2009 L.A. Galaxy: palpably underwhelming?

2-0 down at home to DC United with 15 minutes left. something's rotten in the state of LAG.

 

that's my boy isaac.

you're amusingly ****, fitz.

 

although, having written that i checked and saw that you'd got it back to 2-2.

you're amusingly resilient, fitz.

 

Isaac's starting lineup was accurate except Lewis was out and Mike Magee was in. Last year's sometime starter for the Galaxy in the GK position Josh Wicks started for DC United...

In sum, I have lost nearly all enthusiasm for football thanks to AEG's horrible management of the Beckham opportunity, so today was a fun time if only to see old friends again.

The PK against the Galaxy was well deserved...we have a hack in the defense in Dema Kovalenko. The second DC goal was beautiful as hell.

The PK against DC was well deserved, and well taken. The equalizer was a beautiful cross, a beautiful header, but Donovan was seemingly offside...nice they let us keep it.

First half we did well to keep the play in DCU's end. The PK against the G's opened things up again.

We were lucky.

 

Aug 1st:
Galaxy vs Barcelona
No, seriously.

Omar Gonzalez And Tony Sanneh Vs Lionel Messi. EXCITING.

This is stupid as hell. I don't mind seeing the Galaxy play anyone, I don't mind seeing Barcelona play in the US, but seeing Barcelona play the wounded duck Galaxy seems idiotic. I hope no one goes and they get the message that they need to stop this glorious friendly bullcrap ASAP.

EDIT: One interesting thing about this game is that it will be held at the Rose Bowl, the LA Galaxy's first stadium, the ancestral home where most of their successful years were spent. Unfortunately those years also meant 20,000 people in a 60,000 person stadium usually. This game has a chance of being 30-40,000 attendance. The Beckham effect is wearing off badly, so the draw will be Barcelona.

 

Still 100% BECKHAM FREE this week!

 

It appears the Dynamo are set sign much maligned striker Ade Akinbiyi from Burnley, despite being cack most of the time, usually for Leicester the guy had his moments and has actually scored over 100 league goals, 3 of them coming in a stunning hat-trick against Luton which was most enjoyable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lqzQBfoOyM

Check out him missing copious amounts of chances against Liverpool, then his first goal for Leicester which took AGES to come and when it did he went mental.

Unfortunately you tube failed to come up with a video of the aforementioned hat-trick

 

Interesting...he has FAIL in MLS written all over him.

On the other hand, this kid is what MLS needs:
The Sounders' Fredy Montero vs MLS League runner-up New York

Fredy Montero's golazo vs Salt Lake (Nick Rimando the GK sucks ass, but it is still a great goal)

 

Ade's going to be a huge failure in MLS.

 

I'm glad he's going to Houston...

 

I get no say, but we need more Montero's and fewer A-Bad-Buys.


EDIT: This just in...Montero is being questioned about stalking a girl whom he is suspected of sexually assaulting..?

Link here...

It gives new meaning to chanting to him that he has the 'touch of a rapist'.

 

Too true, he can be a decent striker on his day but such days are few and far between.

 

Just saw your 'event', Fitz.

Let it go. Get behind your actual players, don't constantly chastise the ones who were too good for you and were in too bad company to shine.

It's stuff like this that makes me proud to be on Fire.

 

Is it OK if I get on the actual players we have who half assed it when they played?

As a Fire fan, how do you feel about Blanco's statements, performance and actions?

 

Oh...you are talking about our FC Lot 13 opponent for tonight's 9pm match known as "Beckham"? They probably didn't even pick their own name...I'm sure they are embarrassed it, but it's too late now.

 

Boy is my face red. Still...

As for my boy Cuauhtemoc, he's 36, the only thing he's ever done was that thing with the heels at the world cup in 98, and he's part of a minority. he can **** off.

But, how about my Canucks. having a flyer.

 

oh i see. were you trying to create a parellel between my gods-among-men and your men-among-gods?

 

If you follow FMF and Club America, Blanco is a god. He's a **** in real life. He went out of his way to insult Fire fans last season, famously dissing them as ordinary. Nice guy!

As for performance in International play, is comparing him to Beckham wise?

 

Gregg Berhalter, released from Munich 1860 last week, was acquired by the Galaxy thanks to the weird MLS "allocation" process.

Basically, The MLS League office owns all the players contracts in the league. The Galaxy happened to be at the top of the rotating list of teams for any new guys coming into the league. Galaxy has the right of first refusal. Now that we have accepted him, the Galaxy will go to the bottom of the list...and inevitably someone good healthy young and not retiring from a European league will become available and go to San Jose.

