The LA Galaxy Blog

Sorry for the momentary lapse of posts! I’ve been troubleshooting some of the back-end issues I’ve been having with the blog but everything is back in full swing now.

On Saturday afternoon the Galaxy thrashed Seattle 4-0, forcing the Seattle owners into a situation in which they decided refunds for the game were worth giving out. Ouch! You know things aren’t good when you offer all of your season ticket holders a free game discount on next year’s purchase as a direct result of a poor performance. And at the same time, Arena has to know he is doing everything right. And I mean EVERYTHING.

Despite the Sounders looking dangerous before the goals opened up, the Galaxy were ultimately in control for the entirety of the match. Once again our defense has proved incredibly strong, with Omar Gonzalez mopping up any loose balls and holding a tight line for offside traps. On top of that, he netted his second career goal for the Galaxy of a wonderful unsave-able header.

Things will definitely be picking up now with Donovan getting ready to head out for the World Cup. Arena seems to be planning wisely for this given his substitution off around the 70th minute. The Galaxy continued to hold shape and I think all of the signings Arena has made are really proving worthwhile.

Edson Buddle recently shared a YouTube clip from the show ‘Sport Science’ when he was on it a year ago. In the clip, we see Edson Buddle in super slow motion glory absolutely destroying a soccer ball. According to the measurements they use, he hits the ball at about 72 mph!

The show attempts to find out ‘who has the hardest kick?’, a football player kicking a field goal or a soccer player taking a direct free kick. The premise is absolutely absurd (which hurts more? really?) but seeing Buddle do his thang in slow motion is pretty cool. Perfect form! Even a perfect 10 points from the Russian judge…

Here are 5 facts about Edson Buddle and the force of his strikes, according to scientific studies:

• Edson Buddle can kick harder than a Union Pacific 844 locomotive engine cattle-guard can crush cows
• The force of a soccer ball after an Edson Buddle kick is equal to the speed of the volcanic eruptions from Eyjafjallajokul, but twice as hot.
• Edson Buddle can kick a soccer ball so hard that it momentarily skips through time.
• The sound of Edson Buddle kicking a soccer ball is capable of silencing anyone that is trying to argue that American football is better than soccer (real football).
• Superman, although capable of stopping bullets, is unable to stop a kick from Edson Buddle.

The one and only David Beckham will be appearing on The View next week. I have no idea why. The View features four seemingly out of touch highly successful women blathering on and on while talking on top of each other. It doesn’t sound like the sort of thing Becks would be too keen on.

Apparently this is the first time Beckham will appear on a daytime talk show in the US. I don’t know what sort of work some poor analyst had to do in order to find that sort of absolutely useless factoid out.

In other Galaxy news, Todd Dunivant sat down today with Joe Tutino in the Galaxy’s Wednesday-recurring ‘Afternoon Cup of Joe‘. Dunivant was really relaxed and had a lot of insightful things to say. The more I see of him the more I like him. One thing he touched on was the fact that we have a deeper squad this season, which I think over the long haul makes it an easier task to stay at the top of the table. It’s sad that there are only 94 view of this clip! I think the MLS still has a long way to go but we as fans need to keep doing all we can to keep the spread and growth going.

The good news out of the camp this week is that Sean Franklin’s injury is only an ankle sprain, so hopefully he won’t be out for more than another week. Although… I am enjoying watching Bryan Jordan, a striker, play defense.

I’ve embedded a clip below from the Galaxy’s RAW video clip series. There are some great interviews from their training sessions.

I just finished the first cut off my new chants page. It is by no means complete, but it’s got to start somewhere. After attending several of the home games I’m starting to get a handle on the most popular chants coming from the Riot Squad. Everyone in section 136 seems to want in on the action, and I imagine the rest of the stadium feels the same. If there are chants I’ve left out, let me know.

Is it any surprise that Edson Buddle was recognized today as Player of the Week by the North American Soccer Reporters? No. No it’s not surprising it all.

The guys over at MLSTalk have a great article going over the points and counterpoints of Edson Buddle going to the World Cup. The points are dead on.

• Take him because he is red hot and scoring goals.
• Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, this could just be a fluke.
• He’s more in shape now so he should go.
• Does he compare to Altidore?
• Etc.

The one thing that they fail to mention, and I haven’t see anyone else bring up, is that Buddle has gotten himself into a fair share of scuffles. i would add that into the ‘reasons not to go’ list.

Now it’s impossible to know what these shoves and tiny little fights have been about, and who has been the instigator, but Buddle has always been involved. The one thing that can’t happen in a World Cup match with international referees is shoving matches. That sort of behavior is sure to guarantee some cards, which could hurt the team over-all.

Another more selfish reason Buddle shouldn’t go to the World Cup is that he needs to score goals for the Galaxy!

In the long run though, I’m pretty sure he’ll get the call-up. He’s the right age and he would add some more depth to the squad. What do you think?

