BY ADAM SERRANO
The Los Angeles Galaxy wanted to put on a show in front of 89,134 at the Rose Bowl and by taking a 2-0 lead at the end of the first half, they succeeded. Los Angeles impressed before Real Madrid roared back to win 3-2 thanks to a pair of goals by Gonzalo Higuain.
The game served as the final match for Galaxy midfielder Clint Mathis who finished his career in the stadium where it began 12 years prior. Mathis began the game as the Galaxy's captain and played 25 minutes before getting a standing ovation from the crowd. The midfielder nearly scored in the 14th minute off a free kick, but his effort sailed just above the Madrid net. With his journey as a professional player over, Mathis was pleased with his final match.
"It was special and with 90,000 people out there, not many American players get to play in front of crowds like that," said Mathis. "It was a great opportunity for me to finish my career with the same team and in the same stadium where I started, it was an emotional day."
Late in the first half, the Galaxy would strike first when off a free kick, Omar Gonzalez headed a ball into the post. In the ensuing scrum, defender Todd Dunivant was able to get a foot to the ball and give the Galaxy a lead. The Galaxy doubled their lead just moments before halftime when Madrid defender Ricky Drenthe kicked Juninho in the chest while in the box earning a penalty for the Galaxy.
Landon Donovan stepped up and fired a shot past Dudek stunning the crowd and allowing the Galaxy to go into the half with the 2-0 to lead over the Spanish giants. After the club's recent struggles, Galaxy forward Edson Buddle admitted that it was a major plus to see his club leading at the half against one of the World's top clubs.
"We made it hard for them, I'm not sure it was their starting team, but I definitely knew a lot of their players," said Buddle. "They have a lot of quality players and I'm proud of how we played."
Down 2-0 at half, Madrid head coach Jose Mourinho brought on his full compliment of stars including Cristano Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuain and Xabi Alonso in order to save face in front of the near capacity crowd. From the onset of second half, the Real Madrid first XI put constant pressure on the Galaxy defense as they attempted to get back into the match.
Madrid started their come back in the 52nd when Ronaldo fired in a low cross that beat a diving Gregg Berhalter and ended on the foot of Higuain who buried it into the Galaxy net. The Argentine would level the score ten minutes later burying the equalizer in the top right corner of Galaxy reserve goalkeeper Josh Saunders, who replaced Donovan Ricketts at half time. With the score level, the Galaxy made their own changes replacing the rest of their starting line up.
In the 71st, Madrid would take the lead. After a reaction save by Saunders from an Higuain shot, the ball fell to Alonso who fired a shot that took a deflection off Galaxy midfielder Eddie Lewis and into the net to give the lead that they kept for good.
"You could tell that the coach told them, lets take this more seriously and lets get after them," said Berhalter. "I think we lost a bit of shape, but they were gunning in the second half and they definitely did not want to get embarrassed."
Although it was just a friendly, youngsters like Gonzalez admitted that there is a great deal to learn from facing teams of such a high caliber. The recent U.S. National Team call-up has had experience in these games before, playing against AC Milan and Barcelona last year. For Gonzalez, to play against top club's is always a chance to hone his skills.
""For me, it was just seeing what it is like at that different level and knowing that maybe I can get there one day," said Gonzalez. "I think that it was a big confidence booster for me and I really enjoyed playing."
With their preseason tour of the United States over, Madrid will prepare for the start of their La Liga season which begins August 28th against Mallorca. The Galaxy will restart league play next weekend against the New York Red Bulls. Mathis will be present to be honored at that match as well in front of a New York crowd where the 33-year-old spent four years of his career.
Following the match, Buddle admitted that he hoped that the Galaxy's performance would not only help them on the field, but also in the eyes of the thousands of Angelinos who for the most part supported the Spanish club.
"It was good to see so many come out," said Buddle. "But,I wish that we could strap some Galaxy jerseys on all those Real Madrid jerseys."
This was a strange friendly. It looked like the Galaxy, as is usual in these games, substituted in lesser players at the half, while Real brought in their big guns. Jose was clearly upset.
Watching a game in the Rose Bowl with 90 THOUSAND people was amazing. My seat left me slightly above head level of the players and really darn close to the pitch. It was surreal, not that watching games at HDC isn’t good but one day, I hope, the Rose Bowl will fill up for EVERY LAG game and I intend to be there for every single game. I grew up in So Cal watching all the big college football games from the Rose Bowl on TV and used to go to the Galaxy games before HDC and wasn’t always that impressed but seeing the game with that crowd from that seat left me wanting MORE! A truly amazing experience…
Oh and winning the 1st half wasn’t all that bad either! GO GALAXY!
