Galaxy 3 – 1 RBNY (Even an Angel Couldn’t Help Them!)

Hi Laurie,

I saw the piece on your page, please send over some questions and I will certainly answer them.

Dean Midas Maynard

Man, that was a game of soccer!

Well, not for the first 60 minutes, which were just horrible, especially if you area Galaxy fan. When the starting lineups were announced it was clear that NYRB was there to win and that the Galaxy was there to ... give its young players important minutes.

For long periods of time NYRB looked extremely sharp with attacks coming through midfield and then out to the wingers and back in.

If you haven't seen him in person Dane Richards can FLY down the sideline. It was a long night for Ante Jazic, I can tell you that. He was beaten like he stole something several times by Richards, who even had a one-on-one with Cronin, but Cronin totally ate Richards lunch on that one.

In fact, Cronin ate pretty much the entire spread put out for the NYRB. That man must have had about 15 saves, reminding me of Zach Wells' 14 saves from a couple of seasons ago.

I think the fact of the matter is that if not for Cronin standing on his head, NYRB would have won that game 4-0.

How bad do the Galaxy suck without Donovan? Pretty much RSL without the flair, IMHO. Their midfield is garbage without him and he proved it when he came on in teh 66th minute. All of a sudden there was space, there were runs, there were completed passes to the forwards. Lights shined down from heaven, etc, etc. etc. Seriously, Landon makes the Galaxy good. Without him they are a bunch of lead-footed buffons with first touches like chainsaws.

On the NYRB side, they were fun to watch. Seriously fun. Lots of space, lots of good passes, lots of dangerous runs and crosses. They were unlucky to catch Cronin on his career night.

Juan Pablo Angel is the real deal, ya'll. I only saw him for the 60 of so minutes he was on the field, but he was consistently dangerous and he is amazing in the air. This is going to be a problem for everyone else in MLS and ajoy for NYRB fans. As an MLS fan, it is fabulous.

Something that wasn't fabulous was the officiating. It was horrible. The two PK's were pretty much right. Pretty much everything else was crap. The 3rd LA goal was clearly offsides (Quaranta was a good 3-4 feet in front of the last defender) and you could argue Martino was off on his as well.

Kovalenko's second yellow could be justified if the ref had been consistently calling similar professional fouls as yellows as well, but not two minutes later the same open field non-tackle takedown saving a break-away was adjudged a simple foul with no yellow. Cobi's red was complete bull----, since he was tackled from behind, VDB fell on him and the ref didn't call a foul until the tangling started.

After the first 60 minutes it was great fun to be watching the game live and even before that it was impressive to see how good NYRB is and understand how could they could be as the season wears on. Of course, I was cheering for the Galaxy and loved the goals, but NYRB are going places this year, no doubt.

^^ I meant free kick, not penalty.

Jeez, I keep doing thing like this.

Sorry, I made some mistakes:
-it was Wolnyiec aka Horse Face(I think that is how you spell his name) that took the dive, and Angel that took the penalty.

-Cobi got the card for stepping on Van Den Bergh as he was stepping back to take the kick after he got knocked down by Van Den Bergh.


And Dean, you backing the Galaxy have anything to do with some dude by the name of Becks, does it? Don't worry I am OK with that.

I e-mailed Dean's agent asking for an e-mail "interview," as I too would like to know how he chooses the teams with whom he shares his affections. Alas, never heard back.

Whaddaya say, Dean? I promise to be irreverent, but I'll try not to disrespectful. (Because we need all the help we can get.)

Dean - could you lend the Chicago Fire a hand for a few games, too?

As someone who's never seen either player in person, can someone tell me who the next great U.S. player will be: Quaranta or Altidore?

Cronin was definitely the man of the match! I have said it before and I say it again, Jaqua sucks! We really need to get a real forward.

Cobi was indeed sent off for retaliation, after being taken down from behind, it seemed he might have thrown and elbow. So we were down a man until Bitchalencko took someone from behind (I can't remember who). And the Angel goal was a penalty as a result of a dive he took at the top of the box. And let me just say that Martino's goal was beautiful. A nice diving header!
Overall, the 1st and 2nd halves were pretty boring, except for the shots that Cronin saved. Once we were in extra time, the game finally got good.

Hi Laurie, great news, 3 straight wins since I backed LA Galaxy

The officiating was awful and Cobi never should have gotten sent off. Reyna should have had a card for a bad foul on Donovan. The Galaxy had so many chances but couldn't convert until the extra time where they missed a few good chances too. The best player though for the Galaxy has to be Steve Cronin. He saved us early in the game with a save from a penalty shot in the 13th minute. Jaqua played like crap, he has no speed and if he does he didn't show any of it. The players were looking for too many walk the ball over the line goals then shooting when they had time and a good shot.