior midfield put the Galaxy back on its heels, unable to establish possession or create a series of passes that could spring the forwards for good runs. Part of this was because the Galaxy lined up with an unexpected set of players in many of the positions. Klein, for example, lined up at left mid with Sean Franklin at right. AJ DeLaGarza played right back and Gregg Berhalter made his MLS debut. And, of course, Donovan Ricketts made his MLS debut as well and not a moment to soon.

After the first 20, the Galaxy settled down and started to play Chivas evenly in the middle and at about the 30 minute mark they even started to take the game to the Goats. When Nagamura got his second yellow in the dying minutes of the half, it looked like the Galaxy would be able to take advantage.

Obviously this didn’t happen. The Galaxy midfield just couldn’t break down Chivas, although Gordon’s disallowed goal was about a perfect a set-up as you can get in MLS. The Chivas midfield was simply better, but that’s not to say that the Galaxy weren’t improved from recent games. Sean Franklin’s time at midfield is sure to be short, but he looked good attacking from right, given the makeshift nature of that assignment. And Josh Tudela continues to turn in solid if workmanlike performances. Give that kid two more years of improvement like he’s had that last three and he could end up being the kind of Brian Carroll-like player the Galaxy hasn’t had in ages. Or not. Too early to tell, but the improvement is visible and marked.

What is worrisome is the ability of the midfield to start attacks, freeing up Donovan for slashing runs or finding targets like Gordon or Buddle in the box. Last night’s game shows how difficult this can be against a first tier MLS defense – one that’s not even at full strength yet. This should be alleviated by gettingLewisat left mid with a healthy Dunivant at left back and both Donovan and Buddle in the line-up.

The best thing that happened all game was the debut of Donovan Ricketts. The knock on Ricketts has been that he’s weak on crosses, but that wasn’t so much of an issue last night. Instead, he controlled the box and helped organize the defense while coming up with a couple of big time saves. More than once I thought to myself, “Its nice to have a keeper in goal again.”

That said, though it is only three games in for the Galaxy, time is running out. Over the past several years the team has been mediocre on the road, if not downright abysmal, and they’ve already had three home games at The Home Depot Center from which they have only taken two points. I expect that to make the playoffs this year a team will need a minimum of 42 points. Leaving 40 points to come from the remaining 27 games. That means averaging just under 1.5 points per game the rest of the year and realistically a minimum of 11 wins. There are 12 home games remaining.

Next game we get Kovalenko back, but lose Berhalter and Gordon. That’s not a good trade. Berhalter played very well until his crucial mistake – giving the ball away to Eskandarian in the 78th minute with a wide-open path to the Galaxy goal forcing him to commit a professional foul as the last defender back. He is better than Sanneh who has struggled to shake off the rust of not having played at this level for a year. And as much as I have ragged on Gordon for the past three years, he brings a great workrate, gameness, and good vision and positioning with him. He’s got more confidence than Bryan Jordan and a better sense of how to play at MLS speed too. All of which is to say that the defense will be weaker and the offense will be less potent because of those two absences. Maybe Buddle will be ready to give 45 good minutes next week, which could produce some dangerous attacks.

In the end, the Galaxy didn’t frustrate me or embarrass themselves and I felt that getting away with a draw was a good, even fair, result. But as I noted above, they need to step it up if they are going to be serious about making the playoffs this year. Stockpiling points at the beginning of the season with these front-loaded home games is a key way to do this. Miss out on that opportunity and you have to win games on the road in the middle of July and August, not something that’s especially easy to accomplish for this Galaxy team.

Man of the Match: Donovan Ricketts

Favorite Moment: Hanging out with LA Galaxy Offsides commentor David during halftime and the first 10 minutes of the second half.

What did you guys see? Who stood out? Who was your MOTM? Who disappointed? What did I get wrong? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.