FC Dallas 4 LA Galaxy 0

The last time LA came up against FC Dallas Adrian Serioux got red-carded for a foul on David Beckham and The Galaxy ran out 5-1 winners. FC Dallas took their revenge in style by thrashing The Galaxy 4-0 leaving Ruud Gullit with the huge headache of trying to recover title hopes. The Galaxy wasted the few opportunities that they had, but frankly these were few and far between anyway.

The Galaxy once again demonstrate their frailties in defence, once again the Galaxy have proved that if you can prevent them going forward, you will beat them…. Recovering from this disappointing run of games will be down to the manager and the captain being able to inspire the team to get back into winning ways. Six games now without a win is starting to look like a hugely disappointing season for LA.

MLS All-Stars 3 West Ham 2

An expectant crowd came to see how the best of the MLS would fare against EPL team West ham United who were looking to build on their success against Columbus Crew earlier in the week.
The MLS players are half way through the season and at peak fitness, West Ham are well into their pre-season training and looked sharp for an ‘off-season’ side. The West Ham team has not changed much over the Summer since finishing in the middle of the Premiership table.
The scene was set for an interesting clash even though star forward Bellamy was missing after the Columbus game left him unfit.
Both teams looked impressive from the start, with the All-stars showing good control of the midfield. Beckham started in his usual role but was seen to take a bit of a free role and occasionally pop in a more central position. The All-stars took the direct route of threading the ball through the centre with decent levels of success. West Ham seemed to be using the left wing to stage most of their attacking moves, but it was a route-one ball to Dean Ashton that opened the scoring. Ashton brought down the pass and was left one-on-one with the keeper, at that point you just knew Ashton wasn’t going to miss. One-nil to the visitors, but not for long the All-stars responded with their very next attack less than a minute later and levelled to one-all. Before the end of the second half, Blanco had made it two-one to the All-stars with a fine individual effort.
Dean Ashton added a second in the second half, and on the 70th minute, local boy De Rosario converted a penalty to give the All Stars the victory. Once again Beckham remained on the field for the full ninety and gave another sterling performance which must continue to make an impression on England Manager Capello.

A Year of Beckham

It has been one year since David Beckham joined the Los Angeles Galaxy football team in the United States.

Major League Soccer Commissioner Don Garber spoke to the BBC's Matthew Price about David Beckham's impact in the US.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/7516010.stm

New York Red Bulls 2 LA Galaxy2

Both these teams came from win-less streaks heading into this game - The Red Bulls had not won for three games, The Galaxy for four. In high temperatures and on synthetic turf, The Galaxy wore the darker blue strip for the first time this season.
The game started nervously with a lot of stray passes and scrappy play, not really helped by a referee who was not really in touch with the game at all, finding a yellow card for Klein after less than two minutes for an accidental trip. The ref continued to make bad decisions including NOT booking a Galaxy team mate for kicking a New York player in the mouth....
The game looked like it could start to turn Galaxy's way when Beckham finally started to receive some service, but neither team really established a foothold in the first fifteen minutes. On 18 mins Angel drew a fine save from Cronin, and you could be forgiven for thinking that The Red Bulls looked most likely to score. Donovan immediately responded with a great run and a pass to Ruiz who failed to win the one-on-one with the keeper. On 24 mins, Donovan broke loose again and was brought down outside the area. Beckham failed to convert and could not find a Galaxy player from the resulting corner.
Out of desperation, Beckham dropped deep to turn provider and distributor which he did very effectively finding Buddle on the left who lifted the ball into the danger area for an easy headed goal from Ruiz on 29 minutes. LA failed to take control and just five minutes later Vandenburg punished them with a long range effort taking the game to one-all.
Donovan deserves a mention for a left-foot volley that went astray, but half time saw the teams tied at one-all.
More bizarre decisions were made by the ref in the second half, I can honestly say that this ref probably made more decisions that I could not explain than ones that I could.
The second half was a series of missed chances mostly by Red Bulls as Galaxy looked like a tiring team. Ruiz missed a good chance on 50 mins as his shot was blocked. On 57, Rojas wasted a golden chance in front of goal. Beckham started popping up on the left hand side and was still appearing in defensive positions at times as he looked for the big pass.
Conway in the Red Bulls goal got himself a yellow for some unknown reason as Galaxy had a couple of corners. NY had another great chance on 68 mins which Cronin managed to get a hand to, and only 2 minutes later on the break, Angel drifted into the box, waltzed passed a defender and coolly lobbed Cronin to take the score to 2-1 to New York.
On 73 minutes Red Bulls squandered another chance in front of goal, and on 77 Ruiz was denied again by Conway. On 78 Gordon came on for Vanney, but The Galaxy struggled to have any impact on the game. In extra time however, Donovan lifted a cross into the box aimed at Buddle's head - Buddle missed it, but the ball nestled in the far corner of the net bringing a leap of joy from LA Galaxy coach Ruud Gullit and leveling the score at 2-2. All was not over though as there was one more throw of the dice in the closing seconds. Beckham lifted the ball over the box, and it fell at Donovans left foot. Donovan caught it beautifully and sent the ball screaming towards the goal only to see it hit the post, rebound and get hit over the bar more or less as the ref blew his whistle.
Frankly it would have been unfair for Galaxy to have won, it was not a pretty game, and the Red Bulls had the better of it. Thankfully the odd refereeing did not spoil the game in any significant way. Another win-less night for both teams, another captain's performance from David Beckham.

