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).
……JC OSORIO WILL BE 2010 COACH OF THE YEAR
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“Ives, can you explain how LA can have Donovan (salary 900,000 and Becks – dP) but not have to trade for a second DP slot?
Posted by: Jim
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Because MLS literally makes up new rules as it goes along. Always has …
Jim, Donovan was making that before the institution of the DP rule, and thus MLS grandfathered him in.
kpugs, you are forgiven for leaving early. But why were most of your posse no-shows?
@Kevin – because the security problems, travel issues and just all around soul-sucking atmosphere at Giants Stadium was a profound deterrent (not the only one).
Sadly, the shiny stadium effect, will last two months if things don’t change.
So Ives, when are you going to stop sticking up for your boy JCO and realize the truth?
He sucks and he has destroyed this team for years to come.
Actually, 23k for Beckham is fantastic considering that there would have been about 1k that would have showed up otherwise. I also disagree in that Beckham was booed more than cheered.
Ives, can you explain how LA can have Donovan (salary 900,000 and Becks – dP) but not have to trade for a second DP slot?
Just got back from the game and want to point out that I have been attending for the last ten years and am a die hard Red Bull Fan and always will be! First of all I love JPA and think he DESERVES BETTER! He has every right to yell and throw his arms in the air. The WHOLE TEAM SUCKS!. I agree with Jose the whole team minus JPA needs to go.
Cepero SUCKS and lets not try and sugar coat it. Our defense come on now, LUKE SASSANO sucks and cannot make a college team. He is slow and should be nothing more than a team waterboy. Kandji is hype and had many chances that he cannot even get his foot onthe whole year. JPA crosses the ball and nobody knows how to get into position and score easy goals. When JPA is double teamed everyone must fill in the middle and score. Lets get a good midfielder. I have said for years that they needed Amado Guevara a strong midfielder with a green card and local product Eskandarian along with JPA.He is from NJ and will draw a nice crown and the guy can play with the best of them. Lets get a good midfielder and a good forward who can score. Zimmerman is good off the bench but cannot score to save his life.
We can change ten coaches in ten years and fire Osorio but with Sassano and Cepero back there and stammler who is too slow and cannot shoot to save his life we will never win. Look at LA Donavan, Buddle, Eskandarian, Beckham, and Eddie Lewis. HAHA of course we cannot win WE have nobody. Why not Montero from Seattle a player like that. I cannot believe this team cannot shoot on goal and nobody fill the middle for easy goals. Lets look at Seattle and Toronto very scary lineups. I do not only blame the coach but the owners who do not spend on the right mix.
Lets get it together for next year. Tonight was horrendous and shows that we do not have a real team. Easy goal given up in three minutes. CEPERO is short and sucks. We cannot afford to say players are getting better and wait ten years for them to develop. Lets rebuild and get proven players. Example, Eskandarian, Montero, Guevara, Conde or Somarie. And def. a good goalie.
Go Red Bull.
Favorite memory of tonight’s game–when it started to rain a few big drops and all the people with digital cameras that kept obstructing my view got up and went for cover.
This organization has become a disgrace from the bosses in Austria to the product on the field.
Too bad we’re SOCCER fans and not STADIUM fans.
–A season ticket holder
Just got back from the game. RB does a decent job APPEARING to be organized and effective (thanks JCO!) But the appearance of quality disappears when the Galaxy players score golazos. I did not see that Becks contributed much to the game (and I was surprised that he wore short sleeves). I did like that the crowd booed Becks passionately and gave Donovan good support during the player intros. The second half was a bore to watch, and the crowd had so little heart to support RB. The PK at the end showed that RB has some pride. As a half season ticket holder, this was the first significant time I heard the neighboring fans call for JCO to go. I still have tickets (from the Seattle game) to trade in, but I cannot bring myself to do the paperwork and would rather just play out this thread and not subject my son and me to attending another loss.
This was a disgrace!!! I just came back from the game and this was just sad!! Look I’m not some one that calls for the coaches head after a few bad losses but some times you just have to do it. And this seems to be the perfect time to make that change and give the new coach some time to change things around. Everyone was worked up about this game, including me. Some how I really thought players like Celades, Rojas, and Angel would thrive in a high profile game like this. But what we got was the worst game this season. There was no spirit what so ever. totally embarrassing… Its great we have talented rookies but none of them seem to make any progress. Then taking out Celades and putting in Richards???
I’ll still support them but not sure if I will go to another game this season.
Beckham wearing short sleeves? Don’t remember him wearing short sleeves before.
Our problems won’t be solved by a new stadium, but at least we’ll have a nice place to watch our team lose.
To be fair, that turf is the worst surface of any I’ve seen currently in use, in any sport. It can’t be easy to convince people to play on that for a living. Plus I can’t imagine the crowds are a selling point either.
The “British Eddie Lewis” did not look so awful tonight…;)
Beckham’s latest interviews:
Regis: he said that the first two games at Giants stadium were 60,000 each. BS. The first game maybe but the second was 40K at most. This last game was max 25K.
FSC: he says that there have been 7 to 8 new MLS franchises since he came on. Seattle, Philly, Vancouver: that’s 3 pal.
Get your facts straight.
Anybody know the attendance tonight in New Jersey?
Landon Donovan man of match. On present form, Landon is closer to playing for England than Becks.
Man, Red Bull sucks!
I’d hardly say that a 250% increase for NY midweek attendance means the Beckham effect is dead. Especially for this NY team which never had a chance to win.
And the winner for saying “captain” the most times in an interview goes to…
How about the “F*ck you, Beckham!” chants during the post-game Beckham interview, lol.