The New York Red Bulls take on David Beckham and the Los Angeles Galaxy tonight at Giants Stadium. The English superstar is set to play his first game for the Galaxy this season, which might explain the larger than usual crowd tonight (though not the usual crowd for a Beckham game).
The Red Bulls will be looking to end their own miserable winless streak and has the strongest lineup they've fielded in months. Mac Kandji is back in the lineup, as are Albert Celades and Alfredo Pacheco.
Will that be enough to stop a streaking Galaxy team that is welcoming back Beckham and Landon Donovan.
I will be providing commentary throughout the night so please feel free to follow along here. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts, opinions and some play-by-play in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action.
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FINAL– Galaxy 3, Red Bulls 1. The Galaxy streak continues. The Red Bulls misery continues. David Beckham makes his return, but Donovan reminds us that it's his team.
That's all for me tonight. Feel free to share your thoughts on the match in the comments section below.
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90th minute– PENALTY. LA with a handball.
SAVED BY RICKETTS!!!!!!!!! Angel has his PK saved. Figures, doesn't it?
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89th minute– Galaxy 3, Red Bulls 1. I suppose the Red Bulls can say they won the second half.
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88th minute– How does the referee not play advantage there? John Wolyniec was just robbed of a goal.
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87th minute- GOAL RED BULLS! Juan Pablo Angel converts the penalty. Weird call. An LA handball is called even though the ball fell to Wolyniec, who buried it into an open net.
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85th minute– Chris Klein is in for Eddie Lewis.
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84th minute– So the early score in the Donovan vs. Beckham competition? Donovan 1, Beckham 0.
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80th minute– Tonight's attendance: 23,238. The Beckham Effect is officially dead (okay, so maybe not totally dead, but dead-ish).
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79th minute– John Wolyniec comes in for Mac Kandji. Red Bulls fans are thinking, "At least he didn't get hurt."
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76th minute– John Wolyniec is ready to come into the game. Get ready for 3-1 (okay, I'm kidding).
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74th minute– Mike Magee is in for Eskandarian. Odds that Magee scores against his former team? 6-1.
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72nd minute- Birchall with some nice passes. That acquisition is going to wind up being a very good one.
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70th minute– David Beckham leaves the match, Chris Birchall comes in. Nice chorus of boos for Beckham. Sinisa Ubiparipovic has come in for Zimmerman.
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69th minute– I'm sitting next to "The Beckham Experiment" author Grant Wahl, who has avoided assassination attempts by David Beckham's people (kidding).
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67th minute– Edson Buddle with a blast that Cepero saves (more like has go right at him).
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66th minute– Zimmerman has moved over the the left flank for the Red Bulls. He's one of the few bright spots this season, a real promising player in a sea of disappointment.
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61st minute– Richards for Celades, who was largely invisible today. I have a feeling the Spaniard is wishing he had just retired instead of signing in MLS.
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60th minute– Celades with a soft header right at Ricketts.
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58th minute– Can LA be considered a legit title contender? Once you're in the playoffs anything is possible and any team with Donovan and Beckham on it is going to have a chance in the MLS playoff format. Check that, any team with Donovan, Beckham and Donovan Ricketts is going to have a chance.
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57th minute– Angel tries to beat two defenders near the line but watches it go out of bounds. He has to be miserable.
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55th minute– Dane Richards is coming into the match (insert Facebook joke here).
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52nd minute– Some Red Bulls fans with a sign that reads "We Deserve Better." It should read, "Nobody Deserves This."
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49th minute– It's time to start talking about LA and this recent winning streak. The playoffs are looking pretty good for Bruce Arena's squad these days.
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48th minute– Could this be Cepero's last game as starter? You have to wonder when Bouna Coundoul gets the start.
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47th minute– Here comes a Beckham free kick from long distance.
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46th minute– And we're back. No subs.
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HALFTIME– Donovan with a goal and assist tonight, not bad for someone who took the red-eye hear and got to Jersey in the morning. Maybe he should fly in the day of the game more often (well, then gain, maybe that only works against teams that are the worst in MLS).
