LA Galaxy 0 Seattle Sounders 0

Brian Perk completed his full debut for The Galaxy and kept a clean sheet, unfortunately, LA did not manage to get past the Seattle keeper either.

Beckham started the game on the bench and surprisingly joined the game for the last 20 minutes. The game had plenty of action, but as the score tells you... nobody managed to get themselves on the scoresheet. Angel probably came closest for LA, but also missed some good chances. Donovan had a late chance at a free-header, but managed to head the ball into Casey Kellers waiting hands. The Galaxy are still sitting on top of the conference, but have played two games more than second placed Dallas who are only two points behind.

WESTERN CONFERENCE

	Club	PTS	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD
1	LA Galaxy	36	20	9	2	9	25	15	10
2	FC Dallas	34	18	10	4	4	26	17	9
3	Seattle Sounders FC	32	20	8	4	8	25	18	7
4	Real Salt Lake	27	16	7	3	6	21	12	9
5	Colorado Rapids	23	18	5	5	8	19	21	-2
6	San Jose Earthquakes	21	16	5	5	6	22	19	3
7	Chivas USA	18	17	4	7	6	21	22	-1
8	Portland Timbers	18	16	5	8	3	19	28	-9
9	Vancouver Whitecaps	14	18	2	8	8	18	25	-7

Beckams Injury

The back spasms that David Beckham has been subject to over the last two weeks have been identified by Beckham himself as symptoms of a slight stress fracture to the spine .
Although the diagnosis may sound serious, the injury itself may be no more serious than any other type of back ailment.
“It’s a slight stress fracture in the spine. It’s the same kind of rehab as if I had a disc problem or some kind of back problem,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of rehab over the last 10 days, two weeks. It’s just about getting my core strength right so hopefully it holds up.”
How the injury came about remains a bit of a mystery with no clue as to when the fracture first occurred.
The Galaxy have been grinding out results without their star players for the last few weeks with Donovan away on international duty, Beckham has not even been involved in training until now. “I’ve been doing a lot of core work, strengthening work because obviously this type of injury, the core is the important part,” he said. “Once that’s right, hopefully it’s healed properly and then I step back in.”
Back in full training now, it's just a matter of time before he gets back on the field to contribute yet more 'assists' and maybe even the odd goal here and there.

San Jose Earthquakes 0 LA Galaxy 0

Beckham is left at home still nursing a bad back as The Galaxy head to San Jose.

Tremendous early pressure from San Jose sees at least four good scoring chances in the first five minutes of the game. A double-save from Ricketts, and the left-hand goal-post hit within the first few minutes, and LA are lucky to survive the opening onslaught.

The game settles down but after 20 minutes, Ricketts gets injured in a clash of players and Josh Saunders comes on to replace him.

After half an hour, tempers are getting frayed and the ref is handing out final warnings, the next foul is almost bound to get a yellow... meanwhile news is trickling through that suggests that Ricketts may have a serious injury to his left arm - possibly a break. Sure enough the very next foul draws a booking for Todd Dunivant - not a bad challenge, but the ref had a point to make. It takes The Galaxy 40 minutes to draw a decent save from the San Jose keeper, they really have to lift their game for the second half.

Drama in the last minute of the first half as San Jose's Lenhart illegally 'heads' the ball out of Josh Saunders grasp - Saunders goes to pick up the ball whilst fending off Lenhart with his hand - Lenhart acts like he's been punched with a knock-out punch and gets Saunders red-carded. No keepers left, so Mike Magee walks up to take the jersey and spend the rest of the game between the posts for the Galaxy. Lehnart also gets a booking for his initial illegal actions. Bruce Arena does not look at all happy and makes straight for the officials to voice his displeasure.

Magee makes an early save in the opening minutes of the second half, and looks comfortable in his new position. The bookings start early in the second half another yellow handed to an Earthquakes player in the first five minutes.

Magee stands up well to the pressure of the goalkeeping role and keeps a clean sheet in his first ever goal-keeping duty in his MLS career. A game of questionable decisions, but The Galaxy come out with a draw, which under the circumstances is probably more than they could expect.

The question remains whether the ref could have booked Saunders rather than dismissed him - my reading is that if the ball is in play, he has to be red-carded for 'violent conduct'. However in a dead-ball situation (a was foul called for Lenharts foolish action), the ref could have acted a bit more leniently and given a booking (bearing in mind that this was already the reserve 'keeper). If the ball was actually in play of course it would have been a penalty - no penalty, but the player still sent off... Sometimes sticking to the letter of the law can create undesirable situations - this one one of those... Possibly, the error was in not calling a foul quickly enough - Saunders action was petulant rather than aggressive, Lenharts reaction was laughable and in reality he could have been yellow-carded twice on the spot, once for illegally dispossessing the 'keeper, and again for 'simulation' in an effort to draw a penalty.

