Not-so-live Liveblog of the Galaxy game vs. Hong Kong United

By: Laurie | March 5th, 2008

I have been frantically and desperately trying not to find out what happened in the game this morning until I can watch it myself. Although I may have seen one headline. And if so I may be happy about it. We’ll see. Hope that’s not a spoiler. (For what it’s worth, I’m not even sure the headline was about this game.)

Hong Kong United 0-3 LA Galaxy

Okay, that’s the game! Ruiz gets a hat trick! Lots of growth this game. I’m relatively happy, but it’s going to be work getting all of the young players on the same wavelength.

90 + 2 Alvaro gets a yellow for a very rough tackle. The free kick looks dangerous and hard but goes high.

90 + 1 Two minutes of stoppage time. Hong Kong had a free kick, and I think Wicks was involved, but my attention span and ability to multi-task have given out. I think it’s past my bedtime.

89′ Alvaro makes a nice charge up the middle, but his pass goes out after a deflection for a corner. I think (I was typing) it was a short corner to Franklin who delivers to Jordan who puts in a pretty aerial attempt that goes wide. Or was it high” I’m ready for the game to be over.

88′ Hong Kong drives up the right. Somebody knocks it out for a corner. (I keep hoping they’ll show these things in replay or at least name names.)

86′ Troy Roberts has to knock the ball out for a corner. Is this Hong Kong’s first? Corner’s delivered to the middle to an unmarked player and sent into the side netting. I thought that one went in.

84′ See, here we go again. Somebody just had a beautiful run down the middle past multiple defenders, and I have no idea who it was. Bryan Jordan, maybe?

82′ GOAL!!!! Ruiz for the hat trick!! Ely Allen comes up the left, delivers a throughball to Ruiz who runs onto it and knocks it past the keeper.

80′ GOAL!!!!! Carlos Ruiz! McDonald to Sean Franklin who delivers to ball to Ruiz. Quality. The ball from Franklin was perfect. Ruiz didn’t even have to stretch to knock it in.

79′ Everybody’s looking as asleep as I feel right now.

77′ I’m having a hard time writing anything. I really can’t tell who’s on the ball. I need to memorize the rookies’ numbers before the season starts. But eventually you start recognizing how they move and you don’t need numbers.

75′ Hong Kong gets a good shot, but it goes wide. Wicks probably would have saved it, but it looked dangerous.

75′ There are so many rookies on the field I am having a hard time keeping track of who’s who. Michael Gavin is the only easy one because of his hair.

74′ Ruiz gets a hug from behind, gets slowed down. Drama. But there was a foul.

73′ Wicks makes a save.

73′ McDonald is going a little more right, Vagenas more central. And we almost blew it. All of our defenders were in the box, but nobody seemed to have any idea where the ball was. In the end Gavin cleared it out.

71′ Beckham’s out, Vagenas is in. Beckham looks worn out. Vagenas looks happy to be here.

70′ Ely Allen gets a chance. He runs onto a ball but…I was typing and didn’t see what happened.

69′ Beckham is taken down and is slow to get up. We need to get him out of there. But then right away he’s there on the defense.

67′ Beckham steals the ball and sends it up the field where it’s knocked out for a throw-in. Becks throws to um…Alvaro, who loses it. Hong Kong takes it up the field, where Hong Kong gets a great opportunity, but Wicks is there. Central defense booboos set it up, but we survived.

66′ Great chance for the Galaxy. I can’t tell you who delivered the ball to Ruiz, but he runs onto it and delivers the shot — a toe poke that goes wide.

65′ Vanney heads a ball out of the box but straight to a Hong Kong player. Fortunately Wicks is there for the shot. Becks is limping. I didn’t see it, but the commentator says that he caught a foot in the turf.

64′ Our possession looks so much better this half. Another stretch of possession, but in the end we lose it in the box to one of a mass of defenders.

62′ Alvaro takes down a player from behind. Alan Gordon is out, Bryan Jordan is in. Gordon hasn’t looked 100% this half. Free kick goes high, possibly deflected off a Hong Kong head. Goal kick.

