San Jose Earthquakes at Los Angeles Galaxy: Your Running Commentary

More than two years after disappearing in a cloud of Texas dust, the San Jose Earthquakes are back and ready to take the field tonight. San Jose makes its MLS return at Home Depot Center against the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Normally you would expect an expansion team to be a heavy underdog in a first match, but not after the Galaxy looked like a glorified pub team in its 4-0 season-opening loss to the Colorado Rapids. Now LA must find a way to rebound without forward Carlos Ruiz and defender Abel Xavier.

San Jose has the pieces in place to boast a stingy defense, but its offense is weak. Too week to score on the Galaxy? I wouldn't go that far. The Galaxy's defense is somewhere between horrendous and abysmal.

Look for the Galaxy to put pressure on, but San Jose withstands the early pressure before finding its own late goal to score a 1-0 victory.

Tonight's match is set for 10:30 p.m. on ESPN2. If you are going to be watching the match on TV, or ESPN360, please feel free to share your thoughts and views on the match here.

Enjoy the match.

Comments

[Edward]

Don't think even the old school logo will save the Galaxy.

[David Berger]

Go San Jose.

1-1 final I say.

[Ives]

Yes, I had the old school logo first, my mistake for pulling it out of the early 2007 file. Thanks for pointing it out Edward.

[Joamiq]

Goldenballs holding his left ankle and limping? Great sign...

[peter]

even donovan's self introduction is annoying

[Garret]

I say 2-1 Galaxy with a cross in which becks follows up and places past Cannon to win the game.

[Nick]

Where's espn360? No feed yet?

[RK]

Yikes, that's the midfield Beckham has to work with? I can't understand why he isn't in the middle.

[Tyler]

Wow... definitely not a fan of the SJ kit.

[Nick]

espn360 is on the air!

[Jacob]

LMAO...1-0 San Jose, but Gals saved by an offside call...good sign for LA (sarcasm)

[peter]

should have been a goal

[Chris]

That was a goal. That's the league helping out the Galaxy right there.

[Mike Caramba]

Wow...what a terrible offside call

[RK]

Yup, should've been the early goal...that would've been hilarious :)

[Joamiq]

That did not look offsides to me. Are the Galaxy going to get "big four at home" treatment from the officials?

And Peter, you're right. He's way too satisfied at having been at THE... Bradenton Academy.

[Jacob]

update to my last post:

LMAO...1-0 San Jose, but Gals saved by a ***BAD*** offside call...good sign for LA (sarcasm)

In other news, Gordon goes up for a header from a Beckham corner, unmarked, and skies it.

[Jacob]

Donovan to Becks. Goal--really nice actually.

[David Berger]

BECKHAM SCORES!

[Andrew D]

GOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

[RS]

A nice calm finish. I hope some other Galaxy players take notice to that.

[Joamiq]

Yay for Goldenballs

[RK]

1st Goal in MLS for Beckham (um, so says the announcer...I seem to remember him beating Troy Perkins last year).

[MasterShake]

beckham is the only true quality player on the galaxy and it shows.

[Forrest]

This game should be 1-1. I thought Beckham was offside the first time I saw the play. I don't think its a coincidence that ESPN isn't doing the yellow line offside replay on a Beckham goal.

[David Berger]

RK,
That was Beckham's first MLS goal.

[mikeK]

Beckham scored in cup matches I thought. *shrug*

[MK]

He scored on Perkins in SuperLiga on a free kick.

Foudy spent 5 seconds acknowledging that she only had 30 seconds... and then talked for a minute.

[Pat]

RK,
Beckham beat Perkins in the superliga semi's last year, so this was his first mls goal.

[David]

great goal by beckham

[RS]

They showed a replay and he was clearly onsides. I even paused it when the ball was played.

Julie Foudy makes me want to throw something through my TV. We never get ANYTHING good out of anything she says, IMO.

[eric]

Starting this game out like the last one - with a goal scored while I'm out of the room.

I've seen 80% of the action and seen 1 out of 5 goals! This is punishment for canceling my digital recorder thing from the cable co...

[Forrest]

These is so much room for the SJ forwards to run into between LA's midfield and defense. Beckham especially is cheating up the field. I would have Kamara run at Klein all night, since Klein is slow and on Beckham's side.

[eric]

Beckham really didn't score in that crazy 5-4 game in NY? I know he was firing assists off all over the place, but couldn't remember if he had a free kick goal too.

I remember that his first goal was Super Liga though, it was a gift for the real fans after all the hype and nationally televised games of him on the bench.

[Danny]

As much as I hated Wynalda on Thursday night, he blew these guys away. At least he knew the guys' names and followed the league the other 6 nights of the week. ESPN really doesn't care about anything but the bottom line. Too bad. They could do GREAT things for soccer here in the states.

[eric]

What a missed chance to equalize!

[RK]

Quake hacked down by Cannon to save an easy goal

[Adam]

Danny, seriously?!?!

JP is the perfect play-by-play guy and I think Harkes contributes very well.

[eric]

Another decent cross from LD. If Beckham ain't giving lessons, at least he's shaming Landon into driving the ball.

[A Diddy]

Is it just me or does Cronin look like a terrified intern?

[RS]

Wynalda blew these guys away?!?! More like Wynalda just plain old blew.

[Spencer]

Good number of fans for a Thursday night. My guess is 25k.

[George]

I love the HDC pitch it puts Gillete Stadium to shame !!!

[MasterShake]

danny you are crazy. Jp used to commentate for the red bulls and is one of my fav play by play anouncer. And john harks was red bull assistant coach. I think its plain stupid to say that these guys dont follow the league.

