Toronto-Galaxy — Second Thoughts

The most important thing I learned on Sunday night: The Canadian channel does a much more watchable broadcast than ESPN. Aside from an obvious and expected pro-Toronto bias, and one of the sportscasters continually calling Quavas Kirk “Quirk” (a moniker which I came to like by the end of the game), they did exactly what I want from a soccer reporting team: report on THE GAME. No celebrity interviews. Not even one. No cutting away from play to interview players or coaches. Maybe four or five shots of David Beckham all night, each only a few seconds long. And very little Beckham speculation. (Can those of you who watched the ESPN2 broadcast say the same?) Why can’t these guys do all of our games?

Aside, from that, not a lot of bright spots from last night. Oh, wait. I just thought of one: A full 50% of our shots were on goal! That’s right! One out of two!

Oh, wait. Maybe that’s not so bright.

A few thoughts:

– Defending of set pieces looked a little better than it has recently, although the guys still make my heart stop by incomplete clears that seem to eventually go right back to opposing players in scoring position. They’re winning them in the short term, but turning them right back over to the other team.

– Perhaps the reason they’re getting a little better at defending set pieces is that they’re giving away so freakin’ many of them. Practice making perfect and all that. Eleven corner kicks! (Versus the two that Toronto gave us.) Were all of them really necessary?

– Oh, wait. When you play the vast majority of the game on your own half of the field, well, yes, you do concede corner kicks.

I could go on, but it’s depressing, so I’d rather not. On the plus side, beautifully amazing save by Ty Harden when Lombardo flicked the ball past Joe Cannon and Ty Harden dove into the net and hooked it out of the goal. Of course, we could talk about how the ball ended up getting to a point where it could get past Cannon in the first place, but let’s not spoil the moment, shall we? Just go in and watch the highlights and enjoy.

And Joe Cannon had another solid game. Man of the Match, in my opinion. Again, that whole practice-makes-perfect thing.

In our guys’ defense, they did seem to be having a hard time adjusting to the field turf. Abel Xavier in particular seemed to get a slow start and was surprisingly less than godlike in the beginning before figuring things out. Let’s hope it gets better for all the players from here on out.

Some of the officiating seemed a bit iffy and one-sided to me also, so there is that. (I did find it interesting that the Canadian commentators talked about Landon going down easy. As if he’s Carlos Ruiz or Herculez Gomez or something. What’s that all about? When you get legitimately fouled, why would you not go down?)

But the most positive part of the night was that the Galaxy got the point. So it wasn’t nearly as bad as it could have been.

Los Angeles Galaxy — Joe Cannon, Troy Roberts (Kyle Martino 47), Ty Harden, Abel Xavier, Ante Jazic, Chris Klein, Landon Donovan, Kelly Gray, Peter Vagenas, Kevin Harmse (Quavas Kirk 70), Alan Gordon (Carlos Pavon 64),
Substitutes Not Used: Edson Buddle, Steve Cronin, Gavin Glinton, Mike Randolph

Misconduct Summary: LA — Kelly Gray (caution; Pushing, Holding) 24
TOR — Carl Robinson (caution; Reckless Foul) 32
LA — Kevin Harmse (caution; Reckless Foul) 50
LA — Ante Jazic (caution; Tackle from Behind) 72
TOR — Maurice Edu (caution; Dissent) 82

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Category: 2007 Games, League Game Recaps, Team News