61′ Ruiz delivers a shot, but it doesn’t have any real power and the keeper stops it easily.

60′ Hong Kong gets a chance, but the defense is up to it. Unfortunately they get it right back. But then we get it back in our own thrid and send it up the field.

58′ We had a very nice string of possession there, probably twenty passes without losing the ball. In the end Sean Franklin is under pressure and knocks it out for a ~~goal~~ corner kick.

57′ The ball is moving end to end and side to side, but nothing is really happening. Many changes of possession. It’s kind of hypnotic and hard to write about.

55′ Gordon fouls just outside the Hong Kong box.

54′ Sean Franklin chases down a long ball and saves a goal kick. Now we’ve got some speed back there.

52′ Back the other way, but we lose it on a foul. Hong Kong free kick goes long to Wicks

51′ Goal kick for Wicks goes to four players without touching the ground, then Hong Kong takes it fast up the right. It’s delivered into the box and straight to Wicks.

51′ Three Galaxy guys go for the ball in the midfield. Communication will come with time, right?

48′ Allen is taken down just to the left of the box. Free kick goes straight to thehead of a defender. Allen gets it back at midfield. Beckham’s on the left again. The ball goes back and forth like a pinball between LA and Hong Kong.

47′ Josh Wicks is in, Cronin out. Troy Roberts in for Xavier. Sean Franklin in for Klein. Ruiz takes somebody out from behind.

46′ Beckham’s back for second half. Some changes apparently, but we don’t know who yet.

45 + 2 And that’s the half. We’re up 1-0.

45 + 1 GOAL!!!!!!! We finally see the Beckham to Ruiz thing!!!! Beckham charges up the right and Ruiz is right there in front of the goal. He heads it in and it’s gorgeous.

45′ Gavin throw-in straight to Hong Kong, but he eventually wins it back. There is somebody playing on the right that I’m just not immiately recognizing up front. Isn’t that weird? Is it Alan Gordon?

44′ Another long shot for Hong Kong, but it goes wide. Then there’s almost immediatelly more pressure on the defense. Vanney has to chase down the ball to prevent a corner.

43′ Allen takes a shot from just outside the box. It’s hard but goes high.

42′ McDonald delivers a nice ball to Allen … and I just got distracted by play on the field and forgot what I just saw. sorry. Something to do with allen and Gavin and no goal.

40′ Ruiz gets knocked down at midfield from behind, Cordeiro gets yellow.

39′ Klein delivers a nice cross to Alan Gordon. The keeper is out, but Gordon can’t reach it. On the corner Gordon goes up and gets punched in the head by the keeper as he punches the ball out. He’s on the ground now and looking dazed. The keeper also took out one of his own players.

37′ Beckham’s on the left side. Alvaro to Allen who delivers a long ball from the left into the box. If it was a cross, there was nobody there. If it was a shot it was wide.

36′ Another foul for Ruiz. Short kick by Beckham trying to shake things up. It doesn’t work.

35′ Good opportunity for the Galaxy. Gavin in the box but can’t get the shot off. Sends it back to McDonald who delivers it to Ruiz, who heads it high.

34′ There is absolutely no flow to this game on either side. It’s not horrible, but it’s not sexy football, either.

33′ Another Xavier moment, where he’s the only defender in the box. He’s up to it and delivers a nice tackle, knocking the ball away.

33′ And down at the other end, Hong Kong delivers a very nice cross which is headed high and goes just over the crossbar, bouncing off the top of the net.

32′ Free kick goes straight into the wall. Alvaro takes the follow-up kick good chance, but it goes high.

30′ Ruiz is taken down and goes hard just outside the box. Hmmm… He goes down and rolls a bit more than is absolutely necessary, but we get the free kick in great position. Becks protests the position of the wall.

29′ Gavin makes a nice overlapping run, Allen delivers the ball to him in the box, but he cuts back and hesitates a bit too long and gets the ball stripped away.

28′ Free kick for Beckham. The crowd goes insane. The ball is on target but nobody is there. Then somebody from the midfield sends a long ball forward to Ruiz, but it’s too hard and goes out for a goal kick.

