Dallas-Galaxy kind of liveblog

By: Laurie | March 15th, 2008

If I can get a second computer set up, I’ll be doing a somewhat half-~~assed~~-hearted liveblog. Hit refresh for updates. Be sure to leave comments about the play on the field if you feel so inclined.

Dallas 0-0 Galaxy

The picture is so fuzzy I can’t tell who’s who. This combined with the lack of minutes means this won’t be a livelbog. Maybe just a collection of thoughts? But I’ll go most recent comments at the top as if this were a liveblog. Just to confuse everybody.

That’s the game. 0-0. We continue to learn. Our defense still scares me. Our young players still scare me. But I’m dying to see Beckham, Donovan and Ruiz on the field together. Becks gives his shirt to an adorable little blonde girl. Mom is the one who looks thrilled. Wonder who’ll be sleeping in that sweaty jersey tonight?

90′ Now I’m thinking somebody came in for Mike Randolph. Missed that one altogether. I love fuzzy pictures.

89′ Oduro is offside. The crowd disagrees.

86′ Beckham is still in, btw. I have no idea who Vagenas came in for. Also, Bryan Jordan is in. Don’t know for who. Haven’t seen Tudela for awhile. And Beckham just got a yellow for dissent over an offside call. Pushing and shoving — Saragoza in Beckham’s face. Alvaro is actually the on splitting things up. Becks and Sala exchange a manly hug-like thing. Smiles all around and everybody’s happy.

85′ We just got anohter great opportunity. Donovan puts up a pretty high shot that Sala palms away.

81′ Wow. I can’t describe what just happened. We had three million opportunities in the box. Back and forth all over the place. Donovan is a God. Good play from everybody, but Beckham is taken down in the box. No foul. Can’t tell if it should have been.

80′ish. Vagenas in, Beckham? out? Ricardino got a yellow for a dive in the box. The guy is Ruiz — extremely talented and a complete diver. I have a new hate object.

78′ish Dallas plays our defense like a violin again. Xavier was up too high when Dallas got the ball and couldn’t make it back. Vanney got smoked. Fortunately Dallas couldn’t deliver the goods.

75′ish. Cronin saves our bacon again. When Dallas gets the ball in our final third, we are not defending well.

74′ I didn’t see it, but Alan Gordon aparently got flattened. The free kick gets knocked out of the box, but right to Tudela, but his shot goes wide. The box was full of defenders, so it probably wouldn’t have gone anywhere anyway.

73′ Dallas is eating our defense for lunch. We got very lucky — Dallas took off by themselves, but fortunately the shot went wide.

72′ Immediately down to the other end. Another great chance for Dallas, shot goes wide.

71′ish Beckham to Donovan to Gordon, who can’t get to it. I’ll bet Ruiz would have gotten that one.

70′ Ricardino gets off a good shot that goes just wide. We’re lucky Dallas isn’t shooting on target tonight.

69′ Beckham gets a corner. It goes to somebody — I think he said “Jordan,” but I didn’t see Jordan come on. Gordon, maybe?

68ish. Vanney takes down Ricardino outside the box on the right. It wasn’t a dive, but it sure was a dramatic fall. The free kick goes to Saragosa to the back post, but he can’t get it to do what he wants and it goes wide.

65ish. Down at the other end, Klein delivers into the box, Sala punches it out but not too far. It goes to Tudela for a shot, but he doesn’t get enough on it and Sala makes the save.

64′ Yellow to Gordon for taking down Ricardino. Looked pretty soft to me. Free kick right on the touchline, delivered into the box. Everybody loses track of it — it bounces off a couple of players, and then Cronin comes off his line and makes a panic save.

62′ish. Cooper is just smoking Gavin tonight. Gavin does get in to block a Cooper cross, and it goes out for a corner, which then goes out for a Dallas throw-in.