[eric]

And that might be Beckham's first MLS "my fault, bad ball" too.

[peter]

There should be an ESPN graphic that measures the loudness of the girls screaming when Beckham touches the ball.

[Jacob]

Kamara is retarded.

[Nic]

Surely it's gotta be a sell-out, 27k.

[golfstrom]

becks was definitely onside. his goal last year was in superliga, not mls.

[Jacob]

good crowds for both Thursday games

~15K at Chicago (good for a Thur.) and Galaxy always did well at HDC, even pre-Beckham

[Orlando]

Randolph is having a terrible game. Looks nervous.

[peter]

what the hell was that, the guy makes sounds like he got shot and everybody just stands around him smiling.

[MK]

landycakes

[Jacob]

beautiful goal...becks returns the favor and assists donovan

san jose officially worst team in the league

[RS]

Terrible angle on that run to the ball.

[Orlando]

Randolph is having a terrible game. Looks nervous.

[eric]

Beckham to Donovan - and Kobe's kid loves it! Ok, maybe Kobe just waves her around like the Donovan pinatas the Quakes fans will have in No Cal...

[Dave]

Beckham's the only quality player? yea LD just set up the first goal with a sublime pass and scored the 2nd, so I think he's fairly quality

[RS]

Haha. Harkes read my mind as I typed that. It's good to see nice soccer for once from the Galaxy.

[YankatOxford]

Nice finish there.

[eric]

Definitely a free kick, but that ref in the Revs game would have been drawing a card for that.

[Jacob]

where did they get this pires guy? G-A-R-B-A-G-E

[aristotle]

How many of us would have scored that goal? I think I could have put it in.

[eric]

Was that Randolph who missed the header, or somebody else I've never heard of?

To be fair though, I'm glad I didn't just get hit in the head with that cross!

[peter]

i probably would have been concussed

[Spencer]

I woulda put it in. Good thing about expensive balls they don't knock you out like cheap $50 balls.

[Jacob]

that was pires on the missed header....you'd think with that name he'd be a little better...and that was the kind of pass where you just need to get in front of it and it goes in on its own
pires = garbage

[Chris]

How is it every last player on LA looks like they've gotten actually good?

[aristotle]

Peter:

Yes, but you would have scored!

[Orlando]

I don't speak much Spanish, but ESPN deportes is much better to listen and watch. The english announcers aren't hard to listen to.

[aristotle]

Chris:

That's called shame and humiliation! San Jose is unfortunate to play L.A. now after they were embarrassed so badly. L.A. will not sustain this type of play. They are awful.

[MK]

Dicks Sporting Goods - so easy Ben Olsen can do it!

[NYRB]

Don't forget that they are playing SJ. I will not read too much into this match.

[DC]

RK- Ummm.. that goal against DC was in SuperLiga, not MLS.

[kawa]

OMG JULIE sucks bad she is the worst broadcaster ever cant they find someone else

[Steve-O]

How much does Julie Foudy suck? It like they tell her she's going on about 5 sec before they turn on the camera.

[Nic]

ESPN's insistence on putting a token WNT player in every broadcast is really annoying. I'd prefer Rosie O'Donnell above Julie Foudy.

[Connro]

RK-

He scored against Perkins in the Superliga. It is his first goal in MLS. Good for him.

[enginblue]

haha donovan scores and gordon runs up to hug beckham, who is on donovan's back.

[Steve-O]

Nic, let's not go too far!!!

[MK]

I thought the league champ got to play with the silver ball for the season... was that just a one year gimmic?

[EnginBlue]

Foudy has had a couple bad clips tonight.. but she was pretty decent during the world cup. she held it together while wynalda's head was exploding after the Ghana match (i think that was it).. classic.

She isn't a token WNT player. she's got some broadcasting experience, just having a rough night.

[Nic]

Silver ball at home. You'll see it this weekend at Robertson when the Dynamo take on FCD.

[MK]

That and the requirement that all fields had to be cut with the same horizontal patterns.

[eric]

"He got by Vanney!" - a phrase we'll be hearing much of this year

[MK]

Looks like the regular MLS ball is silver this year though.

[Nic]

EnginBlue, I honestly hate to break this to you, but she's terrible. It's cool if you've got a crush on her or whatever, to each his own as they say, but if you think she's a competent broadcaster then I'm not sure if there's anything anyone can do for you...

[Nic]

MK: yeah it looks silver. Here's a pic of it: http://www.mlsgear.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3007621&cp=2998853.2998909&parentPage=family

[Jacob]

PIRES!!!!!!!! WHAT A TURD!!!!!!!

[eric]

Why wasn't somebody making that run? Donovan's been great tonight, but that really should've been his.

And Klein moved so slow to get the pass, there was plenty of time to be charging the box...

[Chris]

1 vote for Hope Solo to replace Julie Foudy

[Jacob]

Gordon, the white Pires.

[Chris]

Gordon is so terrible

[Joamiq]

Alan Gordon is so bad it's hilarious

[Tim]

Alan Gordan is terrible

[eric]

Beckham with a mini-fit on the right when they don't swing it back to him after the Gordon rebound

[puffyjrkfan]

Who doesn't love to comment on the commentary? :)

Foudy is completely useless, she has no on camera skills AT ALL.

And I personally never had a huge problem with Wynalda...he got a little negative at times, but I felt he at least tried to use his experience as a player and relate it to the action in the game.

[Steve-O]

Hope Bob's enjoying that sandwich.

[Tim]

Also, Gordan cant pass the ball forward.

[MK]

Bradley's housing that hoagie!