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Red Bulls at Los Angeles Galaxy: Running Commentary

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Good evening folks. Apologies for the late start to the running commentary. Let’s get it started.

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FINAL- The Red Bulls move to 3-1-2 on the season, with a four-match unbeaten streak heading into next week’s meeting with Kansas City.

That’s all for tonight. Share your thoughts on the match in the comments section below. Thanks for following along here and have a good night and Happy Mother’s Day tomorrow.

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FINAL- Red Bulls 2, Galaxy 1. What a win by the Red Bulls, playing without central midfielders Claudio Reyna and Seth Stammler. They defended extremely well, limited Beckham and Donovan and made the most of the few chances that did come.

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94th minute- Final seconds for LA here.

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93rd minute- The Galaxy is struggling to find a good chance in these final seconds despite plenty of possession.

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91st minute- Silly foul by Altidore, giving LA another free kick from long range. Kick is cleared away by Angel.

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89th minute- Galaxy with a very dangerous free kick from the right flank. Cleared out of danger by the Red Bulls.

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88th minute- Wow, what a crafty play by Beckham. Van Den Bergh goes to kick a ball away from behind Beckham and Beckham grabs his leg and brings them both to ground, drawing a free kick.

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87th minute- A great piece of defending by Sassano on Beckham.

And nice job by Steve Cangielosi to try and jinx the Red Bulls with the stat that the Red Bulls are the only team in MLS not to allow a goal in the final 15 minutes of a match.

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86th minute- The Galaxy has brought in a forward named Bryan Jordan. if there were every a player who merited the "Who Are Ya" chant, Jordan is that player.

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84th minute- Conway with a great stop on Randolph, showing some bravery to run out and make himself big on that stop. A great night by Conway tonight.

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83rd minute- Great work by Richards tonight, making the most of his first extended action of the year.

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82nd minute- Wolyniec in for Richards.

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81st minute- What we are seeing now is the Angel-Altidore-Richards attacking trio that Juan Carlos Osorio has been desperate to put on the field together. That trio looks pretty good working together.

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81st minute- Conway with a save on a Randolph shot.

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80th minute- What a nice pass by Richards on the goal, who looks very comfortable on the left flank, which is a move I have been saying would wind up happening.

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79th minute- GOAL RED BULLS. Juan Pablo Angel WITH the GO-AHEAD GOAL. Great pass by Dane Richards and Angel makes a great run, touch and finish. Red Bulls 2, Galaxy 1.

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77th minute- GOAL GALAXY. Alan Gordon with the equalizer on what started out as a harmless play from the left flank. Nice turn and shot by Gordon. Parke was a bit too lax on that one. Galaxy 1, Red Bulls 1.

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76th minute- The Red Bulls are in the same formation they used to such great effect against Toronto last week. Keeping things compact in central midfield.

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75th minute- Galaxy gets a free kick after Goldthwaite fouls Donovan and gets a yellow card.

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74th minute- Looks like Dane Richards has slid into the left forward role in what is basically a 4-3-3 with Angel up top and Altidore as a right forward.

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73rd minute- ANGEL shot saved by Cronin. A great look and good shot on goal by Angel. Nice save.

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72nd minute- Bad corner by Beckham. His free kicks and corner do tend to worsen late in tough matches. Fatigue plays its part.

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70th minute- Great slide tackle by Jeff Parke to stop Donovan from doing something from close range. LA corner.

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69th minute- The game is getting VERY physical right now. I do have to say that Mendes looks VERY uncomfortable in open space. He can break things up but when he has to defend in the open field he will have problems.

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67th minute- That has to be a yellow card on Beckham. What is the beef between Beckham and Van Den Bergh? This is an interesting subplot.

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67th minute- Very nice idea by Luke Sassano on an attempted through ball to Angel.

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66th minute- Where’s Mike Magee?

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64th minute- Wow, Beckham in a great position with a clear look from the right flank, but his cross is way off. The Red Bulls dodged one there.

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63rd minute- Looks like Carlos Mendes is in a defensive midfield role, with Van Den Bergh sliding out wide.

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61st minute- Angel with a decent look but can’t get good enough shot on Cronin with his weaker left foot.