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HALFTIME– LA isn't playing amazingly, but when they've gotten looks they've buried them. The Red Bulls have been awful at closing down shooters and while they have moved the ball around in stretches, and have had some very clear looks, they don't have a single goal to show for it.
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HALFTIME– The crowd here is booing Beckham every time he touches the ball. Not sure I get the logic when so many of these people are basically here because of Beckham. If you come out to a game just to boo a player then you're pretty hardcore.
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HALFTIME– Galaxy 3, Red Bulls 0. If the Red Bulls were a horse, someone would shoot it.
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45th minute– Another goal in the last minute of a half. Seriously? Can all 11 Red Bulls just stand in the net for the last minute of each half?
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45th minute- GOAL GALAXY!!! And it's Eddie Lewis with the blast, off a great pass from Donovan. Galaxy 3, Red Bulls 0.
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42nd minute– SAVE RICKETTS. TWICE. Rojas had a look at the whole goal but still has his shot stopped by Donovan Ricketts. Stammler with the first blast in that sequence.
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39th minute– Petke with a great tackle on Donovan, who just torched Pacheco.
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38th minute– THis game is in dire need of some drinking games.
Berhalter harsh tackles
Angel missed chances
Rojas turnovers
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34th minute– Beckham hits the wall with his shot. Here comes LA with a corner.
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34th minute– Beckham has a free kick from 33 yards out.
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32nd minute– Nothing Cepero or the back-line could do on that one either. The Red Bulls central midfield has to close LA down in the space on front of the box.
To be fair, it's been to extremely well-taken shots by LA.
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31st minute- GOAL GALAXY!!!!! Landon Donovan with a long-range blast. He crushes one from 30. Galaxy 2, Red Bulls 0.
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28th minute– Another long free kick from the right flank. Beckham plays it short to Donovan. They combine, but nothing comes of the sequence.
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27th minute– Beckham with a free kick from 45, dangerous. It's cleared away.
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25th minute– Rojas rolls his ankle and is receiving treatment on the sidelines.
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24th minute– Who gets torched for a goal first, Alfredo Pacheco or any other Red Bull?
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20th minute– Angel free kick is deflected for a corner. The corner is headed wide by Sassano.
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18th minute– Galaxy is known for sitting on one-goal leads, but with Beckham and Donovan on the field you have to think they'll keep attacking.
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14th minute– Red Bulls knocking on the door but can't make the final pass. Zimmerman and Kandji showing some early flashes.
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13th minute– For those who were asking, no, Posh Spice did NOT since the national anthem.
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11th minute– Who will step up for the Red Bulls tonight?
Beckham getting booed with every touch.
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10th minute– Donovan completes his first pass to Beckham. Nothing happens.
Berhalter just takes out Kandji, leading to a Kandji flip in the air. He gets a yellow.
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8th minute– Angel forces a save from Ricketts, earning a corner. Angel's the only attacking Red Bull showing anything early.
Corner is ruled out of bounds.
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7th minute– For those of you wondering, Landon Donovan arrived in New Jersey this morning after taking a red-eye flight from Los Angeles last night. He stayed in LA to attend the ESPY Awards.
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4th minute– Red Bulls are definitely regretting not trading for Eskandarian right now. Albert Celades lets him get by him. Not his finest moment. Eskandarian blasts a left-footer from 25 yards out. Someone should have told Celades not to give Eskandarian his left.
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3rd minute- GOAL GALAXY!!! and it's Alecko Eskandarian with the finish. WOW. Left-footed blast.
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2nd minute– Beckham lining up centrally, with Donovan on the right flank.
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1st minute– And we're off.
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PRE-GAME- The crowd is starting to fill out. Not a bad crowd for a mid-week game.
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PRE-GAME– Here is the Galaxy's lineup:
————Buddle———-Eskandarian————
———————–Donovan———————
Lewis—————————————-Beckham
———————Miglioranzi———————–
Dunivant—-Berhalter—Gonzalez—–De La Garza
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PRE-GAME– If the Red Bulls are going to snap their losing streak, they have the lineup to do it (or at least as good a lineup as they could hope for). Here it is:
———-Angel———-Kandji————–
Rojas——Stammler—–Celades—-Zimmerman
Pacheco——Petke——Sassano——–Hall
——————–Cepero————————
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PRE-GAME– Not the biggest crowd tonight, looks like 25K to 30K. Pretty disappointing for a Beckham game (though many of these fans are Beckham fans).
