Toronto FC at Los Angeles Galaxy: Your Running Commentary

The Los Angeles Galaxy plays host to Toronto FC today hoping to post a second straight home victory while TFC looks to register its first points of the season.

Toronto should welcome new addition Amado Guevara, who is expected to play in today's match. TFC will need his playmaking ability to help energize an attack that has mustered just one goal in two games so far this season.

The Galaxy defense will look to make it two shutouts in a row after that season-opening thrashing against Colorado. Rookie Sean Franklin looked every bit the standout he was expected to be as a first-round draft pick for the Galaxy.

Today's match is on Telefutura, and even if you don't know Spanish it should still be entertaining to watch (neutrals might prefer the Fiorentina-Inter Milan match but if you are an MLS fan it will be worth watching).

Comments

[Geoff]

anyone know if ricketts is starting? Why does this game have to be on 30 min TV delay in Canada?! ahhhhhhhh

[tommymcb]

Is telefutura on TVU?

[mb]

game will be on Sopcast channel 31936

[Steve]

Toronto lineup: Sutton, Wynne, Velez, Marshall, Brennan, Edu, Robinson, Robert, Smith, Dichio, Guevara

Galaxy lineup: Cronin, Klein, Franklin, Vanney, Randolph, Beckham, McDonald, Pires, Allen, Donovan, Gordon

[tommymcb]

Thanks mb. I am watching now.

[Ives]

Amado Guevara is starting today, Rohan Ricketts is not.

[Ives]

Ricketts isn't in Carson. I'm sure he still has to do deal with visa issues.

[Galaxy Fan 08]

Thank goodness Xavier isn't in today!

Xavier = Automatic loss

[Galaxy Fan 08]

Beckham with the cross, forward missed his touch by 12 inches

[Galaxy Fan 08]

Donovan denied at point blank!!! Another great Beckham pass.

[Galaxy Fan 08]

Ives,

I've never been a fan of referee Alex Prus ever since the final game of last season when he butchered the Chicago vs. LA game. This isn't the case in the MLS, but do you know of any league in the world where the public can somehow rank or vote on referees? Thanks.

[jpc]

Is it a holiday, what's up with the crowds this weekend, especially here. A crowd under 20 K in for a galaxy game is fairly surprising, I know they are going up against Spurs at lakers, but still.

[Galaxy Fan 08]

Beckham free kick from 30 yards out. wide. plenty of curve, but still disapointing

[eric]

Weak sauce on the shot

[David Berger]

How did Landy Cakes not score there?

[Alejandro Ruiz]

wow, the Argie announcer is laying into Toronto and LA. But I actually prefer his frankness to rampant homerism.

[Galaxy Fan 08]

Donovan breakaway with defenders on his heels. Goalie makes another great save.

[eric]

Becks gets a little worked up as half the Toronto team trots to the bench for orange slices during a foul

[Boa]

Nice Attendance- I'm guessing there are less than 5000 fans in the stadium. Is this the kind of impact Don Garbage thought Beckman would have on the league?

What a joke- Freddy Adu had a bigger impact on MLK than Beckman

[Galaxy Fan 08]

Galaxy defense gets off lucky when Toronto misses a golden chance

[Alejandro Ruiz]

Oh Donovan. tsk tsk
He pulled a Nery Castillo.

[Ives]

Listen Mr. Beckham hater, you can hate Beckham all you want but you need to keep it clean.

[RHYbread]

Landon can't buy a goal. Three goals gone for the G and Toronto up by one now. It's bad to be behind in the heat.

[Neal]

How about that Donovan miss? You have to think that David Beckham inaudibly murmurs to himself "S##t, not again," every time one of his teammates blows a wide open chance....

[Ives]

Goal Toronto. Dichio scores off a nice long ball from Guevara.

[Alejandro Ruiz]

Nice, back to back goals. Donovan looked pissed over his previous miss.
To paraphrase the Argie, Asi es el futbol.

[eric]

Well then! LD rounds the keeper, misses the open net, then Toronto with the goal when Moe or Curly (couldn't tell which defender) falls down, then Landon ties it up in 30 secs flat.

[Ives]

Goal Galaxy. Donovan answers less than a minute later with his own long blast to equalize. Nice goal

[Ives]

I tried to tell you. Now you're banned.

[RHYbread]

Take that back, Landon scores goals with increasing degrees of difficulty.

[Galaxy Fan 08]

GoAL GALAXY! Donovan from 25 yards out. What now haters!

[Galactico]

Goal Galaxy!! And the 4000 Fans in the stadium go MILDDDD!!!

[Neal]

Who is banned, Ives? Not me, right?

[EricJ]

Obviously not neal...

[Neal]

Yes, obvious now....

[Jamie]

TFC's defense is terrible--but Velez is a travesty. And Edu and Robinson have both been very wasteful today. Thank God for Sutton. Hopefully Carver will bring in James in the second half.

