The Los Angeles Galaxy have held the best record in MLS for months, but will need to beat a strong Colorado side tonight (11pm, Fox Soccer Channel) to maintain their lead on a chasing pack that includes red-hot Seattle, streaking Real Salt Lake and dangerous FC Dallas.
The Galaxy come in off a somewhat disappointing 2-2 tie against Sporting Kansas City, but return home to the Home Depot Center, where they have been one of the toughest home teams in the league.
Colorado is coming off a disappointing 2-0 loss to the Chicago Fire, and will need to try and get at least a point to stay in range of a Top Four spot in the Western Conference.
SBI will be providing live commentary on tonight's match so please feel free to follow along. As always, you are welcome to share your own thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Tonight's commentary is after the jump):
Funny, one comment you say how Pickens had a “Save of the week” in 1 chance off the Beckham free kick and agree he had quite a few others worthy of such nomination, but then say how the fact that Colorado tried and tried makes them somehow vulnerable? The 2 Off sides calls late in the 2nd half were right on, and even on the 2nd one, Cummings missed if I’m not mistaken on the player. Ricketts saved his shot and defense had the chance to clear before the whistle blew, Perkins saved another GREAT chance when Beckham decided to finally put a ball on frame.
LA should make the final with little trouble, they took care of Dallas at home and only lost @ Pizza Hut Park due to a crazy delay and in stoppage time.
What I wonder is if FC Dallas or Seattle will stay in the West, if RSL passes one of them. AN RSL win tomorrow helps them get passed Colorado and close to SEA & FCD. It will be a great last 8 weeks to MLS season!
Problem is Klinsmann has to find the 3rd & potential 4th Goalkeepers in young projects like Hamid who IMO is the best choice for 3rd keeper going forward, man it was only a bit more than 1 and 1/2 years ago Troy Perkins was the 3rd guy over Hahnemann but than Marcus started being a consistent good starter in EPL and eventually became the #2. In any case Hamid, Sean Johnson and Dominic Cervi have great upside going forward. Not sure Yeldell can keep up since he couldn’t keep his starting spot that he would of had for half a Bundesliga season, maybe he can go back to a lower level Bundesliga 1 team or top 2 or 3 Bundesliga 2 squad?
As far as MLS is concerned, I think Rimando is better than Pickens, just doesn’t have the size you’d like but even then he’s great.
But Pickens, Hall, Perkins and even Hartman are all great guys for January camp. My guess is we see Hamid, Johnson, Cervi or maybe the best MLS guy aside from 2 young kids?
And don’t get me wrong — I think LA will likely win MLS Cup this year. But at this point, I think that less because they seem so powerful or invincible (they don’t, as tonight suggests) and more because of a combination of their quality and being fortunate to have the final at HDC and not likely being unfortunate enough again to be beaten on PKs or upset like that in the earlier rounds again.
+1
Regardless of how dominant LA has been this season, it is still all to play for. They are still vulnerable to a team that gets hot at the end of the season going into the playoffs.
+1
Regardless of how impressive LA has been so far, it’s still all to be played for. LA is still very vulnerable to a team that gets hot at the very end of the season going into the playoffs.
LA is very effective at racking up the wins. They did again tonight, obviously. And that serves the team best over the course of the regular season.
But they did that last year, too, and a about this same point, were suddenly surprised at home by the Rapids, who beat them 3-1 (and that 1 was a flukey deflection off a defended, too). Then more importantly for them, they were similarly surprised by FCD, so the 2 teams who went on to play in the final.
Just don’t see a lot of evidence tonight that eliminates that sort of thing as a possible outcome again.
Earls, just for example, is a kind of punching bag, he’s normally so weak. This may have been only his second or third start all year. Yet LA wasn’t able to exploit that. The one goal they got did have the clinical finish and even then was capitalizing on a CB mistake, in a game where Moor was out. Beckham you could see was off from the start.
Just doesn’t seem _that_ impressive, in the context of the impending playoffs, when they had to scramble around so much for the final 20 mins or so to cling to a 1-0 lead…
But the shots on goal stats just are so one-sided.
It was far from limited to the goal. LA was disorganized and on their heels for much of that second half. Either of those offside calls goes the Rapids way and it’s likely a 1-1 draw.
More like Pickens has…
Rapids have made this much more difficult for LA than I thought they would…
I agree. Just thought that one-handed save off the free kick from Beckham around the 25th min was even better.
Pickens might deserve another call up to the USMNT. I’m not saying he should play, I’m just saying he’s a VERY solid backup. Experienced, makes all the saves he’s supposed to make, makes a few he shouldn’t make. Great locker room presence. Go ahead and call me biased, but while the Rapids players may not be individually talented enough to impress on the international stage, I’d have quite a few of them amongst my team to help morale and belief. They never quit, they always believe, and they are extremely competitive.
More than one save-of-the-week candidate in that first half. Colorado is lucky to be only down 1 goal.
There’s a save of the week candidate from Pickens…