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Birchall blasts leads Galaxy past Puntarenas

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By ADAM SERRANO

FULLERTON, Calif.– Trinidad & Tobago international Chris Birchall delivered a late game-winning blast to help the Los Angeles Galaxy defeat Costa Rican side Puntarenas, 1-0, in an exhibition match on Wednesday at Cal-State Fullerton.

The Galaxy dominated play for most of the match, but didn't break through until the 88th minute, when Chris Birchall fired home a shot from distance off a beautiful pass from rookie Michael Stephens.

"I hit the ball off a great spot and was played a great one-two ball with Mikey Stephens who has really been a fantastic rookie so far," said Birchall. "I felt like I had to get the shot off or I would have been tackled and lucky for me, it came off."

Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena considered the match a good exercise and valuable experience ahead of a busy 2010 that will see the Galaxy compete in the CONCACAF Champions League.

"I think we played well in this match, these are practice games and you can't really read that too much into it as we're just looking to make progress throughout this preseason,"  said Arena. We played a team that played with a road mentality that you'll typically see in the Champions League, a defensive and countering mentality that is a real test for our attacking players. Overall, it was a great opportunity for our team."

The game began with the Galaxy controlling possession against the Costa Ricans. In the very first minute of a beautiful cross from Edson Buddle who found Mike Magee, but the midfielder's header went just wide. The domination by the Galaxy continued in the 16th minute as midfielder Tristen Bowen fired a beautiful shot from distance that hit the cross bar. Despite dominating possession in the first half, the Galaxy were kept off the board by impressive play by Costa Rican Goalkeeper Bryan Zamora.

The second half was a different story, as Puntarenas dominated the start of the half. The Costa Rican side nearly broke through in the 52nd minute as winger Pedro Leal fed midfielder Ricardo Garcia for a goal, but it was ruled offside. In the 57th, Puntarenas continued their push forward as Garcia broke free of the Galaxy's defense only to see the shot go wide of Ricketts net. The Galaxy responded in the 79th as second half sub Bryan Jordan nearly put Los Angeles on the board with a clever combination play  and a shot that was saved by Puntarenas keeper Olger Ruiz.

The Galaxy finally broke through with a wonderful strike from distance by Birchall in the 88th. Birchall started the the attack by feeding the former UCLA Bruin Stephens who found his teammate up field and fired it past the Puntarenas keeper.

Other than the notable absences of David Beckham and Landon Donovan, the Galaxy were also missing Chris Klein and Todd Dunivant on Wednesday as the pair were in Washington, D.C. for the CBA negotiations.

The club will continue its preseason training on Friday after a day off on Thursday. In addition, a source tells SBI that the Galaxy will take on rival Chivas USA in a closed door scrimmage during the weekend. 

The Galaxy will finish up their preseason preparation on March 21st against Salvadoran club, C.D. Aguila ahead of the club's season opener on March 27th against the New England Revolution.

Comments

  1. For all those you think the current system CBA system stinks then please read the article below….seems to me that they end this and make a deal especially if the league has given them a little more freedom.

    Two Major League Soccer vets have new beginnings. But the MLS Players’ Union has lost the poster boys in its ongoing dispute with the league.

    As Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations resumed this week under the guidance of federal mediator George H. Cohen — who, before being appointed by U.S. president Barack Obama, was a pro-union labour lawyer — two key players were traded and got new contracts. Defender Adrian Serioux was dealt by Toronto FC to Houston, while goalkeeper Kevin Hartman was sent by Kansas City to FC Dallas.

    Both players are linked by a common thread: They were veterans being used as examples by the MLSPU of why the current system doesn’t work; that teams could sit on players and stunt their careers.

    Now, both players are back on the job — and neither will miss a league game, or a pay cheque.

    Here you go, Mr. Cohen. MLS doesn’t restrict movement, does it?

    Things that make you go … hmmm. MLS now can argue that the system works; that no player will have his career stunted by the right-of-refusal system, which is already complex enough that most fans and even players don’t understand. Under current rules, no team can indefinitely sit on a players’ rights.

    In a nutshell — all players are signed to the league. When a contract expires, the old team holds the rights. If the player re-ups with the league and another MLS club wants him, that club can make a claim for him.

    The old team’s right of first refusal last for 48 hours after that. Not forever.

    It can’t be extended because of the spite of a GM or the whims of a coach.

    So, under the current right-of-refusal system, this how the Serioux trade would have shaken down.

    Serioux would have re-signed with the central office and Houston declared its intent to take him at that salary.

    TFC then had 48 hours to exercise its right of first refusal. Director of soccer Mo Johnston had three options:

    * Take back Serioux at the MLS-approved salary figure;

    * Use the 48 hours to make a deal with the team that wanted him — Houston.

    * Or, wait the 48 hours, lose Serioux’s rights, and have Houston claim him without compensation.

    The problem is that most fans — and even members of the players’ union — believe that the current right-of-first-refusal rule allows a team to sit on a player’s rights indefinitely. Not a lot of people have read the legalese, or bothered to go through the league rulebook. Fair enough. Reading rulebooks is sort of like having to go through Vanity Fair — that was the longest 1,200 pages of my life. Thanks, English prof.

    MLS has a history of orchestrating deals to facilitate the wishes of players. In 2008, American star Brian McBride decided to come back to MLS the English Premiership.

    TFC was at the top of the ladder when it came to securing his allocation rights. But McBride made it clear he wanted to go to Chicago. No shortage of league pressure was placed on TFC to make a deal happen.

    The players might complain about lack of freedom; but central control also means the league will also help and persuade its GMs to make deals in order to make the league stronger.

    If it wasn’t for this system then we would not have a league and investors eager to buy into it. So the players say it is not about money. Well after reading this to me it appears they want this system replaced because the current system only allows them to negotiate with the league and unless they have teams outside the MLS then they have zero leverage. So this is entirely about money! They want the leverage of teams competing against each other driving up their market value thus getting a bigger contract. I’m definitely for the players getting paid more and having bigger contracts but at this moment to strike is obscene when they have spent 14 years building this up and the league almost folded 7-8 years ago and so now they want to risk it all when some of these owners they are trying to get more from are the ones that kept them a lot them employed when they could have struck and walked away from their losses.

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  2. Was @ the match last night. All three Brazilians played, and in my opinion, Juniho looked the best. Was a good match. Problem was the clock and scoreboard didn’t work in the second half. I actually thought the match ended 1-1. The Puntarenas plyers celebrated the goal and that was that. Birchall’s goal was a great shot.

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  3. NY Post reporting the players will strike on the 25th if nothing happens before then.

    Bummer.

    Looks like there is a good chance we will test the adage that bad publicity is better than no publicity.

    When you look at it from a perspective of how loses the most in a strike, I gotta think the players might have some leverage here.

    I hope we don’t find out either answer.

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  4. Ives Staffers, I must say I greatly appreciate the fantastic coverage we get about MLS here. I am a Red Bull Fan but i am glad that more teams are starting to get the amount of coverage that the Red Bulls are used to getting on this site.

    P.S. Birchall has the chance to be a special player for the Galaxy. I remember watching the match between England and Trinidad in ’06 and thinking that boy is a beast. MLS needs to do its best to get all Caribbean players that are playing in the lower divisions. I dream of the day that we can get all of the good concacaf players in MLS.

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