[Golazo]

Why are there only 5000 fans at the Beckham game? I thought he had more than 5000 groupies. Not a good sign for the Beckham deal or MLS credibility. Can you imagine how many fewer fans there will be in Year 3 of the Beckham era?

[Andrew M]

I'm loving the commentary. My favorite was "El Captaine - Becks Spiceman". Second half about to start, I fancy Donovan to get another goal today.

[AEG Man]

At this point Beckham is so washed up, I dont think you could even give away tickets to get people to see a washed up hack like Beckham

[Andrew M]

Beckham's not washed up, the problem is the majority of his teamates are not at his level.

[eric]

For the Spanish speakers following along, I'm all about y'all dropping in some of what they're saying, I'm consistently bummed my Spanish is poor enough that I rarely understand full sentences.

[AEG Man]

The 20,000 empty seats at the Home Depot Center seem to disagree with you Andrew. Beckham more washed up than Tide Laundry Detergent.

[Casey C.]

I like how 1 game is your proof AEG Man. I'll take the other dozens of sold out crowds to be your counter point.

[EricJ]

People not showing up doesnt mean beckham is not good anymore. There is no correlation there. If you are suggesting that Beckham is no good then you are speaking out of pure biased ignorance.

[Golazo]

Toronto 2
Spice Boys 0

[eric]

Nice goal Toronto. Vanney hacked down Edu brutally (amarillo por tu!), the free kicked decently saved, but with a huge inviting rebound, which is promptly headed home.

[Jamie]

Nice.

[Cory]

Man thats the second goal allowed by vanney

[jpc15]

I think there's nobody there b/c spurs at laker; Padres at Dodgers; and obviously final day of the masters. It's a big sports day in L.A, they should think about these things when they make the schedule if they have the information

[eric]

Ely Allen with an amazingly precise header of a great Beckham free kick. You gotta admit, it's really hard to exactly hit the corner flag.

[RHYbread]

That free kick was horribly saved. Cronin got down well but you can't parry the ball back into the middle of the box. To be honest he should have caught it.

[AEG Man]

Oh please, Don Garber is about as honest on MLS Attendance as George W Bush is honest about the progress of the Iraq War. Mission accomplished my A ss

[Jamie]

i hate velez.

[Andrew M]

That was a real rocket of a free kick from Robert

[eric]

I'd have El Capitan Spiceman taking the penalties, but Landon buries his, 2-2. At least he stopped doing the weird hand thing before them.

Jeezus, and Toronto almost gets their 3rd off a looping header...

[Golazo]

And the 3000 fans in the stadium are cheering once again! The Sound of Silence

[Andy]

AEG Man bears an uncanny resemblance to the commenter that was banned earlier today.

[EricJ]

Yeah, all this anti LA stuff is comical. Get over yourselves.

[Neal]

Guys, stop feeding the troll...

[kofi_x5]

Every element of the Galaxy game needs to be accelarated. Too many players moving in slo-mo.
Stop hatin on Beckham, he may not be the saviour of MLS or the Galaxy but he's got a lot more talent than many other players in this league. How much do you think Temoc would accomplish on the Fire with a supporting cast equal to the Galaxy? At least, Becks can still hustle.

[AEG Man]

Now y'all just paranoid. Troll? Facts are Facts- Beckman is washed up and cant even pullin 5000 fans at a Galaxy game. He couldnt even pull 5000 fans in their Preseason Tour of Asia either. Beckham is washed up. When Asian school girls want nothing to do with you, you know you're pretty washed up.

[kofi_x5]

Are we talking soccer or pedophilia?

[Andy]

PK according to match tracker. To those watching, was the call warranted?

[eric]

Buddle on for Gordon. It's been kind of an open question, how bad is Buddle's form if they keep starting Gordon???

[kofi_x5]

Toronto defender tackled the ball in the box on all fours with all the fervor of a Jack Russell Terrier

[eric]

Really, PK on match tracker? They must've had an itchy trigger finger. Cunningham had Beckham (and the backline) beat and was clear on goal, but he chose to dive over some slight arm to shoulder contact. Shameful on the replay.

[JustinR]

Beckham got away with one. He was the last man back, that could have been a red card.

[eric]

And if I didn't get around to mentioning it, it was correctly a no call.

[Jamie]

bang on eric. shameful.

[kevin]

If Beckham was washed up he wouldn't still be a first choice player for England - which he is when he's healthy and in match shape. Attendance doesn't prove anything about a player's form

[Jamie]

super-sutton again!

[AEG Man]

Oh please, Beckham is a charity case with England- Capello only played him cuz it was a friendly and he was getting his 100th cap. And England Still lost to France!! You really think Capello will play him when the games matter? The same Capello who's #1 hobby as Real Madrid coach was Benching Beckham? Becks is so washed up with England, he has a better shot making the Brazilian National Team than the England roster. Especially since he chokes every time he take a PK for england

[DCM]

Ah there's the hateful, pointless, baseless response I was expecting...