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59th minute- Wow, Beckham gets a way with a cheeky moment, hitting Goldthwaite in the head with the ball. Dangerous free kick for LA. but Conway has a good punch to clear it.

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58th minute- Mendes in for Borman

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57th minute- If Carlos Mendes is coming into this game I think you’ll see Freeman pushed into the midfield.

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56th minute- One Red Bulls player who can hold the ball is Van Den Bergh, but he’s too busy defending Beckham to do that.

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55th minute- The Red Bulls need somebody who can keep the ball and none of the midfielders are showing an ability to do that.

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50th minute- Good no-call by the ref on that alleged foul on Vanney. No way that’s a penalty.

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49th minute- It’s clear that the Red Bulls are content with letting Franchino and McDonald have as much of the ball as they want.

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48th minute- Galaxy corner kick.

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47th minute- No subs for either team.

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46th minute- And we’re back.

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HALFTIME- So what adjustments should we expect from the Galaxy? Look for Beckham to attack more from the flanks, rather than central, where the Red Bulls have done well to get in his way. Also, Donovan is the one player who can truly trouble Red Bulls defenders so look for him to drop back to get more of the ball.

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HALFTIME- Just saw the replay of Borman’s goal celebration. You have to give him credit for still trying to pull off the Cuauhtemoc Blanco celebration AFTER the failed cartwheel.

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HALFTIME- Did anyone else see Abel Xavier warming up? Ruud Gullit is a smart man and I can’t imagine he’ll let Xavier anywhere near the field tonight (that sound you hear is Jozy Altidore and Juan Pablo Angel shedding a tear).

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HALFTIME- Who is asking these David Beckham questions? Zzzzzzzzzzzzz.

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HALFTIME- Some good work by David Beckham, Mike Magee and Luke Sassano in central midfield and really the whole team has done well. It helps that the Galaxy seems incapable of high-pressure defending anywhere on the field.

I think Osorio will have to consider sitting Dane Richards in the second half, moving Hunter Freeman to right mid and bringing in Chris Leitch at right back.

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HALFTIME- Red Bulls 1, Galaxy 0. I have to say that while this Red Bulls lineup is a make-shift group, it is certainly playing the right team. LA’s central midfield is pretty weak after Beckham and Juan Carlos Osorio has done a good job of making stopping Beckham the priority. Unless someone else on LA steps up in the attack, the Red Bulls will be content to shadow Beckham and Donovan all night.

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45th minute- Look at Jeff Parke dribbling through the middle of the field like Franz Beckenbauer (okay, maybe not).

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45th minute- Some great team defending by the Red Bulls so far and the Galaxy hasn’t created much so far.

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44th minute- Gordon with a free header off a Beckham corner. The Red Bulls need to defend better on those plays because most players would bury that chance.

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43rd minute- Hunter Freeman has had a pretty good game tonight (except for that unforced turnover in the middle of the field that led to an LA corner.)

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40th minute- Jon Conway didn’t know much about that Beckham free kick and the Red Bulls are lucky it didn’t find an LA player in the area.

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40th minute- Van Den Bergh gets a yellow card for a foul on David Beckham. I would love to see that replay.

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38th minute- The ugly tackles by the Galaxy are getting out of hand. Another yellow, this one for Mike Randolph for a hack on Borman.

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36th minute- And there’s Goldthwaite with great defense on Donovan.

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35th minute- The Red Bulls get lucky that the Galaxy can’t convert a stolen pass into a goal.

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34th minute- You could argue that the Red Bulls defense is well-suited to stop the Galaxy attack because Jeff Parke and Kevin Goldthwaite are so good in the air and well-suited to stop the Galaxy’s steady stream of crosses.

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33rd minute- One thing is clear about the LA defense. It gives up way too much space and I can’t imagine how Angel and Altidore won’t combine for a goal tonight. LA makes Toronto FC’s defense look like Manchester United’s by comparison.

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32nd minute- The Galaxy look a bit lost in the attack and I have to say I’m impressed with what the Red Bulls central midfield has been able to do tonight.

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30th minute- Richards is definitely laboring and looks a step slow out there, but the Red Bulls don’t really have other options so he’ll have to do, at least for the first half.

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28th minute- I can’t help but wonder how long Dane Richards will last considering the abuse he’s taking tonight.

