Good evening folks. Tonight is the big night. David Beckham and the Galaxy take on the New York Red Bulls.
A big crowd of more than 50,000 is expected for tonight’s match, a match that will be hard-pressed to live up to last year’s installment, a 5-4 thriller won by the Red Bulls.
The Red Bulls will debut new signings Jorge Rojas and Juan Pietravallo today, although only Rojas will be in the starting lineup.
I will be doing a running commentary through the match so please feel free to follow along here if you aren’t one of the 50,000 baking at Giants Stadium. If you will be watching the match, then please share your thoughts, opinions and play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the match (lineups after the jump):
————Angel————–Echeverry————–
Van Den Bergh——Rojas——————Richards
—————–Stammler—-Mendes—————-
Goldthwaite———-Boyens—————-Parke
———————–Conway————————-
BENCH– Thornton, Freeman, Leitch, Pietravallo, Ubiparipovic, Magee, Wolyniec
Yes, I know, the Echeverry inclusion is a bit of a shocker. Boyens in the middle of the three is a bit of a surprise. Also, no Juan Pietravallo in the starting lineup. Very interesting.
Share your pre-game thoughts and thoughts on the lineup below. This will be the running commentary post so check back in here throughout the evening.
The Galaxy lineup is after the jump.
Enjoy the match.
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FINAL- Bright spots for the Red Bulls include Van Den Bergh and Rojas, who showed that he can definitely pass and move, but couldn’t finish to save his life. The Jeff Parke at right back experiment looked shaky while Oscar Echeverry didn’t do much to make you think he should stick around when the time comes to cut some more players to make room for Gabriel Cichero and Diego Jimenez.
That’s it for me tonight. I’ll discuss tonight’s match more on Monday (and possibly tomorrow). Feel free to share your thoughts on tonight’s match in the comments section below.
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FINAL- Donovan’s cross turned shot from 30 yards out ties this one and Conway is left knowing he should have gotten to that ball. RED BULLS 2, GALAXY 2
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93rd minute– What a shocker. Such a heartbreaker for the Red Bulls, who outplayed LA most of the night.
DONOVAN OFF THE POST!! WOW.
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92nd minute- GOAL GALAXY. Landon Donovan with a cross that curls into the net. GALAXY 2, RED BULLS 2. Conway with a shocker.
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91st minute– Three minutes of stoppage time.
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89th minute– Juan Pietravallo set to come in and make his debut. He’s in for Van Den Bergh, who gets my vote for man of the match.
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85th minute– VDB with another blast on Cronin. Rojas has floated to the right side. And we have a RB corner.
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83rd minute– Van Den Bergh and Rojas have swapped positions. it looks like Van Den Bergh is camped out centrally, with VDB on the wing now.
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82nd minute– Van Den Bergh with a shot that forces a save and Wolyniec can’t finish. So maybe Wolyniec hasn’t looked great since he’s been out there, but at least he looks like he’s trying. And Van Den Bergh is having a great game. He loves playing against LA.
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80th minute– Is it me or has Beckham been way off tonight? His crosses have been awful. Van Den Bergh has provided better service tonight.
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79th minute– Alan Gordon has come in for Greg Vanney.
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75th minute– 46,754 is the attendance tonight.
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74th minute– Another great Red Bulls sequence cretes some chances and the Red Bulls are creating. Galaxy defense looks shaky.
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71st minute- GOAL RED BULLS. JUAN PABLO ANGEL WITH A GREAT MOVE on Chris Klein or Greg Vanney. We’ll need dental records to identify the body. And yes, it was Vanney. RED BULLS 2, GALAXY 1.
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69th minute– ROJAS with a clear header that Cronin saves. Another chance wasted and a great cross in from Van Den bergh.
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68th minute– APologies for the delay. The wireless went out in the press box.
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58th minute– Rojas with a clear shot that goes high. It was on his left foot. Not sure he’ll get a better chance than that. That one was on a platter.
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57th minute– LA with a corner.
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54th minute– Van den Bergh forces a save by Cronin. Nice shot. Red Bulls corner kick
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52nd minute– Ruiz with a nice move to create a shot but it’s stopped.
Richards with a hip injury.
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50th minute– Hunter Freeman is on for Richards. No word on the injury yet.
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49th minute– Dane Richards has been taken off the field on a stretcher. No word on the injury yet.
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47th minute– There’s Donovan again. If he ever stops passing and just runs at the Red Bulls defense, the Red Bulls will be in trouble.
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46th minute– And we’re off.
