2008 LA Galaxy

This Week In the Galaxy features the Galaxy's away supporters in San Jose up close and personal.

Worth a look if you are on this thread!

 

Isaac's Preview (this time with permission from the author)

 

I did not know this until yesterday, but apparently the Galaxy game and the Euro2008 final are being packaged together as a 'double header' broadcast here on ESPN or ABC or whatever here in the States.

What extremes: sloppy defending for 90 minutes, then overly cautious defending for the next 90 minutes...

 

Time will tell Fitz. The Spaniards don't know the meaning of the word 'defence' and the Germans know what it means but can't remember how to do it...

 

Did you watch the Italy game?

This match will be tedious to the extreme.

 

Well yeah, but erm, sorry to tell you but Italy aren't involved in this one...

 

I think Y&P meant that the Spain/Italy match was a dour affair and that the Spain/Germany final won't be much better.

 

Yes...and I'm saying that Spain v Italy was dump because Italy tried playing anti-football and Spain were probably a little too inexperienced to know how to beat it. Unless you can see the Germans shutting up shop (I can't, their defence is a joke) I reckon the final will be pretty open.

 

Fair enough. If both teams attack to their full potential it'll be a good game. However I can see the pressure of it being a final getting to one of both sets of players and as a result the game being overly cautious.

 

Well yeah. But the whole crux of my point was that neither team knows how to play truly defensively...keep up warehouse!

 

Apologies UEA.

 

:]]

 

Now for a swift change of subject to forget this whole little 'episode'... Fitz, is the Becks factor alive and well still in MLS?

 

If you mean is he still an attendance draw, then yes.

When we went up to San Jose two weeks ago, the venue was moved from the smallish field the Earthquakes play on that seats 12,000-15,000 over to the Oakland Coliseum, home of the Oakland Raiders football team and the Oakland A's baseball team since it has a much higher capacity. The final attendance figure was about 40,000, while the Earthquakes struggle to sell out the 12k place usually. Incidentally, that struggle is the reason why teams keep moving away from San Jose. The Houston Dynamo began life as the San Jose Earthquakes and moved 2 or 3 years ago. This is the first year of the 'New" Earthquakes. Yecch. Before that there was a San Jose "Clash", which pissed me off as a huge Strummer/Clash fan.

Beckham's on field success has the Galaxy a real contender for MLS Cup, too. So far so good, I'd say.

 

KLAC AM 570 broadcasts the Galaxy games. On their webpage, there is a "Listen Live" link. I used this often last year while I was travelling during the season.

I don't know if it will play in Herts, Beds & Bucks though. Try and let me know.

KLAC AM 570

You can also check Channelsurfing.net for a live feed from the TV. It's internet quality, and frankly I'd just as soon listen to the game.

 

The good news:
It's way too early for a hangover, no one was hurt and there is still some good football to be played today.

The bad news:

Galaxy were utter crap today.

 

Jaime Moreno is still going !?!?! Good god, about as alarming as that result :dismay:

 

He's the Alan Shearer of the MLS.

 

Isaac's Preview

 

Well at least we know who Ballack would sign for should he venture stateside at the end of his illustrious career.

 

Of course. We are also clearing salary cap room for Andrei Shevchenko and Ronaldinho right now.

 

I was alluding to New England and their habit of choking in the finals.

 

Excellent...I missed it on the first pass...thanks for making me see it.

Speaking of seeing, did you see the VW van pics I posted for you in the Rookery?

 

It was an easy one to miss if you haven't been watching the Euros on BBC where Motson refers to it every few minutes.

I've strayed that far down the forum for a few days, i'll check it out.

 

We were horrible until Donovan came in at the start of the second half. We had a ton of chances, but only made one work. Carlos Ruiz played as a sub for 7 minutes...I think it was just to demonstrate to the league that he isn't hurt so he can be traded for.


Up next is a Derby! "The Honda $uper-Cla$$ico" to be exact. Whatever.

The Galaxy play Chivas USA, our renters at Victoria Street. I'd look for Beckham to have a HUGE game and for Chivas to get fighty and punchy in return. Expect a lot of goals and possibly some red cards! It is our second home game against the Goats this season. We won the first 5-2.