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26th minute- Galaxy with a corner kick. These are dangerous for LA, with Donovan taking. Nice punched away by Jon Conway.

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23rd minute– Sean Franklin with an ugly foul on Juan Pablo Angel and gets a yellow card for his trouble.

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22nd minute– What a great turn and shoot by Altidore to set that goal up.

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21st minute- GOAL RED BULLS. Danleigh Borman finishes off a rebound after Altidore turned on one in the area and had his shot saved by Cronin. Great finish by the rookie.

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19th minute- Interesting no-call on what looked like a foul on Altidore in the penalty area. I think the ref missed one there.

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18th minute- Good work from the Red Bulls defense so far in this one. LA hasn’t done much.

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17th minute– Wow, great play by Dane Richards, who puts a turnover in Jozy Altidore’s path but Altidore couldn’t put a shot on goal.

Comments

  1. The one positive for NYRB is the defending in the box. Considering the barrage of chances the Galaxy had, the back line held up well.

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  2. “great piece of defending by Sassano on Beckham”

    uh, he was beat to the ball, almost beaten again, got the ball, and then he got the ball taken away, and a very weak foul call to cover his but.

    Reply
  3. Fun game, LA has a great offense. Their defense is worst in MLS, they should trade for some of Chicago’s defensive riches. Too bad they have nothing to trade for besides their big 3.

    Also, Conway is a beast.

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  4. Great save by Conway!

    And has Donovan given up on actually trying to play soccer tonight in favor of trying to earn a penalty kick?

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  5. Angel!!!!

    Great run, his first goal of the season. I was juts about to turn the game off in disgust when that happened.

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  6. Steve, the Red Bulls were content to defend late in the first half but it’s more a question of letting Franchino and McDonald knock it around because they don’t fear either of them rather than domination. One problem for the Red Bulls is there is nobody on the field who can keep the ball, which is where they definitely miss Reyna tonight.

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  7. @Steve B

    No DOUBT that was the WORST goal celebration this season. LoL. We’ll forgive him b/c it was his first mls goal, which obviously makes it his first goal celebration. Better luck next time?

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  8. Ives, I have to disagree. The Galaxy have been dominating the midfield the last 15 minutes of play. Its just a matter of time before LA scores another goal or two, and the deciding factor will be whether or not Altidore or JPA can shake the funk and convert. Good game so far.

    Also, that goal celebration sucked.

    Reply
  9. Anyone listening to Alexi sputtering his “jewel of the mls” garbage? No, he didn’t say those words, but that sentament lingers when he talks about his team being entertainers foremost. garbage.

    This game has been strange: entertaining and sometimes fun to watch while simultaneously cringe-worthy due to tackles, level of skill and officiating. Can a game be more bi-polar?

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  10. Defending in this match is pretty atrocious all around. The officiating pretty awful as well but it is MLS. New York’s strike partnership is excellent by the league’s standard, but has not had nearly enough of the ball. Altidore in particular has looked very strong in the hold up play, but hesitated when he had chances to strike.

    On the other hand, Beckham and Donovan have looked dangerous from different perspectives, but haven’t been working in conjunction yet. The three way interplay between the two stars and Klein will be good for a goal in the second half, if New York continues to make poor decisions in the midfield with the ball. Overall, I imagine both managers will be fairly happy.

    Reply
  11. Agreed on the Beckham comment. He sticks out like a sore thumb due to the disparity in class. I’d also love to see JPA try to finish off Beckham’s crosses instead of Gordon. It’d be 6-1 Gals right now.

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  12. Beckham is SO much better than anybody else on the field. It’s not even close.

    I have not been too impressed with Altidore so far.

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  13. Altidore is playing great? He has lost EVERY SINGLE BALL he’s touched today, with the exception of that shot before Borman’s goal. I don’t get the blind obsession with this guy.

    Also, Borman = Richards = Randolph = same shitty player.

    Freeman is solid. Lower half of the EPL pickup in the near future.

    Reply
  14. I am impressed by the Bulls w/o Reyna and Stammy… they look lik e at eam playing for each other.. hope they can hold the line in the 2nd half! Angel looks like he is hurting..

    Reply
  15. man i still can’t get the chant ‘the red bulls are shite’ out of my head since i was at the TFC v Energy Beverage the other week.

    Reply

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