by Ethan Johnson
May 18, 2008
Before I get to the recap and photos, I want to take a moment to congratulate Jorge Flores, winner of the 2007 Sueño MLS contest on his first MLS goal. After languishing 1-0 against DC United, Chivas USA went on a goal rush in the space of 10 minutes (or less), with Flores kicking in the decisive third. In front of his family. Very exciting and everything that's right with pro - hell, any soccer. And now, please rise, and remove your hats for YOUR investigative bullet points:
- Mike Royko once wrote about the late Chicago Mayor Richard J Daley claiming that "everybody is Irish on St. Patrick's Day." In that vein, everyone is an LA Galaxy fan when David Beckham comes to town. The last time I saw that many white #23 jerseys I was walking past the sale racks at Dick's Sporting Goods. In Chicago.
- After much second-guessing and gamesmanship, LA villain Landon Donovan not only made the trip, but started. After his infamous "throat slash" gesture last summer, FCD fans have wanted revenge. In related news, Carlos Ruiz made the trip but did not start.
- I am NOT making this up: Ruiz actually practices diving as part of his pre-game warmup. I have the photo proof below. That crumpled heap that is wearing a #20 jersey is perfecting his "grab his knee painfully and writhe around" technique. Fans of other teams will chime in here and assume he had that schtick down pat. Hey, apparently it works for your team if he's on the roster, and against if he isn't.
- Despite some catcalls and general obnoxiousness directed at Beckham, I think the novelty has officially worn off. Which is something of a good thing. Theoretically, a game like this one could be good for winning some converts to the FCD side, let alone to MLS. More on that story later.
- "Slow Abe" Thompson got the start again. Clearly, the FCD brass doesn't read my recaps.
- "Slow Abe" seemed to strike paydirt in the early going, but his goal strike was waved off due to a foul. Well, I bought the goal. Too bad I didn't get that chunk of blown vocal chords back.
- After further ado, Chris Klein drove in the opening goal around the 26th minute. I checked out the replay at home, and wow, "brain fart" doesn't begin to cover it. Nobody thought to stop a long rolling (!!) pass. Nobody thought to cover Klein. Dario Sala doesn't seem to be a particularly stellar 1-on-1 goalkeeper. 1-0 LA.
- Edson Buddle sent in goal #2 in the 32nd minute. 2-0 LA.
- 33rd minute: The unthinkable happened. Landon Donovan sends in goal #3 off of Davino's outstretched boot. Officially, this was counted as an Own Goal, which I for one was thrilled to see a guy making boffo bucks as a defender knock in. 3-0 LA. I knew I should have brought a book to read. FCD forgot theirs too: Soccer for Dummies.
- 39th minute: Edson Buddle scored AGAIN off of a set piece. For those keeping score at home, that was 4 goals from a supposedly hapless team in the space of 13+ minutes. 4-0 LA. Too bad the English Premier League season has ended. Derby County tried to beat Arsenal.
-
Halftime. Time to refer back to the comment that was sent in to the Sideline Views blog regarding college soccer:
I personally think the whole nature of the game of soccer is that, once the whistle blows, the players are basically uncoached. It is up to them, on the field, to figure out how to win. That's what makes foreign soccer so entertaining. When our son was growing up, he used to say, "I just love soccer. There are so many ways to beat the other player and his team." Watching the college game, I don't think that players who can actually do this are rewarded, coveted, and nurtured by the coaches. It's almost like the coaches are hoping to beat the other team off the ball through speed and intensity alone throughout the game, and win the game via set plays, corners, and penalty kicks, which actually can be coached.
Nutshell.
- One FCD fan next to me commented to his kids that Beckham is all about playing positional soccer. We watched approvingly as he'd make a play, send the ball to an open player and slide back into his "neutral" position. Considering that the LA bench was far out of earshot, players like Beckham have little recourse but to be "self-starters". I'm really wondering what in the freakin' frick FCD has been doing during team practices, or what each individual player does to sharpen his skills between matches.
- FCD made TWO substitutions at halftime. In addition, someone distributed the memo about putting numbers forward and attacking the LA goal. I was hoping the memo about having some semblance of a midfield presence would make the cut, but let's not get pie-in-the-sky here.
- I freely admit that I'm a PES 2008 (Wii soccer game) goofball. Sure, video games aren't an acceptable substitute for the real thing. For one, in the video game I can have acres of space between my offense and defense, and ring up 6 goals against teams like Brazil. However, in fantasyland, I have Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo. In FCD-land, conceding the midfield means making an All-Star out of Edson Buddle.
- 54th minute: Kenny Cooper Jr did his jogo bonito off to the left of the penalty area, which I thought had "kicked away by the defender" written all over it. Instead, he crossed it over to Dominic Oduro who gets FCD on the board with a sweet header. 4-1 LA. If my Dad had been at the game, he would have muttered that FCD was spared the embarrassment of the shutout. Gotta cling to what dignity remains.
- 76th minute: Adrian Serioux got red-carded out of there. We in the stands thought Beckham got red-carded. Nope. FCD went down a defender, but it's not like they were using them anyway. Zing! Apparently it takes a yellow card for Beckham to get the crowd to audibly boo him.
- 86th minute: Beckham sent a cross on over to... wait for it... Edson "All-Star" Buddle. 5-1 LA. The mostly sold-out Pizza Hut Park starts to thin out. I can't imagine that people are going to be falling all over themselves to see FCD take on Real Salt Lake next weekend. Or any other team. It won't surprise me if heads roll after this.
- 88th minute: Screw this, I had a lot of stairs to climb and I parked somewhere just south of the Red River. I saw the final seconds from the top railing and smirked that the ref didn't bother adding stoppage time to the half. Pro soccer's equivalent to a mercy rule.
- Ballgame. This is a team that is in grave danger of not making the playoffs. Meanwhile, Houston, who had an even rougher start than FCD this season leapfrogs from last in the Western Conference to 3rd. FCD drops from perpetually tied for 1st or alone in 2nd to 4th. And falling. I'm not going to petulantly shred my season tickets or burn my FCD shirts. I will, however, lower my expectations accordingly and try to glom on to some positives. Like, hey, how about that Edson Buddle? Hat trick, baby! And Landon Donovan is even shorter in person than I expected. Oh, and I simply must compliment the lush natural turf at Pepperoni Park. Mmmmm.
- One more thing: I'm calling the Streamer Era officially over. It was cool when the Section 116 crowd did it after kickoff or following a goal strike by FCD, but the random streamering from anywhere and everywhere? Enough.
Click on the thumbnails to see the full-sized image. Enjoy!
Next up: FCD faces Real Salt Lake at home. Since I bought the half-slab of season tickets, that'll be a TV game for me. At least I'll be able to pause and fast-forward. <EM>
(Much, much more virtual ink has been spilled by me about Major League Soccer. The fledgling but growing MLS article archive may be found here.)
I enjoyed your re-cap very much! Your pictures are great (what kind of camera?), love the "they said it, not me" one. LOL!
Looking at the schedule, I see we have a couple re-matches. Maybe when FCD plays here, I will complete a similar highlight post.