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Real Madrid vs. Los Angeles Galaxy: Match Night Commentary

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BY ADAM SERRANO

In one of the most wildly anticipated friendlies of the summer, the Los Angeles Galaxy take on Spanish giant Real Madrid at the World famous Rose Bowl in Pasadena. (7:30pm PST, FSC)

The match serves as the final match for Galaxy midfielder Clint Mathis who will play his last match in the stadium where he began his illustrious career. Los Blancos brings their entire cavalcade of stars that includes Cristiano Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuain and Spanish World Cup winners Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso. 

I will be providing commentary throughout the match so please feel free to follow along here. As always, feel free to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below. 

Enjoy the action (Commentary is after the jump):

FT – Real Madrid 3 Los Angeles Galaxy 2. Los Blancos battle back from down two goals at the half to win in front of nearly 90k at the Rose Bowl. A strong half from the Galaxy, but Real Madrid restored order in the second. Flashbulbs across the field as the teams walk off the field. LA provided Madrid with a nice warm up match, but LA will hope that this match does something to restore their recently stagnate season. That's all from me tonight. Thank you for following a long and come back for more coverage on SBI shortly. 

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94th Minute – Fans taking part of the LA tradition of trying to beat the traffic. With almost 90k here, they won't be able to do it. 

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94th Minute – Ronaldo fires a shot into the side netting. No dice from him today. He can't buy a goal. 

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92nd Minute – Neither side offering much right now. Just looking to run out the clock.

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90th Minute – Four minutes of stoppage time.

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89th Minute – The Galaxy attempting to bring the ball up the field. Its proving a bit difficult especially when you have Jovan Kirovski going up against the likes of Pepe. 

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85th Minute – Attendance tonight is 89,134

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83rd Minute – SHOT by Ronaldo, but once again the Portuguese can't find the back of the net as it goes just wide of Saunders. 

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80th Minute – The second goal is once again for Higuain. The crowd starting to get excited as Real Madrid spreads the ball around the field.

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77th Minute – Gonzalez has come off in place of Bryan Jordan. Great night from the defender. 

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76th minute – The second goal is getting credited to Pedro Leon as Real continues to push up for the fourth goal. 

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74th Minute – Order has been restored as the Real Madrid stars come into the game and take the lead from the Galaxy in the opening twenty minutes of the second half.

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71st Minute – GOAL!! REAL MADRID!!! Higuain with the shot, but Saunders makes the save. The shot from Alonso deflects off Lewis and into the net.

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70th Minute – Wow. Magee with a little nutmeg through the legs of Arebola. He gets through, but his shot does not go near the net. Nice moves there. The Galaxy make two more saves as Dunivant and Stephens come out for Lewis and Cazumba.

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69th Minute – Corner for Madrid, but Saunders punches it out. Real has been all over the Galaxy in this half.

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64th Minute – Galaxy make some changes as Juninho, Donovan, Berhalter and Franklin come out for Leonardo, DeLaGarza, Klein and Kirovski.

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62nd Minute – GOAL!!! Higuain!! Saunders makes a pair of great saves, but with the Galaxy failing to clear, Higuain smashes the third effort home. Galaxy about to make changes with the score 2-2

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58th Minute – Ronaldo didn't miss by much there as his shot goes into the side boards. A bit of a change of tempo since the big guns came in for Madrid. 

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57th Minute – YELLOW CARD . Berhalter brings down Higuain and Ronaldo gets a free kick from 22 yards. 

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56th Minute – Higuain and Ronaldo nearly link up again. Another pass to Higuain by the Portuguese nearly beats the defense. Leonardo about to come into the game for the Galaxy. 

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52nd Minute – REAL MARDID GOAL! Ronaldo hits a great pass around Berhalter to Higuain who punches it in. LA 2 Real 1

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51st Minute – Nasty little effort from Ronaldo. The attempted chip goes right over Saunders. Saunders had a great night against Barcelona last year. Can he do it again his year?

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50th Minute – Mardid with a free kick. Ronaldo to take it.

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49th Minute – for Madrid. Cristano, Casillas, Gago, Canales, Marcelo, Pepe, Alonso, Arrebola all in the game and more. 

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45th Minute – Big time changes as the second half kicks off. The Galaxy subs are Kovalenko for Birchall and Magee for Buddle. Real Madrid…changes just about everyone. 

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HALFTIME –  The Galaxy played pretty well for the first half and go into the half with a 2-0 lead. Did this break their slump? Lets see what happens in the second half as the full gaggle of stars comes into the game. Casillas is warming up now. Nice moment at the half as Juninho and Drenthe trade jerseys after that punishing kick. The half is Los Angeles Galaxy 2 Real Madrid 0

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45th Minute – GALAXY GOAL! Donovan converts the penalty as Dudek charges off his line. The Galaxy are up 2-0 on Real Madrid.

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45th Minute – No ejection and Landon to take the penalty. Here we go.

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44th Minute – PENALTY! Juninho gets kicked in the face by Drenthe. Juninho is down and that has to be a red card and a penalty. Ouch….

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42nd Minute – Great effort from Gonzalez. His first header goes off the goal post causing a wild scramble for the ball. Madrid tries to clear, but Dunivant is able to push the ball across the goal post. The Galaxy are up 1-0 on Real Madrid. 

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40th Minute – GOAL!! LOS ANGELES! DUNIVANT with the goal!

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39th Minute – LA keeping up the pressure as they earn another corner.

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38th Minute – JUST WIDE LEFT! Nice build up by the Galaxy to free up Donovan, but the Captain's shot goes just wide on Dudek. Should have done better on that effort. 

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35th Minute – van der Vaart nearly gets behind the defense, but Omar Gonzalez comes up big with a last ditch tackle on the Dutchman. Madrid controlling possession, but the Galaxy defense has come up big so far. 