However, these things can go either way and it's not worth losing sleep over, at the end of the day, The Galaxy will feel they have a 'victorious' draw, The Earthquakes failed to take advantage of a game where success should have been a certainty...

Colorado 1 LA Galaxy 3

Having proved that they can live in the MLS without Landon Donovan, LA go on the prove that they don't need Beckham either, although Colorado played the final crucial 15 minutes with only 10 men on the field.

Colorado dominated from the start, but an own-goal saw them fall behind after 25 minutes, and before half-time, Juninho scored from 25 yards to make it 2-0 to the Galaxy at the break, leaving a mountain for The Rapids to climb in the second half.

Colorado pulled one back after 20 minutes of the second half, picking up a rebound from the post and giving them a glimmer of hope at 2-1, hope faded as Folan got a straight red for a bad challenge and just to top things off Chad Barrett scored with 10 minutes to go giving The Galaxy a much-needed victory to keep them at the top of the league.

Colorado are going to feel that they gave this game away, whilst The Galaxy can feel that they had quite a lucky day all in all.

Beckham reportedly suffered back spasms in the week which had not cleared up on Friday when the team were ready to travel.

LA Galaxy 2 Toronto 2

LA were pegged back from winning this game twice, by the same player - no less person than Alan Gordon returning to The Home Depot Centre as part of the Toronto team.

The Galaxy struck early with a goal for Chris Birchall in the second minute of the game. Plenty of chances came and went for both sides in the first half, but the Galaxy led 1-0 at half-time, Beckham earning himself yet another booking for a reckless tackle. Gordon joined the fray as a substitute in the closing minutes of the first half.

On 68 minutes Gordon struck his first goal, given space to head past a hapless Josh Saunders from close range. La went ahead again right on the 90 minute mark as Angel smashed a loose ball straight, low and true from around the edge of the box right into the left hand corner of the goal.

Galaxy's jubilation was short-lived as with literally 20 seconds left on the clock, Gordon picked up a headed clearance and struck it sweetly from the left side of the goal into the opposite top corner.

What this tells us is that the Galaxy's defence is still somewhat short of where it should be, however with Donovan on the road, LA are still finding chances to score and are scoring well. Beckham worked hard all the evening keeping things flowing from mid-field, the new central position suits him and gives him a lot more influence on the game.

LA Galaxy 0 DC United 0

Tonight The Galaxy were looking to extend their run of 6 unbeaten games, with four wins on the spin. For this game, Ricketts and Donovan are away on international duty, Angel is injured.

The Galaxy seem to be establishing a foothold early on in the game, they keep possession and make more attacking moves. They are missing the pace of Donovan up front, but in the early stages they look the most likely to score. Nonetheless, The Galaxy fail to make the most of their advantage in the first half, most attacking moves fizzling out to nothing. In fact DC look more dangerous in the final third than LA during the first half. The game is 0-0 at half-time, and although The Galaxy are looking the better side, there is a constant danger that DC could steal the game if the Galaxy don't find the back of the net soon.

The second half starts in a similar vein, LA failing to make any great impression on the DC goal. DC also spurn a golden chance on 62 mins, as the ball falls to DC feet in the box having bypassed the LA defence. The shot ended up in the side-netting when it should really have taken DC into the lead. On 80 minutes, DC once again fail to take a chance in front of goal whilst The Galaxy continue to plug away fruitlessly.

As the game winds down, this has been a deeply disappointing performance by the home side LA Galaxy - they will need to tighten their game up front if they are going to have any impact without Landon Donovan to call upon for the next few weeks. The Galaxy should regard themselves as fortunate to survive with their unbeaten run intact.

They have just over a week to get themselves ready for the visit of Toronto next Saturday...

New England Revolution 0 LA Galaxy 1

Beckham starts in his now customary central midfield role, occasionally popping up on the left-wing, often making a 'guest appearance' in the back four. The Galaxy started well and established a bit of a foothold in the match, but The Revolution were proving dangerous on the break on a couple of occasions. Neither keeper was troubled much in the first half although Ricketts had to run out to make amends for a short back-pass from a defender. LA hit the bar from a Beckham corner, although it bounced straight down the replay clearly showed that it didn't cross the line. The teams went in at half-time with no goals scored.

The Galaxy continue to have the edge over The Revolution in the second half, and after 24 mins a Beckham delivery from deep finds Lopez who glances the ball home with his head. Satisfying for Beckham who has just been booked for what looked to me like his first foul of the match which seems harsh.

The pressure continues and Beckham is substituted with 10 minutes to go. The Revs try hard to get back into the game, but LA look in control and manage to shut them out - the game ends 1-0 to The Galaxy, another good result on the road..