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HALFTIME- RED BULLS 1, GALAXY 1. A lot more life in the final 20 minutes of the match as both teams started to move the ball around better. The Galaxy broke down the Red Bulls defense while the Red Bulls put together a quality goal of the week candidate.
Landon Donovan looked very dangerous at times and Carlos Mendes just can’t deal with his speed. If anyone is going to score a winner tonight I think it’s Donovan.
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45th minute– Echeverry has a GIFT of a chance blocked. Angel with a great dribble and cross in. Troy Roberts with the clutch tackle.
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39th minute– DONOVAN VOLLEY just misses high. Nice idea.
And what I said before, about not having more than two goals in this match? Another jinx by yours truly. Glad to know it still works.
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37th minute– Van Den Bergh with his fifth goal of the season on a perfect low shot. Rojas with his first assist and I have a feeling Red Bulls fans are feeling pretty good about their new acquisition.
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35th minute- GOAL RED BULLS!! Dave Van Den Bergh with
the strike on a SICK pass from Jorge Rojas. WOW. Rojas with the backheel assist.
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33rd minute– Red Bulls can’t string any passes together.
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28th minute- GOAL GALAXY. RUIZ FROM BUDDLE
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26th minute- Bekcham hits the wall.
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25th minute- DANGEROUS free kick for the Galaxy. Right at the top of the arc.
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21st minute- SAVE CONWAY. Great run and pass by Donovan but Ruiz can’t beat Conway, who makes himself big and stops a weak attempt.
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19th minute- Definitely not the same buzz as a year ago.
ANGEL SHOT SAVED. Cronin with a nice shot and what a pass from Rojas.
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16th minute- Ruiz with a shot wide. It will be interesting to see how he does tonight against the team he could wind up playing for. What will be more interesting is if he flies back with the Galaxy tomorrow.
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14th minute- Not quite the goal-fest of last year. This one is going to be a grinder. I doubt there’ll be more than two goals scored today.
Still waiting for Rojas to get involved.
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8th minute- Echeverry with a decent pass. I really do wonder how much he’ll be able to move. He didn’t look good in practice earlier in the week.
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5th minute- Jon Conway has the trucker hat on to battle the sun. The sun is right in his face and any dangerous free kicks will be an adventure.
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2nd minute- Klein with a yellow for a foul on Dave Van Den Bergh. Pretty quick yellow card, but not for Baldomero Toledo.
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1st minute- And we’re off. Late arriving crowd here.
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PRE-GAME– Here is the Red Bulls starting lineup:
————Angel————–Echeverry————–
Van Den Bergh——Rojas——————Richards
—————–Stammler—-Mendes—————-
Goldthwaite———-Boyens—————-Parke
———————–Conway————————-
BENCH– Thornton, Freeman, Leitch, Pietravallo, Ubiparipovic, Magee, Wolyniec
Yes, I know, the Echeverry inclusion is a bit of a shocker. Boyens in the middle of the three is a bit of a surprise. Also, no Juan Pietravallo in the starting lineup. Very interesting.
And here is the LA Galaxy starting lineup:
———-Ruiz————-Buddle————
———Donovan——–Beckham———-
———–Pires———-Vagenas————
Jazic——Vanney—–Roberts———Klein
——————-Cronin———————-
BENCH- Wicks, Randolph, Dominguez, Allen, Franchino, Tudela, Gordon
@RickSS
You’re missing the point. Watch the film again of where he was hoping the header from Buddle was to happen: it was after a 15 yard cross that target a forward at the corner of his six. So you’re saying that his opportunity to prevent the shot from point blank at a 24 foot target is a smarter option than coming two steps forward and boxing a lofted ball into the camera side stands?
“As a keeper myself” is your way of saying your opinion is more valid than any field player here and even if you say you played minor pro at USL or overseas, you are armchair goalkeeping as well.
I was a keeper as well, you can google me and find me and I was sitting on the side the ball finished in and watched the flight of the ball uninterred.
You can’t defend all options? There are two on that ball: defend the cross first (which will always prevent any shots from happening) or defending the shot (which he tried to do and he reacted late because he anticipated a near post header that never came. He was caught leaning to his right and dove backwards (you attack at 45 degrees to make saves and cut all angles) to his left and missed a ball. Everyone will miss that ball, which means he made the wrong choice.
The team worked well with Rojas and I said he is a breath of fresh air. We will, however, only go as far as Conway’s dumbest choices allow us to go, which isn’t very.
Ives you really should look into what happen in 101 and how most passionate fans are being treated by securities.you have more power in your writing than anyone else.