I have a serious question for Red Bull fans:
Why do you all think next year will be so different? I have read countless comments saying “can’t wait for 2010 and the new stadium!”
WHY? Can the stadium score goals and defend? Can it implant heart in the team? Can it make the FO bring in some actual quality?
Someone, please answer me with a serious response. I am really curious. It seems like you all assume all your problems will be solved when you have a new stadium. Yea, it will look great, but how exactly will it help the on-field product?
Yeah sounds like the beckham effect is dying…not completely dead. In a way I think he did that to himself by going on Loan and sounding like he didn’t want to be here. Way too much hype. This red bulls team was awful.
Any chance they just let Angel run the team at this point. Couldn’t do much worse, I don’t think.
Sullivan just made a comment about how if JPA had gone to a place like DC United, he’d be scoring a lot more.
That’s like adding a giant f*ck you to injury for the Pink Cow supporters.
This would happen in a NY-LA game.
Did the ref give a card on that? If he calls it a hand ball how is it not a red?
you were right about Wolyniec coming in and it going 3-1 though Ives hahahaha!
idk if the beckham effect is exactly dead, nowhere near the 5-4 fireworks of yesteryear and the other games here, but 23,238= dead?
What’s the avg. attendance this yr at Giants stadium minus this game?
This match is the equivalent of those NBA combine drills where a player posts up against a chair. No need to guess who the chair is.
Ives, how many people showed up tonight?
ya hall and zimmerman are real bright spots…are you kidding how can anyone on a team losing so much not doing anything in the attack (zimmerman) and giving up three goals defensively? Makes no sense!
There’s no reason to pull out Zimmerman at this point. Give him as many minutes as possible this year, take out Rojas, hell take out Angel take out anyone. It’s hard to believe they could play any worse.
In 13 years I never left a game at half time until tonight. And to be honest, I don’t care one bit if people crap on me for it. I am disgusted.
Well, I suppose they did a better job of closing down the shooter, seeing as how they got to Buddle just after he got off a shot rather than not bothering to close him down at all.
good thing I didn’t pay to see this game. Just awful from the bulls. Can’t wait till 2010 with the new stadium.
It’s not that LAG is playing such great soccer, it’s that NYRB are just such a bad team right now. This should be, pretty much, the Red Bull team that JCO envisioned as being his best unit. And while LAG has shown an ability to grab points and find a way to tie or win when they were outplayed, they really haven’t been a dominating team, an impressive team that has you going “wow–what great soccer!” So to be body-slammed by the LAG when they’re on the road and effectively integrating in a bunch of new players (Eskandarian has played 2 games with them–yes? and Becks and Donovan are rejoining the time), well, that’s embarassing. Why is JCO still coach of this team?
Let me tell you what’s really going to be embarassing….if this scoreline ends up something like 5-0 and they can JCO (when they could have dumped him a week ago while they were off and let a new coach get acclimated to the team).
they should mark our shots on goal as a goal. Fair things up a little don’t u think
in 07 or 08 the old Angel would have turned and blasted that one.
I think the Galaxy looks good. Bruce has plugged the holes and they look like a legitimate contender.
TV says Petke said we have no heart….geez this team is awful…sorry but JCO needs to go.
Come on Esky what the hell kind of pass was that?
I’m so thrilled any time the Red Bulls can even manage to shoot on goal at this point.
I don’t blame Beckham for not wanting to play in MLS anymore. Look at that pathetic Field.
Narrow and fake grass.
anyone else having trouble with the site loading funny on safari and firefox? driving me nuts…
Honestly, I’d like the cameras to get a few more shots of Osorio in the 2nd half, just to see how much he resembles Yallop in his final season with the Galaxy.
Ives: “Enjoy the action.”
Sure, if like being whipped and humiliated by Amazon dominatrixes …
The only thing creative about the red bulls is that 10k fans still show up to watch these guys play. Where I sit so
Etimes these coaches bring there little league soccer team to watch them play and I just b asking them why in theworld would u bring your team to see this crap. One coach responded to show them why practice is important (meaning the red bulls don’t practice for u who don’t seem to b all there)
All players are garbage minus Angel and maybe the young guys. Everyone else seems so expensible.