Galaxy play New York Red Bulls

Galaxy will travel to New York to play the Red Bulls on Saturday afternoon 19th July. They will be hoping to retain their position as leaders of the Western Conference with a much-needed win. It's time to dig deep and get back into a winning stride after a 4 game run without a win. Two draws and two losses have damaged their hold on the league and a fightback is overdue...

Beckham to represent MLS

In his first full season in the MLS, David Beckham has been chosen to represent the MLS All Stars when they take on West Ham on July 14th in Toronto. Beckham came second in the voting to Landon Donovan his Galaxy teammate.
Beckham has contributed five goals in fourteen games, only missing one game through international duty. The full squad has not yet been picked, but it is probable that both Beckham and Donovan will figure in the starting line up.

Galaxy 1 Chivas 1

LA Galaxy fight back from 1-0 down to tie the game at one-all. Much more than a home derby, this was the game to find out who are top dogs in the Western Conference.
It only took Chivas 15 minutes to open the scoring Razov curling an exquisite shot into the top left corner of the goal after a strong start by Chivas against a shaky looking Galaxy. After the goal, Galaxy still under pressure managed to establish a purchase on the game and began to look like more of a threat

The match became like a typical derby with few chances and some crunching tackles flying in. On the 58th minute Ruud Gullit sent on Carlos Ruiz to try to get an edge in the attack, but it wasn't until twent minutes later that Buddle got on the end of a nicely-weighted ball slid into the box to score a real strikers goal - straight under the keeper from a difficult angle, at speed and at close quarters.

The forwards of Galaxy look like they would frighten any team, not sure that you can say the same for the rest of the team as yet, this is the task that Gullit has ahead of him. Beckham put in a typical honest performance and showed why he deserves the captains armband - he pushes and pushes under pressure to get a breakthrough and the whole team can feed off his determination. Another game in which Beckham plays a full 90 minutes without showing any signs of slowing down - England take note, Beckham is not down and out yet!

Los Angeles V Chivas

Thursday 8pm kick-off (local time)
The scene is set for the second SuperClasico of the season and this game has a number of points of interest. First off, both teams will actually be playing on their homeground as they share the Home Depot Centre though Thursdays game is technically a Galaxy home match.
Last time these two teams met, Donovan scored a hat-trick in a 5-2 Galaxy win, but THIS time both teams are tied at the top of the Western Conference. Much is at stake and with LA on a recent poor run, they will be anxious to prove a point.

New England 2 Galaxy 1

A goal from David Beckham in the second half was not enough to cancel out the two goals scored by Adam Cristman of New England in the first half in a five minute spell. Both goals were from corners highlighting LA's defensive weaknesses from set-plays.
That said an evening of entertaining football was on show for all neutral spectators. New England had the better of the game in the first half putting pressure on the Galaxy goal from the onset and only Cronin's ability kept the score down to 2.... Few chances fell Galaxy's way.
The second half was a different story as Donovan took the field and allowed the Galaxy to press forward. Beckham wasted an early opportunity opting to volley a ball from too short a distance when a pass might have been more effective, naturally the captain was anxious to put things right. Beckham was to get his chance when more pressure resulted in a hastily headed clearance, Beckham raced up and tried another volley which was meant to break the net... I suspect that he didn't really catch the ball as intended, but there was enough momentum to drive the ball forward, hitting a defender and bouncing over a flailing keeper for the Galaxys opening goal.
Further pressure would not dring any more goals despite Buddle rocking the crossbar. All-in-all when you consider that this was east meeting west league leaders, the Galaxy did not disgrace themselves and may regret not starting Donovan. The score was a disppointment, defensively once again LA were suspect, but in attack they looked positive and still look like a team that will score even though they will also allow the opposition to get on the scoresheet too. Ruud Gullit will have to adopt the ' we will just have to score more goals than you' philosophy of Kevin Keegans first reign at Newcastle United if this team is to get anywhere, otherwise some investment in the back-line might be required.

New England on Friday

There is a chance that LA Galaxy may not be league leaders by the time they start their next match against the New England Revolution on Friday Real Salt Lake and the Houston Dynamo (tied in second place), play in Salt Lake City on Thursday night.
If they remain the league leaders after Thursday's game, it will be a clash of the Eastern Conference and Western Conference top teams. Salt lake and the Dynamo are two points behind, so only a draw will keep Galaxy on top.
Galaxy have made things hard for themselves in the last few games, a draw followed by a heavy defeat on Sunday and now to face the Eastern Conference league leaders may add to the pressure. Rest assured though, if there's one thing that David Beckham responds to - it's pressure.