[Ives]

AEG Man, if you aren't going to bring anything to the discussion except negative comments then you need to stop posting.

[kofi_x5]

Stay positive, AgroMan. When you buy the Galaxy you can have the glorious pleasure of putting Beckham in his place

[eric]

Beckham with a low blast that just skips wide left. I was about to say that the Gals were looking lethargic, 10 mins left to grab the winner. I don't think you want to drop points to Toronto at home if you want to get anywhere in this league. Or, you know, be a global superclub or whatever they're up to.

[kevin]

well let's think, McClaren benchec Becks and then realized too late that they weren't going to qualify for Euro 2008 and called him back into the side. And they almost made it - mainly off of goals that he set up. The last time England played a meaningful match back in November, it was Beckham's perfect cross that set up Crouch's goal that should've put England into Euro 2008.
The same thing happened with Capello - he said Beckham would never play again for Real Madrid, but after he realized that they weren't going to win anything without Becks, he let him back into the squad and Beckham led an amazing comeback campaign to win La Liga.

And yes, when World Cup Qualifying starts in September, I expect Beckham to play a huge role for England.

[Dominick]

Wow. Forget Beckham and Donovan...even with Xavier out, LA gives up 3 goals to Toronto??? Wow...

[kofi_x5]

We love the genius of the well-placed one touch, don't we? Oh well, could have been ours at the other end. Now its theirs. Good hustle for Cunningham

[Jacob]

TFC 3:2 LA

I said it after San Jose scored on the Galaxy last time around (only to be incorrectly denied by an offside call), and I'll say it again: Galaxy, officially worst in MLS (as confirmed by losing to TFC at home).

[eric]

Cunningham is rewarded for not flopping, and steals one from another as Vanney just about wraps up the prestigious Player of the Weak honors, he's got my vote coming.

The Gals keep having decent build up play, but then have Capitan Spiceman hitting crosses for Donovan, who I'll list "bad target forward" among his legit criticisms.

[JustinR]

TFC has 3 goals. Maybe Lalas shoud have spent a little money to keep Ty Harden, Albright, or Cannon.

[jpc]

Vanney is awful

[Jamie]

velez beat again. goof thing buddle missed the mark.

[Yuppie]

Ha, the only Role Beckham will play in England world Cup qualifying is keeping the Bench nice & warm

Toronto Wins!! Spiceboys Lose!!

O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

[Cory]

man vanney is a liability rite now, they should try xavier and franklin next week....either that or sign that cuban guy

[JustinR]

LOL, very funny Yuppie

[Jamie]

Yuppie: appreciate the enthusiasm, but why sing O Canada? TFC's is Toronto's club team, not Canada's. Don't make it a national thing.

[eric]

The Gals are right to be done with Xavier. They need some production out of their guys making $70 - $150k or so, the Buddles, Vanney's, and Xavier's of the world, it's those decisions that are killing them.

[Cory]

well by the end of the year i expect at least one of them to be gone

[Galaxy Fan 08]

Did anyone else see the hard push Cunningham gave the defender before scoring that goal. In soccer, that is a definite foul. Terrible ref.

[kevin]

well congrats on the win (I'm not a Galaxy fan anyway, and I've always been a big Jeff Cunningham guy). You're still dead wrong about Becks though, and out of Beckham's country, my country, and your country, yours is the only one that won't be participating in South Africa 2010.
So there.

[Werner]

CAN YOU PLEASE PUT GREG VANNEY'S AS PLAYER OF THE WEAK DUE TO THE THREE GOALS HE GAVE AWAY!!!!

[Cory]

i wonder what vanney is thinking rite now...this whole season he has been getting abused and hasnt had a good game yet

[mb]

the galaxy play so unbalanced. but i can't really blame Gullit, he has to play the hand he was dealt. i wonder if Ruiz can make much of a difference.

[Yuppie]

@kevin

GREAT! So when the Canadian National team is watching England Qualifiers they can invite Becks over & save him a spot on the couch since he will never get any playing in England Qualifiers anyway.

Maybe they can Teach Becks "O Canada" and he can defect to the Canadian National team?

[Moses]

Re:Yuppie

As of today, New Zealanders have scored as may goals as Canadians for TFC.

Not exactly Canada's team...

[Geoff]

O Canada! Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Landycakes, nice penalty ritual you moron. 3 POINTS FOR THE REDS WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Keith G.]

Wow after that performance, the Galaxy needs to go out and get a new deffender or 2. I will say it now, there is no way the Galaxy are going to the playoffs. Toronto, well if they can improve their deffense a little they could be a team to find a final spot into the playoffs.

[MiamiAl]

Beckham and Landycakes alone will not be able to overcome the odds alone. They need help! I think Cobi Jones needs to come out of retirement. And maybe Ruud too! lol...