MLS needs to do a better job of setting up the league schedule to accommodate teams that play in Champions League, SuperLiga, and have friendlies. These “other” games are important as it helps MLS’s brand and image to those outside of the US and also for those within the US that don’t watch MLS regularly. It doesn’t help when MLS teams have to really be careful and creative with their rosters when they find themselves with 3 to 5 games within a short time period … and then they struggle and look bad like the Galaxy in Champions League. At least they looked good in the first half against Real Madrid!
Salim – have you looked at the MLS table? LA’s defense is #1 in the league with a .68% goals against average (1st in league) and 10 shutouts (1st in league). Have they struggled lately, sure. But in your analysis they have now gone from #1 to “suck” because of a bad loss in non-league cup competition and second half struggles against a fired up Real Madrid who brought in Higuain, Ronaldo and Alonso. And why did the defense not “suck” in the 1st half of last night’s game?
So the Galaxy’s midfield struggled to wrest control from Xabi Alonso in the second half, gee wiz, you mean Dema Kovalenko isn’t as good as the guy who just won the World Cup? Man, I’m turning in my season tickets, the sky is falling.
this was a fun game to watch. the first half was a little hard to watch, but overall, i enjoyed it. and i agree with buddle, would be sweet to see even half of that crowd at a LAG MLS-game.
All you Galaxy naysayers really make me laugh. The boys played very well against what is probably going to be the first or second best team in the Champions League this season. LA is the #! team in MLS and has been all season. LA is not a European Champions League level team and anyone who expects them to play that way will be disappointed. But thats unrealistic. They far from suck, though they’ve had their moments, they’re still a top MLS side. Real Madrid dismantle teams all the time. Even last year when they were not playing well as a team they still went very deep in the Champions League competition.
Point is, Galaxy fans who are upset about losing this one need to stop complaining and appreciate that their team played a good game against one of the world’s best teams and coaches. And appreciate the fact that they are the best team in MLS until they meet Red Bull next saturday.
WA Wuh! Go Red Bulls!
They speak spanish in mexico.
I really hope all of those Real Madrid supporters were Spanish ex-pats, but I seriously doubt it.
La’s problem is the so called depth they have is in their mid thirties and are slow, they need to bring up more youth players.
LA slow on defense, if you hit them with the counter or pass the ball from side to side (like the quakes did in the first half of their game a few weeks back) you can exploit the holes that start to show in their defense. I’m curious to see if Gonzalez has any speed to keep up with Brazil on Tuesday. I hope he gets the chance to play.
Hey ‘Special One’, I hope you enjoyed your third straight vacation in SoCal. As you told ESPN, you can retire there once the kids are grown and you’ve lead Portugal to the World Cup.
Ah these star ladden European teams with Mickey Mouse financial structure and accounting practices.
Real is a nice team, but in fact teams like that shouldn’t be if there was any real financial supervision in European leagues. It’s funny how teams with these types of debts always find a way to spend more with the help of local governments. You gotta love European soccer….
This said, the second half Madrid team was just in another galaxy than LA, it was boys vs. men basically, but that’s not a surprise, they’ll win many games 5 or 6 nihl in Spain and CL so LA can be proud of how they played. It’s just that at some point you just don’t have the players to compete vs. these types of teams.
I don’t even know if LA touched the ball in the second half.
You can’t really knock LA in this game (with a clean conscience). They played well, but ultimately the quality of Real Madrid won out. Defensive struggles and loss of shape…Go ask 95% of La Liga teams and they will tell you it happens to them all the time against these guys.
Real decided to take the game to the Galaxy in 2nd half after “the Special One” read guys the riot act. I don’t care if this is pre-season for Real or not they should have throttled LA Galaxy but did not.
I am proud that an MLS team hung with them. The second half should have been what the whole 90 minutes looked like. Real is stacked. “The Special One” really knows how to pick teams to coach.
Gonzalez actually played very well…. The rest of the team seemed star struck after the second half. Not only did Real play much better with it’s starters, the LA Galaxy forgot how to play, The galaxy were outplayed until after the second goal and things got a bit more even (when compared with that first 30 mins of the second half).
What this game really shows is that US teams need to start finding true finishers. We lack a pure stricker.It also shows you need to work your butt off to get to every pass, and not expect the ball to land at your feet.
I really enjoyed this game. Very fun, and I wish I could have been there.
NERD ALERT
LA’s defense sucks. Division 2 Islander destroyed them (4 -1). No wonder their performance against Real Madrid in the second half sucked. They’re having some serious struggles with defense. Their pace on the pitch sucked on the second half the mid field guys lacked so much in performance.
Pretty fun game to watch. Clint went out in front of a huge crowd and an MLS squad again went toe to toe with a world power.
Too bad they stunk it up against the Islanders