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Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Real Salt Lake: Match day Commentary

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BY ADAM SERRANO

The undefeated Los Angeles Galaxy take on their MLS Cup rivals Real Salt Lake tonight at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy, Utah.

Los Angeles is riding high right now with a league best 32 points and a 12-0-2 record. Perhaps what makes their recent run so impressive is that the club has not allowed a single goal in all contests on the road. Real Salt Lake is currently on a streak of their own and is undefeated in six matches.

The match between last year's MLS Cup participants is the last match for the clubs before the league goes on hiatus for two weeks after the opening stages of the World Cup.

This is Adam Serrano and as always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.

FINAL – a A questionable bounce ends the Galaxy's undefeated streak as history will not be made for Los Angeles. Bruce Arena is going out to midfield to have a little bit of a conversation with the officials after that call. The Galaxy don't make history, but Nick Rimando will as the RSL keeper will earn his 100th win of his career. The Southern California native came up big with a save in stoppage time on a laser by Juninho. 

The two clubs will now head into the international break ranked 1 and 2 respectively with the Galaxy holding a big lead on the MLS Champions. That's all for me tonight. Interesting night to say the least. The Galaxy's undefeated streak is over as Real Salt Lake wins 1-0 thanks to a goal by Javier Morales. Thanks for following along and make sure to make SBI your one stop shop for World Cup coverage. Good night everyone!

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94th Minute – And the Whistle is blown! Down go the Galaxy! Down go the Galaxy! No longer undefeated!

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93rd Minute – Not much time now…RSL controlling the ball

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93rd Minute – Another Save by Rimando on a Mathis chip. The Montclair, CA native pounces on it and the teams converge on one another. testy moment!

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91st Minute – WHAT A SAVE BY RIMANDO!! JUNINHO FROM DISTANCE BUT RIMANDO COMES UP BIG! GALAXY CORNER

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90th Minute – Three Minutes of Stoppage

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89th Minute – The Galaxy may not make history tonight, but if Nick Rimando gets a victory it will be the 100th career victory for the Real Salt Lake goalkeeper.

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88th Minute – Ricketts and Gonzalez are just livid right now after giving up that late goal as the Galaxy go back on the counter.

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85th Minute – YELLOW CARD for OMAR GONZALEZ. The defender will be suspended for the Galaxy's next match against Toronto. 

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83rd Minute – Galaxy earn a corner as LA will now have to chase the game. Lets see how they respond. 

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80th Minute – Deflection off Stephens right there and its determined that Gonzalez takes a touch and Morales slots it in despite being in a clear offside position right there. Morales gets the goal and the yellow for taking off his shirt during the celebration. Questionable decision right there, but the Galaxy are now trailing for the first time this year. Let's see how they respond. RSL up 1-0

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79th Minute – RSL GOAL!!!!!!!!!!!!! MORALES!!!

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77th Minute – GALAXY SUB: Eddie Lewis comes in for Alex Cazumba. First appearance for Eddie Lewis in league play since the Galaxy's first match.

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76th Minute –  HARD CHALLENGE ON GORDON! Borchers with a big tackle right there on Gordon Starting to get a little testy right now on the field. It looks like these two clubs don't like each other. I can't imagine why 

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74th Minute – Morales goes down right near the box, but there is no foul. RSL looking for the call right there. 

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73rd Minute – GALAXY SUB: Alan Gordon will take the field replacing Tristan Bowen.

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70th Minute – The corner goes off the champions and the Galaxy get a goal kick. 

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69th Minute – Free kick goes off the head of Gonzalez and a its corner for RSL

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68th Minute – Cazumba collides with Andy Williams for a foul. RSL with a free kick in a dangerous spot. 

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64th Minute – RSL SUB: Campos will come onto the field for Espindola. 

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63rd Minute – GALAXY SUB: Clint Mathis for Kirovski. The midfielder who won the MLS Cup with RSL will now get 30 minutes against the team that he won the championship last season.

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61st Minute – No luck for the Galaxy on the corner as a moment of danger leads nearly leads to a goal as Rimando is out of position. Espindola looks injured and RSL will need to make a sub. 

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59th Minute – Galaxy with their first corner of the game as RSL make a sub. Wingert in for Beltran.

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57th Minute – Each team needing a sub right now. What was a lively game in the first 45 appears to have gone stale right now. 

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56th Minute – Few chances for either side so far during the half. A lot of long balls being fired right now.

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54th Minute – Bowen delivers a ball to the streaking Kirovski but the forward is ruled offside.

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51st Minute –  Slow start right now to the half. Teams appear stuck in the center of the field right now and neither are generating any chances

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45th Minute – We're back underway.

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HALFTIME – What a first half eh folks? If you are still interested in the Q&A lets try that one more time shall we!

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HALF TIME – The Champions are looking very good right now as we head into the half. The club spent the last 20 minutes buzzing around the Galaxy end and were very unlucky not to get a goal. A number of chances of deadball opportunities nearly lead to an RSL lead.  The Galaxy have not had a lot of chan
ces so far and will need to come out and create chances if they are going to get a victory out of Rio Tinto. 

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45th Minute – Real Salt Lake with a good final opportunity, but nothing comes of the free kick. 

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44th Minute – 1 minute of stoppage time.

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42nd Minute – RSL with their SEVENTH CORNER of the half. The Champions are buzzing trying to get a late goal in this half.

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40th Minute – After some technical difficulties we're back.

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29th Minute – Kirovski is limping right now. Alan "Flash" Gordon is up as the former US international looks like he's suffering right now. 