Berhalter is better than some of the lunkheads we have in defense, but the way forward does not really include old dudes retiring from Bundesliga II teams.

 

Use Google Maps Street view to see what the Home Depot Center looks like.

Here is Lot 13, where all the pre-game and post-game drinking is done, under the trees on the grass strip...

 

Awww, jeeez.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/soccer/04/07/galaxy.vieri/index.html

 

Tuesday's US Open Cup game, a 0-0 game that went to a 0-0 result in extra time, resulting in a 2-4 loss to the Colorado Rapids is talked about as being possibly the worst ever game. It was so unexcitingly boring, full of terrible passes, incomplete shots, stupid plays, poor subs, incompetent players...
Legendary in a bad way.

Next up the DARRRBY against Chivas USA. This is the one game I wish never to lose. Fortune does not smile on me nor the G's....

 

Isaac's fantastic preview:

 

The Carniceros Club

 

Chris Birchall!?

 

"Me mum"?

There's been zero buzz about this anywhere on this side of the pond.

However, I found this from the Seagulls page:
Albion boss Russell Slade today confirmed the club have received no official approach from LA Galaxy regarding midfielder Chris Birchall - and added that he does not want to lose the Trinidad & Tobago international.

Birchall has been linked with a move to the MLS side, but Slade explained, "We've had no contact from LA Galaxy, but Chris's representative has been in touch to tell us he's had a verbal offer of a one-year deal, with a club option of an extension.

"Obviously it's an attractive offer, but first and foremost I need to consider the Albion, and we need Chris here in the fight for survival.

"Chris played an important part in Tuesday night's vital win at Hereford, and it would be wrong of me and the club to let a player of his calibre depart, bearing in mind the situation we are currently in."

The US transfer window closes on 15 April, but Birchall, whose contract with Albion expires on 30 June, could still join LA Galaxy in an arrangement similar to David Beckham's deal. The former England captain will rejoin the US side from AC Milan on 15 July, when the MLS transfer window reopens, with the season running until November.

Albion chairman **** Knight added, "Chris is our most-experienced midfielder, he's an international, and we need him here.

"If we were mid-table then probably we would let Chris go. But Galaxy haven't respected our relegation battle and haven't bothered to make direct contact.
"Our transfer window is closed, so we have no opportunity to replace Chris and in our current predicament we can't afford to lose him."



God, we are idiotic.

 

Galaxy 0-0 Chivas

Donovan Ricketts played his first as a G and did well.

Again the officiating was HORRIBLE, 6 yellows in the first half...trivial little things earned cards and heinous things went either unnoticed or resulted in ref/player chats...terrible.

Chivas went down to 10 men just before the half, and then the G's went to ten and then 9 men by the 75th.

So all in all, we should be happy about a 0-0 draw with 9 men...right?

Funny thing happened post-game...here in LA, the county sheriff's helicopter get's dispatched if needed to track high speed chases or fugitives, so you see it hovering typically over the bad parts of town...it has earned the nickname 'the ghetto bird'.

Tonight, for some reason, the ghetto bird flew over the group of us hanging out in the parking lot waiting for traffic to die down so we could go home. We were just drinking beer out of the trunks of our cars and sitting chatting on the tailgates of trucks. It got everyone's attention right away, but as soon as the giant searchlight affixed to the bottom of the chopper turned on to illuminate us, people instantly started dancing and moshing together spontaneously. Like 150 of the Riot Squad...moshing to no music in the lot.

I have no idea why they lit us up, but this crowd loves the spotlight...nights like this make it worth putting up with shytt football.

 

What's going on at LAG? Have you stopped following them because they're carp?

I miss your rants on how they should be doing much better than they are and how it's all Beckham's fault.

 

Good question...I'm really low on enthusiasm these days.

They have drawn all but two games this season. They won their first game last night 1-0 agaisnt JP Angel and New York Red Bull, thanks to a PK awarded to us that typically goes against us. I didn't feel that good about it.

I am glad that the Galaxy defense has done well to minimize goals against, but we can't seem to score much.

Frankly, Beckham will help in getting the offense restarted, but so would having his entire salary back to get three to five servicable midfielders.

There is a bit more to be optimistic about, but we still pretty well suck.

 

Plastic

 

Real Salt Lake 2-2 L.A. Galaxy
34' Robbie Findley 1-0
90' 1-1 Landon Donovan
90' Will Johnson 2-1
90' 2-2 Mike Magee

WTF?

 

Let's all go to Seattle, let's all go to Seattle. Let's all go to Seattle, and moan when we come back.

 

Two pens and some catastrophic defending. Really, really bad.