The Galaxy beat Real Salt Lake last night 2-1 in a replay of last year’s cup match at the Home Depot Center. The Galaxy dominated most of the play, but RSL did have a number of golden opportunities that they did not capitalize on.

Once again Edson Buddle scored off of a header within the first 12 minutes from a well-placed Donovan cross. No, this is not a repeat blog post, Edson Buddle is just having one of the best starts a striker could ever have. Just like every other game this season, Buddle scored within the first 20 minutes. Buddle continued to play a great game through the entire night despite being heavily marked by Borchers and Olave, two great defenders.

Beckerman... Medusa?

It was that wild-haired midfielder Kyle Beckerman, who actually is a pretty good player, that managed a great strike from a poorly cleared ball after a corner kick. Beckerman’s low shot was well within Ricketts’ grasp, but he somehow fumbled it. It look as if the ball might have taken a skip off of a divot because Ricketts was completely in front of the ball with his hands out when it just skipped over him. Ricketts played a great game but he should have been all over this. The crowd went silent, and then the Home Depot Center was full of boos. To my dismay I could see the 20-30 RSL fans going nuts in the visitors corner. A decent turn-out for them.

So after the half the game was 1-1 and the HDC was full of excitement.

The second half was full of opportunities from both sides. RSL hit two off the post in rapid succession, but it was Buddle, beyond all belief and defying all logic, that slotted home Galaxy’s second goal in the 76th minute. After some finicky play along the right side, Juninho managed to force a great pass to Buddle, who was practically on the goal line. With a quick turn and a forceful shot, he put the ball in the back of the net past a diving Rimando. Galaxy 2, RSL 1!

There are some interesting talking points about this match:

• Bryan Jordan, a striker, subbed on for an injured Sean Franklin , a defender, in the 43rd. I’m not sure what Bruce Arena was doing there but it appears to have worked quite well.
• DeLaGarza once again did very well in pairing with Omar Gonzalez, who continues to be put on a stonewall defense.
• Michael Stephens got his first start and playing really well all match along the right flank. It is easy to see that this youngster has a lot of spunk and energy about him.

There were 20,344 people at the HDC for last night’s game, which is a pretty good turn out. That’s only 2,000 less people than the attendance at the surprise upset of Arsenal at Wigan today in the EPL! The Galaxy visit Real Salt Lake on June 9th and I’m sure all the MLS eyes will be on that match once again. If Javier Morales is back and fit for RSL it could be an entirely different match.

MLSSoccer’s LA Galaxy website has some full match video highlights up. I have to say that these ‘full match highlights’ are terrible. It’s nothing but the goals and shots that hit the posts! I don’t know how anyone could call that full match highlights… Also, those announcers are terrible. I don’t know who the guy is that just yells ‘Ohhh’ and ‘Ahhh’ but he needs to work on verbalizing his excitement rather than reacting like some sort of fan that is invested in the match.

FSC was announcing live at the game. They had their little broadcasting setup right behind the Riot Squad… terrible choice right? I don’t know that they could’ve picked a louder location, although maybe that was their idea.

On a side note, it was great to see the Angel City Brigade out in full force. There was a brief period in which they were going to be doing a silent protest in response to stadium bans on some of their members, but thankfully everyone came to their senses, the ban were lifted, and the ACB was both present and loud.

Rumor has it that Clint Mathis may get some time on the pitch this Saturday against Real Salt Lake! He apparently played in a scrimmage yesterday against Ventury County Fusion (WHO IS THAT?). That’s a good thing. Mathis will bring some valuable experience as a striker to the squad. Perhaps he will pair well with Buddle up front.

Gregg Berhalter, another cagey veteran, was also in training yesterday. Perhaps we can get the squad up to 100%, save for Beckham.

Speaking of Beckham, watch this.

Watch This

Sorry. I couldn’t resist.

Gordon Ramsay and David Beckham are close friends. So they took a Lakers game in recently. Apparently the action on the court wasn’t all that interesting, resulting in this shot of them comparing watches. Or maybe they were trying to figure out how much time was left?

PS. “The Fusion plays in the United Soccer Leagues’ semiprofessional Premier Development League, the fourth tier of American soccer.” Nice!

The LA Galaxy announced on their Facebook page:

For the Twitter folks in the crowd, our very own Tristan Bowen has taken the plunge and joined @EdsonBuddle, @bj6, @landondonovan and @donricketts and started an account for himself. Follow along @tRiStAnBoWeN

Hooray! Another player to go on my list of LA Galaxy Twitterers.

The more players on Twitter the better. Being able to interact and talk with anybody from the team creates a much better since of community than the days of yore, when athletes were unapproachable celebrities that could only be heard on radio or TV. We still have a lot of players to go! It may be time to start putting some pressure on those that are on Twitter to get the others to join…

Here’s a nice new fan-made wallpaper for all you Galaxy fanatics. Just a nice clean shot of Donovan on the pitch with the crest. I hope you enjoy!

