BY ADAM SERRANO
The Los Angeles Galaxy will look to continue their hopes of the Supporters Shield on the road against the Philadelphia Union tonight. (ESPN2, 5:00PM)
The Galaxy sit two points ahead of the hard charging Real Salt Lake for the trophy. Head Coach Bruce Arena will be eager to set his line up for the playoffs as the club arrives in Philadelphia nearly at full strength. The trip to the East against the Union is the Galaxy's last road trip of the season as the club will finish their season with a pair of matches at home. Philadelphia was eliminated from postseason contention with last week's draw against the Houston Dynamo, but will now have a chance to play the role of spoiler.
The Union are led by MVP candidate Sebastien Le Toux who has 13 goals for the expansion side. Le Toux will provide a stiff test for the defensive tandem of Omar Gonzalez and AJ DeLaGarza. The diminutive DeLaGarza put in a fine performance shutting down Chivas USA forwards Alan Gordon and Justin Braun in the Galaxy's 2-1 victory in the Superclasico, but will face a new challenge in Le Toux.
Resigned to the spoiler role no that the playoffs are out of the picture for the Union, Peter Nowak's men will look to finish the season strong. After starting of the season poorly, the Union have enjoyed a run of positive form over the past month that could see them become a dangerous spoiler for the Galaxy.Philadelphia's defense has had trouble in containing speedy attackers in the past and face a stiff test from Landon Donovan and the reinvigorated Michael Stephens in the midfield.
Perhaps what is most important for the Union in the inaugural campaign has been their ability to turn PPL Park into something of a fortress. Philadelphia has only two losses in their eleven matches played at the stadium in Chester. With a firey crowd that has drawn some scrutiny from the league as of late, opponents are beginning to dread facing the Union at home. With a Supporters Shield on the line, Galaxy defender Todd Dunivant admitted after the Galaxy's victory over Chivas USA that the Galaxy will face a major test in Philadelphia.
"Le Toux is having a great season and they have a number of players like Alejandro Moreno who are dangerous and can hurt you," said Dunivant. "They're good at home too and have a very rowdy crowd."
Expect the Union to hang tough with Los Angeles, but the Galaxy will be too much for Philadelphia to handle tonight in a 2-1 victory.
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Will the Galaxy come out on top? Will the Union play spoiler?
Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
My favorite chant from the River End tonight:
Poor ol’ Davy Becks
He has to pay for sex
He buys whores, whores, whores
He likes whores, whores, whores
There was also one about Posh but it’s a little inappropriate comparably.
He did just get his green card, and said he would play for the US if called on. Wish the state dept. would expedite his citizenship though. Dude is freakin amazing. Hustles for 90+ and has silky smooth first touch ( just check out last weeks goal, or any other he has this year).
It seemed like every time the Union got to the penalty box the ran out of ideas. I saw no Union players try to go 1v1 in the box.
Yeah, that was the last game I watched too. 😀
Yeah horrible game, especially since the last game I saw was the US Open Cup.
Love it.. To be fair Donovan has looked good for 20 mins so far since the transfer window closed. Call that what you will.
If the ball had any pace it shot off Mapp, Williams gave the ball away 90% of the time. They are both poor, at least tonight.
I strongly disagree. Williams was playing well when playing one-touch stuff (and well defending Donovan and Beckham), but not-so-well in his long passing decisions.
Mapp was sending balls to nowhere, but again, his problem wasn’t his touch.
I don’t feel so bad for missing this one.
Really? Garbage? Didn’t he just have a brace to win them a game a few weeks ago? He hasn’t matched his pre-WC form, but he hasn’t been “garbage.”
That being said, he should have finished on that breakaway a minute ago…
Just started watching at the 60th minute, kinda some ugly football. Both sides just keep booting the ball down the field, hoping something happens.
Williams and Mapp are very poor. No first touch and horrible passing. Has to be frustrating for Le Toux.
Just saw the replay and agree, how was that elbow not a card?
Yeah, if only he was from the US . . .
why is it chris birchall is playing at right wing? Arena’s decisions are becoming progressively crazier.
+1
Donovan has been garbage ever since the Cup…He needs to get itogether for LA to have a chance
Le Toux is the guy USA should be looking at right now…
How is that not a yellow card? He went in high with his elbow, and made absolutely no contact with the ball.
it’s a good thing I came over to SBI. I totally forgot this match was today. whew!
GO SEATTLE!
(Seattle fan here)
GO UNION AND NEW YORK
(FCD fan here.)
Adam, how about a post on the PPL crowd’s ‘scrutiny of late’…
I’m assuming u didn’t watch the game. Gordon was clearly offsides and if it wad anybodys fault it was ricketts who shuda tipped it over the bar in the first place.
anyways, looking forward to a rout of the union. go gals!!!
Gordon was offsides when he scored that goal,so if the ref gets it right,he was shut down.offsides by a couple feet!!!The goal had nothing to do with how they played defense,because they stepped up and put him offsides.the ref didnt stop gordo…
“The diminutive DeLaGarza put in a fine performance shutting down Chivas USA forwards Alan Gordon and Justin Braun in the Galaxy’s 2-1 victory in the Superclasico, but will face a new challenge in Le Toux.”
Didn’t Alan Gordon score the goal for Chivas USA against the Galaxy? So you can’t really say that DeLaGarza shut him down…….
FYI, 5pm PDT.
GO UNION.
(RSL fan here.)