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27th Minute – Free kick for the Galaxy after a messy challenge by Olave on Kirovski. In the RSL third. 

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25th Minute – Dangerous corner as the ball dies at the feet of the players in the six yard box. However, the Galaxy are able to clear the danger away.

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 24th Minute – NEAR MISS!! The ball nearly goes off Berhalter and hits the side netting. RSL corner. 23rd Minute – Bounce right there for the Galaxy as the ball bounces to Ricketts, but Sabario is in the area and puts a bit more stress on the Jamaican. 

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20th Minute – YELLOW CARD – JUNINHO. The midfielder has looked very tense since the match started and gets booked after a sloppy tackle. 

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19th Minute – Impressive stat for you out there.&nbsp12 of 32 of the Galaxy's goals so far have come in the first 30 minutes of matches.

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17th Minute – Since the delay, Salt Lake is looking far more threatening as the Galaxy are looking pretty tentative right now.

16th Minute – Horrible play by the Jamaican goalkeeper. That could have cost the Galaxy big time.

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15th Minute – NEAR MISS!! WILL JOHNSON FIRES A LASER THAT GOES JUST WIDE! Ricketts passes directly to Johnson, but the Canadian can't convert. Best chance so far.

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13th Minute – And we're back

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6 guys in the Galaxy line up under the age of 23. Lets see how they recover after that 55 minute break.

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DELAY – They're showing the video of the lightning now. I haven't seen lightning that impressive since Martin St. Louis.

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DELAY – The players are back on the field after the delay. We should be going again shortly.

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DELAY – @ BSAS – Ronnie had a very impressive season with A.C. Milan, I'd have a hard time believing that he would leave after that season to head to Los Angeles. In addition, LA would have to lose Donovan for that deal to make any sense. Never say never, but don't hold your breath. 

– @JFC – At least two more seasons. He's in fantastic shape and he arguably is the player that trains the hardest during the week.

-@Jonathan – I would look for Edson to start a match. Perhaps against Slovenia or Algeria. Many in LA believe that he should start, but i would have a hard time believing that he will play against England. It would also be a shock to see him come off the bench as he is not particularly suited for that position.

DELAY – Both clubs are going to look to regroup, RSL dominated possession, but were unable to create any real chances against the defense. Salt Lake will need to convert eventually though as the Galaxy have shown time and time again that they can capitalize on the smallest of opportunities. 

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DELAY – In terms of breaking records, the Galaxy result would break the club's regular season unbeaten streak  of 15 games which stretches back to last season.

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DELAY – As we wait, lets have a little Q and A shall we? I'll get to as many questions as I can. Fire away!

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DELAY- Good to see everyone following along. If you're just arriving be sure to tell me where you're from. Its good to see some people from Puebla, I have a friend from Puebla who is currently in Marine Corps OCS in Virgina right now. I know he'd be happy. Semper Fi!

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13th Minute – Due to the threat of lightning, the match is currently suspended for the moment. If you are following along, let me hear from you and let me hear where you're from.

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13th Minute – The players are coming off the pitch as lightning strikes near the stadium and the referee is taking the players off the field for the moment.

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11th Minute – Despite opening success, Real Salt Lake is looking pretty tense right now as the players clearly feel that they should be providing more pressure on the Galaxy defense. The match has been stuck in the Salt Lake half so far.

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7th Minute – Real Salt Lake offering a great deal of pressure right as RSL is providing numbers in the back and preventing the Galaxy from starting any type of attack right now.

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4th Minute – Tristan Bowen offers a moment of danger for the champions after breaking free of a marker. However, the 19-year-old's shot goes into the stands. Missed opportunity there.    

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3rd Minute – Real Salt Lake is controlling possession early in front of a late arriving crowd at Rio Tinto Stadium.

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1st Minute – And we're off!

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PRE-GAME – Big test tonight for both sides ahead of the World Cup break. RSL is hot as of late and will be able to put a great deal of pressure on the Galaxy defense. Before the match, LA Galaxy midfielder Clint Mathis received his winners medal after being a member of RSL's 2009 MLS Cup winning side.

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PRE-GAME – It's amazing that the series between these two clubs is already over with the Galaxy winning the first match up back on April 17th when the Galaxy won late 2-1 thanks to another two goal effort by Edson Buddle.

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PRE-GAME– Here are the starting lineups:

REAL SALT LAKE

—————-Saborio——Espindola—————-

Johnson———-Morales—Grabavoy——-Williams

Beltran—-Borchers—–Olave——–Russell

———————–Rimando———————

LOS ANGELES GALAXY

————Kirovski———Bowen—————

Stephens—–Birchall-
—–Juninho—-Alex Cazumba

Dunivant———Berhalter———-Gonzalez———-Franklin

———————-Ricketts————————–

Comments

  1. The rule book says: A player is offside if “they are gaining an advantage by being in that position,” which is defined as if they play a ball “that rebounds to him or her off a goal post, crossbar or an opponent.”

    Reply
  2. Robbed.

    And Morales and Freddie need to join their respective countries olympic diving squads.

    Either way I’m alright with it. The conversation of undefeated is now over and done with. We can keep our eyes on the Cup instead of an undefeated season.

    Reply
  3. Ask Canada if that is offside. It is. They were crying about it in the Gold Cup a few years ago.

    I’ve had one half day reffing class in order to be qualified to ref 6 year olds. This is a first day reffing (not) offside example.

    In the ref’s defense even reffing 6 year olds can be challenging at times.

    Reply

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