I’m working on a couple of other wallpapers that will be released in due time. If you have any requests please let me know!

1280×720, 1280×900

1280×1024, 1360×765

1440×900, 1600×900

1680×1050, 1920×1080

What a fantastic away match! They all need go like that. I’d first like to say that Dynamo forward Luis Landin looks like he is permanently angry. Every time the camera was on him I thought he was about to go berserk and turn into the Hulk or something. Yeesh.

The first goal in the 27th minute was spectacular. Buddle took a chance at the near post from the left side and somehow found daylight. The Dynamo keeper, Pat Onstad, has no business letting that happen, and he pretty much said as much after the game. My only complaint about this goal is that it didn’t come within the first 6 minutes. Come on Buddle, are you getting lazy on us?

The game was pretty rough from the get-go and I felt like Houston had been diving and looking for cards. We were over-playing them physically while at the same time making a lot of great passing plays, so they didn’t know what else to do. It was then no surprise to see Landin take a ridiculously late swipe at Gonzalez. Although the play leading up to it was physical and frenetic, Landin completely lost his cool and deserved the red card.

Ricketts was GREAT at keeping the team cool after the red card from Landin. He was like a sheep herder keeping the flock away from trouble! It seemed like every Galaxy player wanted entry into that scuffle, so we should be thankful Ricketts has such a huge wingspan.

And who else but Buddle scored, or should I say crushed, the second goal right after the red card. All the lead up to it was a bit scrappy, the cross in was perfect. The game was pretty much over at that point right before the whistle for the second half.

The halftime interview Buddle gave was interesting. I think this sort of interview is a completely American invention as I’ve never seen it from an overseas broadcast. I was surprised he didn’t want to get into the locker room, but I guess any TV time is good TV time.

The second half was frankly pretty uninspiring. Despite being a man up and being a much better team, we completely failed to get any more goals. Buddle was subbed off, presumably for rest, but even still we should’ve scored another one (or eight).

Random Observations:

We need to get somebody else on the scoresheet instead of Buddle! I’m fine with Buddle scoring a boat load of goals, hell I hope he tops the league (check), but it is never good to have only one player on the team scoring the goals.

Our defensive line was huge this game. Houston had only 3 shots on goal, and none of those were on net… that’s right, Ricketts didn’t have to make a single save! Omar Gonzalez said (via the official LA Galaxy blog)

They really fought hard, but they really didn’t have too much offensively. I don’t think they had a shot on goal. They had some good counterattack opportunities, but other than that, I thought we played really well and held them to no shots.

It was interesting to see Arena pull a switcheroo on Sean Franklin by bringing him into the midfield. It seemed to pay off and DeLaGarza is a natural at the right back spot. He was down right tenacious.

Pitch size whaaa? Oh no it's small!

I think it’s hilarious that everyone (announcers, news reports, etc.)was  or still is talking about the small field size at Houston. It is worth mentioning once, and only once, and not more than that. Every single pitch is different in size, Houston’s just happens to be more so. I wouldn’t say that it is a significant impact on the game though because it is still an official sized soccer pitch.

And as usual you can find your MMajorLLeagueSSoccer.com (see what I did there) highlights here. The LA Galaxy specific highlights are here.

Also, I wanted to be completely 100% accurate when I said Buddle was the top goal scorer so as not to make an a$$ out of you and me. That’s when I found Yahoo Sports MLS statistics. Don’t get me wrong, I hate Yahoo like everyone else (because they buy cool sites and run them into the ground), but these stats are great and accessible. The MLS’s site doesn’t have it yet, but the old one is still there (so wroooong).

3-0-0 with no a clean sheet? Let’s go Galaxy!

Tonight the LA Galaxy play the Houston Dynamo, a team which we all know stole its name from Dynamo Kiev (est. 1927). Houston has been a pretty consistent top performer so this game will be pretty significant down the road. Although the way in which the league table works isn’t like the Premier League, every point counts so we need a win.

For Houston Cam Weaver and Brian Ching are out with injury. This means our historically problematic defense may have an easier time, although thus far this season our defense has been anything but weak. In addition, last year the Dynamo never scored against us, so we may have the number yet.

In short, I think we have this game in the bag.

Here are some links to LA Galaxy’s match preview, the differences between 2009 and 2010, and MLS Soccer.com’s preview. That’s not even all of the links from MLSSoccer.com/LA Galaxy… I can’t believe they write so many pre-game articles! Dare I say overkill?

I can not BELIEVE that this game isn’t being broadcast live! The only way you can watch it live is if you have MLS Direct Kick. It sounds like I may have to make a trip down to OB’s in Manhattan beach if I don’t want to watch the 10pm PST replay on Fox Sports West. This makes a big case for Match Day Live on MLSSoccer.com!

Let’s go Galaxy!