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33rd Minute – van der Vaart fires a 40 yard shot at Ricketts, but once more he comes up with the save. Ricketts is coming up big here tonight. 

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29th Minute – Madrid strips the Galaxy in midfield, but clutch defending by Gonzalez sends the Galaxy back up the field. Poor pass from Donovan though to Bowen as the ball goes out for a Real throw in. 

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26th Minute – Call it a career. Clint Mathis comes off the field for Tristan Bowen. A great way for the veteran to end his career in front of more than 80,000 fans. A great cheer comes up from the crowd.

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24th Minute – Game has slowed down a bit. Not going to lie, I've got one eye on Mathis and the other on Bowen, his replacement. 

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21st Minute – Real Madrid starting to find some holes, but some last ditch defending is saving the Galaxy so far. 

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20th Minute – Bowen is warming up, I'd expect the Mathis curtain call to come pretty soon. 

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18th Minute – BIG SAVE! Di Maria with a shot from close range and Ricketts comes up big. The Blancos get the corner, but the Galaxy clear.

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16th Minute – Even in the Rose Bowl, the LA supporters groups, the Angel City Brigade and the Riot Squad are sounding pretty loud. A great atmosphere here tonight on what is a beautiful day in the Arroyo Seco.

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14th Minute – Mathis didn't miss by too much right there on the kick. I would expect to him to play another twenty minutes. 

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12th Minute – Lass Diarra brings down Donovan to set up a free kick from about 35 yards away. Mathis setting up to take it.

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11th Minute – A Madrid defender heads it away, the Galaxy get the ball back on a throw in. It falls to Buddle and he once again tests Dudek. Juninho tries to scoop up the rebound, but fires it into the side netting. Close there for the Galaxy. 

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10th Minute – Galaxy earn a corner off Franklin's run. Donovan to take the kick.

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7th Minute – Granero with a great run past Dunivant. He sets up Benzema, but Ricketts is up to the task and makes the save.

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3rd Minute – Ramos with a bit of a fierce tackle that leaves Juninho on the ground for a few seconds. A little harsh there for a friendly, but the Brazilian pops back up.

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2nd Minute – Buddle cranks a shot at Dudek, but the Polish keeper comes up big to make the save. Great opportunity from the striker.

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1st Minute - Flashbulbs are going off as we kick off.Here we go! 

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PREGAME:  Bruce Arena and the Galaxy presenting Mathis and his family with a framed jersey. Cheers come up from the crowd. Very touching moment.

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PREGAME: Tons of photographers taking pictures of the Real Madrid bench, but only a handful take photos of the Galaxy and the jersey presentation for Clint Mathis. Kinda funny.

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PRE GAME:  Ronaldo, Pepe, Casillas, Alonso, and Gago are all on the bench for Real Madrid. I bet there are a few teams in the World that would like to have that power riding the pine for any match.

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PRE GAME: Mathis will start in his final match. Head Coach Bruce Arena said that he will play, but not particularly long. One thing is for sure, getting a curtain call in front of 80,000 plus is sure to cause a few goosebumps. 

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PRE GAME:
Here are the Line Ups:

REAL MADRID

—–van der Vaart——Benzema—–

Granero—Lass—-Diarra—–Di Maria

Ricky Drenthe—Albiol—Garay—-Ramos

——————Dudek—————–

LOS ANGELES GALAXY

——–Mathis—————-Buddle———

—Stephens—–Juninho—–Donovan—–

——————-Birchall—————–

Dunivant—Berhalter—-Gonzalez—-Franklin

——————Ricketts——————

Comments

  1. It’s a friendly. Of course they would look good against a disinterested Euro team trying not to get injured. When the bullets start flying for real though, LA showed their true colours.

    Reply
  2. Madrid was dominant in the second half but they are going to need to defend in La Liga. Left back looks dismal and they are one Pepe meltdown away from having problems in the middle, too. They can pound on the bottom half of the Primera but the better teams can expose them if they don’t do something.

    Higuain again showed that he deserves more attention from the soccer world. The man can shoot.

    Reply
  3. great second half by Madrid. Canales is looking even better than last year. And Leon’s got some nice skills. This year’s going to be interesting.

    Reply
  4. Well, in fairness the Galaxy did beat the Islanders last week in Puerto Rico, although not enough to get out of the hole they created for themselves from the first game in the aggregate goals series. The reality is the players care more about this friendly then they did about the CCL and the loss in the CCL is what allows Bruce to play his first choice lineup from here on out. In the first CCL game, he played the backup goalkeeper and three out of the four defenders were backups (including Eddie Lewis, who hadn’t played LB once this season) and he played the backup DM who has been injured and just getting back to game fitness as well. Disinterested players, plus a makeshift defense was not a recipe for success against a team that hustles.

    Reply
  5. Good to see an American team doing well against a big team. As a Real fan, I am disappointed that the back line is still so weak. Madrid doesn’t seem to know what to do with the ball. Mourinho has some work to do. They keep adding attackers but do nothing with the defense — strange but Perez-like through and through.

    Reply
  6. Glad to see no red card, even if it was deserved. This is a friendly and it does no one any good to play 11v10. The ref pretty much ruined the Sounders/Celtic friendly by giving a deserved, but unnecessary red.

    Reply
  7. Beautiful penalty by Donovan. Dudek tried the old Space Invaders dance from the Liverpool Champions League final and was 3 yards off his line and on the ground before Donovan even swung at the ball.

    Reply
  8. omar gonzalez has been a beast tonight. came up with at least 2 clutch sliding clearances in the box and headed the ball onto the post which eventually led to the first goal.

    Reply

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