Dave, you know, you’re right. It’s really cool to flick and turn, really frickin’ cool. I like flick and turns better than bicycles imho. (remember that goal from Alan Shearer for Newcastle??? it was gorgeous). Plus I like Alecko better than Lewis. So I’ll change my vote too.
Omfg thank god I couldn’t make it to gme cuz of my surgery. Cuz I would b
Banned from the stadium for goi g on
The field n drop kicking rojas, cepero n round house kicking osorio repeatdly on his dumb facial expersiions. WTF!
The only way that goal could’ve been harder is if he hit it with his right foot instead of his left but anyways that takes a heck of a lot of skill to make sure the ball doesn’t roll off your foot when you connect with it.
diagree, Eskandarian’s has to be a candidate for goal of the year, flick over the defender’s head, spin and smash…perfecto
“Can all 11 Red Bulls just stand in the net for the last minute of each half?”
LMAO…
It’s hard to hit the ball one time out of the air at pace when it’s coming from the side, and put the ball where you want it (and low to the ground). For that reason I think Lewis’ goal is the best of the bunch so far. Donovan’s shot was prettiest for it’s cruel bend away from Cepero, and Alecko’s was cheekiest for his flick and turn. So all in all, three amazing goals. Whew.
I was really hyped for this game. I really hadn’t seen the Redbulls play in a while. Now I see why. They are just completely horrible.
I don’t even pity the Red Bulls , but I do pity you Ives how the hell can you find anything creative to write about these guys when they put out this kind of effort.. the only player looking good out there is Petke and how can you think he’s doing good when they leak 3 goals in a half embarrassing… why would Henry want to go there unless they pay him megabucks and his own line of clothes like Jordan.
Cepero just walk off the field u bum!! Wherevthe F is coundal! F u osorio u F’n bum as coach. Leave the team already u destroying this team to where it’s gonna b Impossible to fix u idiot! Omfg WTF is red bull HQ doing letting stover, agoos n osorio keep there job. Just fire everyone !! This is embarssing! Losing to F!n LA galaxrap WTF ! We haven’t lost to them in 9 years at home ! Thanks osorio u bum.
what can you say, 3 absolute GOLAZAS from LA…maybe the team is saying to Becks, “hey, we can play too!”
Quality goals. best part…I don’t think Becks was directly involved in any of them…
I am a neutral in this game, but I’ve got to say, the Red Bulls seem pretty terrible. Angel is good, so are a couple of young guys (Zimmerman and Hall), but they surely suck as a team. Didn’t they make a lot of $$ off selling Altidore (I can’t recall if the teams are allowed to keep the $$ from selling the individual players)? At what point do they start looking for a new coach?
Metro boy, lol, I do feel your pain, I really do, but your tirade after Lewis’ goal is hilarious, i mean, good for a chuckle. It’s funny becuase it’s sad how sad NYRB are.
Nice cross from Donovan and quality strike from Lewis, but once again the Red Bull defense is way too slow to get to the shooter on that semi-floated pass.
This is pathetic, I don’t know if I can stomach watching the second half.
Lookin pretty good for a bunch of old guys! Well I’ve seen enough of this…I’m going to turn the channel to so you think you can dance – better competition.
Sub Cepero now…!!!
Jeez we suck.
New drinking game…Galaxy goals from 25+
Holy crap!!!! Eddie Lewis just one upped (Two upped???) BOTH Donovan and Alecko!!!!!!
omfg rojas u garbage mutha F! Leave this team already where the F is obstet. WTF man WTF!! Ever F”n week ! F!!!! Tired of the
BS F’n shi! Unblv. The fans show more F’n heart n passion them the team! Might as well eSC take the F!n field.
Buddle got a lot of those goals last year due to Beckham’s assists. Buddle isn’t the greatest, but he is good at attacking the ball… kind of like Cornel Glen used to be… and Beckham obviously provides a few good balls here and there
This is the best Gals performance in a while. A good while