 

It's the biggy tomorrow...
Chivas Vs Galaxy.

Not only is it a derby match, but both teams are on 21 points in the western conference, so the winner claims 1st place from the other...

God I hope we kick the crap out of the friggin' goats.

 

Fitz I saw on Sky Sports news that LAG had agreed terms with Dominquez, an Argentinian defender in case you didn't know.

If you did, any idea if he's any good?

 

He can't be any worse than the crap we have there now. Seriously the defence is miserable. Our backline reminds me the German defenders of Berlin: the wounded, the old and the children. The only thing we got going for us in the back is a rookie named Sean Franklin, but he just sprained his knee and will be out for 2-3 weeks.

Dominguez hasn't completed his move out yet, which is sucky since we have to play the Xavier (slow, old, weak knees, error prone) with either Greg Vanney (slow, old, error prone) or Troy Roberts (slow, young, VERY error prone, like own goal scary error prone) tonight. NOT GOOD.

Dominguez is a journeyman Argentine league defender which is a step up from the rookies and casualties we have now. He played for Huracan during a title run they made in '03, so that's good experience. He has been valuable to get into and stick at a number of teams so that's positive. I saw a picture of him and geez he looks old though, but he is only 29 which is better than 33...

 

"The New England Revolution: Giving Away Championships since 2001!"

They finally won the US Open Cup last year though. Honestly people were feeling a bit sorry for them. They have a very well constructed team (unlike say the Galaxy who have ALL their eggs in the basket that is Donovan and Beckham) which has taken them to near the top year after year.

Utimately though, no...most Americans don't know there is a soccer team that plays out of Foxboro. FACT.

 

Result:

This game was not as high scoring as I had anticipated, and the players were a little cooler than I thought they'd be. The Chivas coach was ejected though. His name is Preki...does that not open you up to super easy nick naming?

We won't be having any home games until August 21st...boo.

I took a guy who had never seen a soccer game before and another guy who had never seen the Galaxy play...they were both pretty shocked and pleased with what the Riot Squad experience was like. Good times.

 

Was it a good 'derby' game ?

Incidentally i saw some MLS highlights on Goalissimo (basically a football highlights package from many leagues across the world shown at unjust hours of the morning) earlier and it included action from the defeat vs NE Revolution, it appears despite having a fair amount of pressure the Galaxy were let down by their back 4 and Mr Cronin in goal. Xavier was a mess throughout and the rest weren't much cop whilst Cronin made a dreadful blunder for the oppo's 1st goal.

The other game shown was from Houston who appear to play on Utah's "football" pitch and i was baffled from the first kick, the lines and markings are a joke to be honest, how they can play on that i don't know, whilst the surface appeared to be some sort of rubber.

 

As these Classico's go, it was meh....

You are pretty spot on about the G's back 4 and keeper. It's wide open back there, as I've posted previously. Supposedly during the transfer period which opened 2 weeks or so ago, we are to get help.

I suspect something big is in the works, and that Carlos Ruiz who saw about 25 minutes last night will get traded. He's quite valuable under the league structure as he is a 'grandfathered' Designated Player, meaning a team can have him as a DP (meaning they can pay him over the salary cap) and not use their DP slot. Traded right, he could be worth yet another DP spot...so we can finally sign Michael Ballack, or Andrei Shvchenko, or Ronaldinho. Hee hee.

It's a miserable affair playing on the Univ of Utah's pitch with a ll the football lines. It's a terrible pitch for football, and much much worse for soccer. They are however just about done building their soccer specific stadium (SSS) there in Salt Lake City, and it looks pretty good. There is hope for us yet.

 

Ah so it's RSL who play on Utah's pitch, that looks a pretty neat stadium i must say, speaking of Utah, are the Utah Jazz still in existence ?

 

How would you rate the Chivas goalie Fitz? Apparently he's on his way to Aston Villa for £2m.

 

They've been after him for a while so he must be some cop. Are there any other standout players in MLS who could make it in the Prem/Championship?