Another match, another loss for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Despite the red carpet, Hollywood setting and 19 ESPN cameras the Galaxy looked pedestrian in a 1-0 loss to Chelsea in front of a packed house at the Home Depot Center. The star attraction of the night David Beckham did not debut until minute 78, but his succesor as England captain, John Terry had already sealed the match for Chelsea in the 49th minute with a laser strike that beat Joe Cannon. As usual the Galaxy looked weak going forward but outstanding efforts from Cannon and former Liverpool and Everton defender Abel Xavier frustrated Chelsea all night. Nonetheless, the Galaxy effort was decent by any standard, but once again the Galaxy failed to convert chances when the match was on the line.
In the other friendly between MLS and EPL clubs Saturday Night, Everton was fortunate to have escaped Salt Lake City with only a 2-0 loss. I just got done watching this match on Tivo (I had not realized I actually recorded it until I got home from our EPL Talk get together for the Galaxy/Chelsea match), and really believe RSL (currently last in the MLS table) could have easilyscored five or six first half goals if not for some poor finishing. Carey Talley, a classic MLS veteran and recent Galaxy castoff Robbie Findley scored the two goals for RSL. What was most impressive the almost constant assault Real Salt Lake put American International keeper Tim Howard under during the first half. This attack led by Findley, who clearly the Galaxy could use did not look like one that has scored the least goals in MLS this season.
Andy Johnson who I am a big fan of for Everton seemed to be rusty in this match, but Toffee fans should be encouraged by the play of newcomer Phil Jagielka who frustrated the RSL reserves in the 2nd half with some excellent midfield play.
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11 comments:
Big deal. Everton isn't as big a team as many claim and they are not true representatives of English football the way Chelsea is. We saw in the Chelsea- LA match how poor your MLS is, how totally lacking in quality and imagination it is. You correctly point out Xavier saved the day for the Americans as the longtime Premiership player changed a certain 7-0, or 8-0 scoreline into a respectable one. That and the blatantly biased American official.
Chelsea proved your arrogant Yank letter to the Guardian can be safely tossed into the waste bin.
Steve Sidwell is my new hero. I hope Mourhino doesnt reprimand him for playing true soccer and taking the ball from Becks. I was celebrating as he rolled around on the pitch hoping to get a call or a card.
ESPN can now take Becks out of their mouth and wipe their lips. He's not going to help the MLS, he's only going to springboard into a few more soccer-related movies in Hollywood.
Did you all know he and his wife are Scientologists? Katie Holmes with her Posh Becks haircut got more camera time than Jose Mourhino did during the game. Perhaps they could all get together with the midget (Tom Cruise) and have a prayer session for David Becks. Prayers are the only thing he has left.
Chelsea looked IMO to be a well oiled possession machine. Passing was better than their last 2 matches, and their offense is going to be lethal in the Prem.
LA played well, but then again, I surely wouldnt want to be a player er, I mean after-thought, on their roster. You play your guts out and the entire 27,000 crowd cheers for a has-been who only plays 12 minutes.
Can anyone tell me why there was 3+ minutes of stoppage time? I found that to be ridiculous! ESPN needs to be uncovered for having their money in the ref's pocket.
All right I know the the Beckham thing is overdone, he is a aging midfielder, who in his prime had his share of shortcomings.
However, he is a football/soccer superstar and in America superstars sell. The sport is secondary. Ask the NBA. The player means dollars and fan interest.
Lets not get too excited over the RSL victory Everton is just warming up.
We as soccer/football supports and fans should want Beckham and the MLS to achieve. That way all of football will win in the long run.
I can not wait for the day when we go seamlessly from great MLS action to great EPL action.
I truely believe the day is not far off when I may have to change my username to EPLNFLMLS and if the Chicago Cubs continue to win thats a real problem for me. I'll be watching taped games to 2 in the morning and I get up at 5:00am.
LA was awful. The scoreline would have been 10-nill had Mourinho not made a backhanded gentleman's agreement with AEG to keep the scoreline respectable. AEG may have made the same deal with Celtic today to throw the game versus the Fire. As for Everton, they are rubbish anyhow, so losing to an MLS side doesn't exactly surprise me.
Let me get this right anonymous. Chelsea's 1-0 "thrashing" of LA shows how poor MLS is, but RSL's 2-0 victory over Everton is meaningless because they are not as you call it "true representatives of English Football."
Your logic is as laughable as those who picked England to win the World Cup last year.
Anonymous, 12:53, you cannot be serious? 10-0? I saw Chelsea play their fair share of ugly football against inferior sides in games that DID matter last year in the EPL. Until Jose begins to use his flank players like Robben, Wright-Phillips, Cole and Malouda properly, you're going to see a lot of ugly performances from the Blues.
Well, I see everyone watched the game....seems like Becks is paying dividends already.
Scary, but ESPN and others confuse MLS with LA Galaxy. It was not Beckham's Major League Soccer debut because it wasn't a league game. It was his Galaxy debut. (In an event organized by LA so they would be in it.)
Welcome to Hollywood!
Kartik,
What you're going to see from Chelsea is second place in the EPL. I don't want to hear about ugly performances, toss that out. Who cares what kind of performance it is when a team has the same amount of success the last few years as Chelsea has had.
They dominated the game last night, outpossesed LA, and didn't even look to take the game seriously. That wasn't the case for the Galaxy, who played as hard as they could in front of the home crowd and played all their starters for nearly all of the game. 10-0 is surely a bit of an exaggeration, but it could've been 5-0 with ease, especially if Xavier and Cannon didn't stand on their heads and play outstanding soccer.
Xavier and Cannon were the two best players on the pitch. I agree with MJ, 5-0 for sure w/o those two.
I saw Salt Lake trash Everton. When is Moyes going to dump James Beattie? Looks like with Pompey, Villa, West Ham and Spurs improving Everton could be out of a UEFA cup spot next year.
Blanco showed true class today in debut for Fire. All of us America' fans love Blanco. The fraud Lalas discussed last month was on full display with Everton against Real. MLS 2 EPL 1 last night. Any answer for that Eurosnobs?
The fire with Blanco. Who can not by the way play a full game gave a very good Celtic team a good game. The match looked well played and the players seemed into the game.
After this weekend of action starting
with the All Star game and going through Salt Lake and Chicago did America?
Yes. The news is good MLS can compete against some of the worlds best. We have a long way to go, we did to get better talent from all over the world and keep homegrown talent here in the MLS and get better coaching.
Things are getting better no matter what the English press may think.
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