60′ish. Beckham delivers a great ball to Donovan, who dodges defenders to deliver to Gordon in the box, but Gordon outruns the ball. It bounces around among players before going out for a corner, which we can’t capitalize on.

58ish. Great throughball Beckham to Donovan, but Drew Moor heads it away from Landon Donovan and to Sala.

56′ish. Lord, how much do you not want to see Greg Vanney as the only defender between an attacker and Cronin. In the end Vanney gets fouled in the box and we survive.

55ish Dallas sends a lethal-looking shot over the bar. Good thing, becasue Cronin was nowhere near it.

54′ish. Free kick for Dallas. Headed away by Galaxy, back to Dallas. Back to LA, but Gaving gives it away. In the end Chris Klein defends well and shuts down the attack.

52′ Another shot for an unmarked Cooper, high. If he were shooting on target tonight, we’d be dead.

50′ish. Yellow for some Dallas guy. I have no idea what for. I don’t think I have the attention span for liveblogging tonight.

49′ish. Alan Gordon’s been pretty invisible tonight. And my picture quality is so bad I thought Donovan was Tudela.

48′ish. Cronin snatches a corner out of the air. He really has steadied since that first game. Very composed looking for the most part.

47ish Foul, Saragoza, who pulled down Landon. Beckham delivers a nice free kick that nobody from either team can get to. Sala picks it up.

46′ish. We’re underway.

1st half stats. We got more shots, more shots on goal, more offsides. Sala had to make three saves.

45 + whatever Halftime.

43′ish. I think Alvaro is our new Kevin Harmse. He’s going to be the one to mix it up this year.

40′ I’m really liking the Klein-to-Beckham up the right thing. I see potential here.

38′ Another nice corner by Beckham, headed wide by Alvaro. Goal kick.

36′ish or so I like Josh Tudela’s hair.

34′ Beckham delivers a long, hard free kick to the left of the goal. Donovan heads it in on the byline to Xavier, who heads it just wide. NICE.

33′ Free kick for Dallas, eventually goes to Cooper in the box, but he’s offside.

32′ish. Ball from Vanney to Beckham on the right. Offside. Beckham does not agree and gives the ref The Look.

31′ish An unmarked Kenny Cooper again gets a shot off, but fortunately he shoots it way high.

29′ish. Donovan struts his stuff, takes a fantastic blast of a shot from yards outside the box. Sala punches it out for a corner. Corner goes nowhere.

28′ Dallas is looking more threatening. Serioux has an amazing throw — right in front of the goal. Cronin bats it away to a Dallas player, who blasts is toward goal but doesn’t connect.

25′ish Kenny Cooper is ALL by himself on the left — he’s yards in front of Michael Gavin, runs onto the ball but shoots wide to the left.

24′ish Beckham runs onto a ball from Klein (?) along the right touchline, but is offside.

22′ Okay, Gavin is on at leftback, with Randolph at left mid. It’s taken me this long to figure it out. Sorry. These are not optimal liveblog conditions. Galaxy is more or less dominating possession.

20?’ Mike Randolph just made a great play, which I didn’t see because I was typing. Somebody delivered the ball to the left of the box. Randolph ran onto it and put a shot just outside the far post. This is the Mike Randolph I expected to see in the previous game.

19′ Another gorgeous header by Beckham. Alvaro got on the end of it and headed it just to the right. Best opportunity so far.

Beckham just had a fairly nice corner that nobody got on the end of. Also, they listed Michael Gavin as the starting leftback, but Mike Randolph is on the field. I didn’t catch the midfield roster — is Randolph at midfield, with Gavin at leftback and not doing much yet? (Seriously, I can’t make out anything with the screen fuzz. Even Gavin’s hair. If it’s there.)

?? I’ve got my computers figured out at last, but no minutes on the screen. Again. This is so annoying.

Perfect weather for soccer. Whatever that means. I’m trying to get the second computer up and running so I can watch and type at the same time. Hold on.

Donovan’s playing. The game’s underway.