I’m not saying Conway’s a great keeper, I’m simply saying he got beat because he did what he was supposed to. Personally, I thought he had a huge game and made the key saves when the D in front of him broke down. How many time’s did he stone Ruiz?
It’s easy in hindsight to say that if he played the cross as a shot he would should have stopped it. The late reaction was directly because it was cross which Buddle almost got to. He had to respect that. This was not unlike DVdB’s free kick goal against the Goats a month ago. That too was a cross that scored simply because Guzan was playing it expecting Goldthwaite to get his head on it. Sure, Conway had a (much) better chance of getting to this ball than Guzan did, but there just wasn’t enough time between Buddle missing it and the ball (barely) getting past him.
This is the kind of stuff that frustrates me as keeper. Too often people expect a keeper to be able to cover every possible outcome at the same time, which is just unrealistic. And btw, because of being a keeper myself, I’m also more critical of keepers mistakes. I just don’t think yesterday qualifies. ’nuff said about that.
I’m not saying that any of that makes the loss of the points any better, but to not acknowledge the increase in the overall level of play and what that means for the outlook on the rest of the season is overly pessimistic in my view, which kpugs claimed not to be.
@RickSS There’s a difference between being a keeper and a good keeper. He didn’t play the cross as he should, he’s 6’4″ and can’t make two steps over and get that damn ball.
As for getting my fanship revoked, doubtful. The team played well, missed some gimme goals and we tied. I didn’t say I wanted to give up, I said I was crushed with that late goal that Conway, who played well until the 93rd minute and then shows a HUGE lapse in concentration at a crucial stage (which he is known to friggin do), let in what still looks and feels like a cake save for him. I was in the corner where the ball ended up. He reacted late, there was no excuse for that goal, which is why his team looked so pissed off and deflated when it happened.
Also, saying “we should have won” doesn’t make it feel better. Not getting the two extra points isn’t really going to help in the standings.
Conway = still a bum and “as a keeper” I don’t care how many shots you stop in practice, if you can’t control your damn six yard box and 18 in a game, you’re not worth crap.
Surprised that FSC is saying that JCO’s job is on the line. He loses the best young prospect in Jozy. One of his DPs retires and the other has been out with injury for most of the year. You are still only 3 points behind the 3rd place team.
You guys got a good player in Rojas. Once he starts connecting with his teammates, he has the potential to make a bigger impact than Gallardo in DC. (Which will be easy considering he is on the injured reserves now).
It will be interesting to see the other players that JCO has found.
It was an entertaining game. I think Rojas is the key for NY moving forward.
Absolutely gutted.
We do look better.
I’d rather 1,500 people in the stadium who actually care about their team than a bunch of bandwagon ——– cheering for the other team in our stadium. Piss off. Go back under your rock and watch some ping pong EPL crap until we kick the hell out of you again next year.
I went to the game and wanted to say how much I love JPA !Total professional,runs hard, plays hard, and I PRAY that they resign him and give him a big contract ecause without him sorry to say the RED BULLS are nothing! They need one more forward desperately and how can they lose with such a short time to go! No execuse
Just the watched the highlights. It was Buddle on the cross from Landy Cakes, not Ruiz.
@kpugs & SMS. u guys need to have your fanship revoked if you’re so disappointed after tonights showing. Yes, we should have won, but we outplayed the Gals and had some good performances by several key players. Better than we have pretty much all season.
As a GK myself, I can’t blame Conway for the Donovan goal. He played the cross exactly as he should have, holding his ground for the expected Ruiz header. The fact that Ruiz didn’t get to the ball left Conway unable to react fast enough and the ball was just out of his reach. It was a great cross, and had Ruiz got to that ball, he would have had to hit Conway to not score.
All that said, we should have won it anyway. Regardless, I have to say (unlike kpugs) that I’m considerably more optimistic about the second half of the season. I just hope we can keep everyone health and the new forward is a good complement to JPA (and isn’t named Ruiz).
I pretty much agree with kpugs, this was incredibly discouraging. As a longtime supporter of Metro/RBNY, this sucked. What a crappy finish to a pretty solid, although very uneven game. We missed some total gimmes and we generally did just enough for the win…until Frankenkeeper got beaten on a total b.s. goal.
He played relatively well up to that point, so it sucks to see his less-than-consistent side rear its head in the 93 minute. That’s a total lack of focus.
BTW, I love Rojas now, so I hope he can keep up this level of performance for the remainder of the season.