26′ I was away for a sec and apparently missed Xavier to someething good. We move the ball down the field again, but…um… I didn’t see what happened.

25′ Alvaro gives up the ball in the midfield, but Hong Kong doesn’t control and Cronin gets it again.

24′ Beckham delivers a nice ball directly in front of the goal, but the keeper fists it away.

23′ A lot of pressure on our defense as we play keep away, eventually sending it back to Cronin. He sends it forward but we lose it again. Fortunately the Hong Kong player is way offside.

21′ Xavier keeps ending up the last player in front of Cronin. Not good. At the other end of the field we get some play in the box, but it goes out for a Galaxy throw-in. It goes across to Klein, who delivers a good ball to Allen,but he heads it high.

19′ Somebody — Gordon? — the ball from the right to Ruiz, but he goes flying.

18′ Hong Kong is dominating possession again. We keep losing it in the midfield.

17′ Hong Kong is really good at chipping the ball over defenders and then running past them to beat them to the ball. They’ve got our back line’s number. Yet no real threats on goal yet.

16′ Vanney comes in hard from behind and takes down a player for a free kick. Gavin gets to it first and backpasses to Cronin.

15′ Backpass to Cronin, longball from Alvaro down the middle, but Hong Kong gets to it first.

14′ Another long ball for Hong Kong delivered with Beckham-like precision, but fortunately Cronin gets there first.

14′ Klein is the only defender playing decently. He handles another ball that would otherwise have been dangerous.

13′ Ruiz gets the ball right in front of the goal, beats the keeper and gets called offside. Very iffy call.

12′ Beckham gives the ball away and Hong Kong takes it up the field. Vanney knocks it away but Hong Kong gets it back and shoots straight to Cronin.

10′ Free kick for Shanghai maybe ten yards out of the box for a shove from behind from McDonald. The free kick looks dangerous but goes wide.

9′ Spoke too soon. Hong Kong delivers a longball to a player and nobody’s there Cronin has to come out. Then the same thing happens again and Chris Klein charges across the field to clear it. We need a speedy central defender bad.

8′ So far the long balls aren’t coming from Beckham, and they’re not looking too bad. Our first couple of minutes sucked, but we’re finding a rhythm now.

7′ Klein delivers a beautiful long cross from the right side. The keeper comes out and misses it entirely, but there is no Galaxy player close enough to convert. On the next play Ruiz fires from distance and it goes just wide. That looked promising.

6′ Beckham touches the ball and the crowd goes wild.

5′ Yellow to Alan Gordon for a rather nasty knee-high studs-up tackle. The hong Kong player is carried off the field and looks in pain.

4′ Do these jerseys look darker to anybody else? As in…green? Nnice play up the left. McDonald to Gavin to Allen to Ruiz, but not quite there.

3′ Gavin gives the ball away in the final third, but Cronin charges off his line and dives for it. Nothing like a defense that sucks to make a good goalkeeper.

2′ another long shot. Hong Kong striker breaks through, but there’s nobody there so he takes a long shot that doesn’t have much behind it. Cronin clears it away easily.

1′ Hong Kong gets off a long, high shot that Cronin grabs just under and outside the crossbar.

1′ Turnout is better than all of the previous games. And we’re off

Galaxy commercial on right now. If you just watch the highlights, you’d think we were pretty good last year.

lineup says
Cronin,
Klein, Xavier, Vanney, Gavin
Beckham, Alvaro, McDonald, Gordon,
Ruiz, Allen

although I think it’s 4-4-1-2 again, with Gordon behind Ruiz and Allen today.

Anyhoo. Even though the game is not technically live, I am. Which makes it officially a live blog. Right?

Okay, my computer is saying 7:59, so it should be any minute. And here we are. “Combined all-star side from China and Hong Kong.”

I’ll be here at 8:00 PST tonight. (And yes, I have doublechecked my times this time.) If you’re hanging out with the Fox Soccer Channel, stop by here and leave comments.