As a GK myself, I can’t blame Conway for the Donovan goal. He played the cross exactly as he should have, holding his ground for the expected Ruiz header. The fact that Ruiz didn’t get to the ball left Conway unable to react fast enough and the ball was just out of his reach. It was a great cross, and had Ruiz got to that ball, he would have had to hit Conway to not score.
All that said, we should have won it anyway. Regardless, I have to say (unlike kpugs) that I’m considerably more optimistic about the second half of the season. I just hope we can keep everyone health and the new forward is a good complement to JPA (and isn’t named Ruiz).
Rojas seems to be the player I’ve been expecting since Guevara left. Hopefully Rojas will make some of those finishing opportunities. I like what I saw from him tonight. As you note, great game from van den Bergh. Conway had a great game as well except for the final minute.
Zoo were you even @ the game? Unless I had heat stroke from lack of water and singing for the full 90, I definitely saw many people in the upper deck. The lower deck and middle were sold out, upper deck had people on the tv side. Still highest attended MLS game this year not associated with another game. Regarding the team, I like Rojas, the more he gels with Angel, the more dangerous that pair will become.
**no one is arguing that MLS does NOT inflate attendance figures
haha zoo, no one is arguing that MLS inflates attendance figures. Beckham’s career is not dead and MLS is clearly not dead or dying mr. crazy
Good game, heartbreaking ending. Like Rojas, Angel looks to be back. VDB just gets better. Hopefully new defender helps.
I don’t know, I was happier than I have been in a while with Red Bull.
I think we may actually slip in to the playoffs.
—-Angel——– New Striker
VDB——–Rojas——-Richards
That’s kinda pretty decent.
If you are really disappointed with tonight, watch the TFC v San Jose game. We don’t suck.
Disclaimer: I promise you, I am not a stereotypical pessimistic sports fan. I can count the number of home games I’ve missed since this team was created on one hand.
This team has gone on to borderline pathetic. If you are taking something positive away from this draw, you most likely didn’t watch the game and most likely don’t know much about this team.
This game is the story of my life. Late lead blown, missed chances (3 of which literally should have been automatic). There we are. For the uninitiated, welcome to the world of the the lifelong MetroStars/Red Bulls supporters. We are about to become a joke (again).
Congrats to the Galaxy fans on an undeserved draw that saw Landycakes and Becksy actually ref a few plays of the games and make calls themselves. I’m sure it’s fun being a Galaxy fan right now. It is NOT fun being me right now. I am disgusted.
*YAWN* Beckham is officially washed up. LMFAO @ MLS’s BLATANT LIES on attendance. There was NO ONE on the top tier of giants stadium, and there were 30K MAX in the stadium. MLS is as DEAD as Beckhams career
Entertaining first half. Where would this team be without VDB?
And if not for bad luck, Ectcheverry would have no luck at all.
I’m so frustrated being a RBNY fan. I pray that someday they will decide to actually play their hearts out from the opening whistle to the closing whistle and actually care about the end result of the game.
Superliga…
Houston 2-0 DCU
Bobby Bowswell heads in a Brad Davis set piece from a near corner kick spot in the 28′.
DCU’s Superliga chances are shot…
noooo
DONOVAN that son of a b@#Tch DAmmmmmmmmmmit
Wolyniec, bless his heart, had a stupid giveaway that eventually led to the goal.
So if that result holds, Houston and Chivas Guad look like they’re going through
A horror from Conway.
The jinx is back.
What’d you say about Donovan Ives?
P-Vallo in for VDB who had a great game!
Superliga… if anyone cares…
Houston 1-0 DCU
Ricardo Clark scores in the 12′ off a corner kick from Brad Davis
VDB should have had quite a few assist tonight poor finishing, he deserves great credits for his play on the left tonight also
I’m fine with the lower attendance. Last year was more a novelty with Beckham’s first visit and to be honest, a lot of sports are suffering to some degree at this moment with people having less money to spend on non-essentials. Still looks like a big fun crowd
Oh No!! That last play was sumthing to watch. Very unluck to not get a goal there. Rojas is looking very, very good.
that defender was awfull ruiz wasn’t even that good on that play the defender was just out of sorts. good save by conway tho
Angel=Class
74th minute- Another… Galaxy defense looks shaky.
Shocking, just shocking.
Boyens, terrible
Dane’s hip thing better not be serious
“We’ll need dental records to identify the body.”
good job as always on the commentary, Ives. i gotta say though, while i usually think a lot of the attempts at humor are lame, that dental records line is great. good stuff.
I watched the replay of the Rojas pass and VDB shot. That’s the kinda soccer that can put me in the mood
I agree with you Rojas i s what Reyna should have been!