The rest of week 8 in the MLS
A classic battle in New York
While it was not the high scoring match that many consider the best MLS match in history (last years 5-4 Red Bulls victory of the Beckham led Galaxy in front of 65,000 plus fans), this weekends matchup between the Wizards and Red Bulls was one of the most exciting this season. KC started out with great possession and a calm, collected attack and for the first 10-15 minutes it looked like it would be a one sided battle with the home team getting the worse of it. Then all of a sudden the Red Bulls started attacking and forced a couple great saves by Hartman, and poured in several shots (they would have 20 on the night), but it was the Wizards who would strike first and take advantage of a great corner kick by Marinelli that Jimmy Conrad had no trouble finishing off. Once the scoring was started both teams settled down a bit and the next 10 minutes were rather boring, but then a great attack by New York, a shot by Richards, a save by Hartman but he doesn’t control it and Jozy pounds a ball towards the net but Jack Jewsbury clears the ball off the goal line to save the goal. Impressive on both sides and neither team slows down, this is a wide open match with a ton of chances for both teams, the first half would end with each team having 5 shots 2 on goal for KC, with one in, and 4 on goal for the Red bulls, but nothing on the scoreboard The first half ends 1-0 with KC in front of the Red Bulls.
The second half would be just as exciting as the first half, both teams continue to attack but the possession is a bit more limited for KC and New York seem to have started playing better as they control the pace of the match. The more time that NY plays in the final third of KC, the more chances and opportunities they get at the shots continue to rain in, but whenever Hartman makes a mistake someone covers the line and clears the ball for him, and the Red Bulls have to be pulling their hair out, since they are getting so many chances. In the 77th minute after being pushed, pulled, held and fouled by Davy Arnauld, Dave van der Bergh throws a haphazard elbow as he tries to get away, Arnauld goes down on the contact and the official issues a straight red card to Dave and a yellow to Davy. New York is rattled for a few minutes but they continue to attack and in the 81st minute Red Bulls rookie Danliegh Borman finally gets the Bulls on the scoreboard, and we are tied a 1 each. Another player from Africa making a difference on week 8 in the MLS, foreign players have over half the goals this season for the Red Bulls. After a foul on Jozy that was not called, Red Bulls head coach Juan Carlos Osorio is ejected from the match. New York down a man, and their head coach continue to attack and really control the match, a total of 32 shots (20-12 Red Bulls win that battle), and 10 of them on goal (8-2 advantage for the Red Bulls), but in the end the scoreboard shows 1-1 and each team will have to settle for a point in what was one of the most exciting matches of the year so far.
The Big Bang
Well if one believes the rocket scientists and such the Galaxy started with a big bang, all I know is if you ask the players and fans of FC Dallas, they would have to agree after the Galaxy explode at Pizza Hut Park. It started off slow with Dallas controlling the ball for the first 10 minutes or so, but then LA started putting long balls over the top to Landycakes and Buddle and while Dallas would try to counter attack, it was in minute 25 that everything started to go wrong for the Hoops. It was Chris Klein that would strike first on a ball served to his feet from the mid field stripe by Brandon McDonald, and Chris calmly put the ball by Sala going five hole on him. The attack would continue for the Galaxy, and while Dallas tried to counter attack it was clear that on this day the Galaxy would not be denied, six minutes later it was a play that started with a LA goal kick, played by Landon to Buddle who slipped behind the Dallas back line and put it pas Sala for goal number two for LA. But LA was just getting started, a mere three minutes later in the 34th on a long balled played over the top to Landycakes he put a shot of Dallas DP Davino for the third goal for LA, but this one goes in the books as a own goal. Much to the agony of Dallas the half was not over and in minute 39 it was Edson Buddle putting in his second of the match. Dallas tried to continue attacking but when you are down 4-0 at the half only a miracle can save you and on this day there simply were no miracles.
Dallas would have a couple highlights in the second half as Oduro got a goal in the 54th minute on a great cross by Cooper to get Dallas within three, but in the 75th minute any chance for a comeback were ended as Adrian Serioux was shown a straight red card for a hard studs up slide tackle that was late and from behind on Golden Balls, it was a well deserved red card. LA had one more trick in their bag and in the 85th minute they did something that no other team has done this year, yup for the second time this year a Galaxy player got a hat trick as Buddle got his 3rd goal of the match which is also his 3rd of the year on a great headed ball served up by Beckham (his 5th assist so far this year). The last few minutes were ugly as LA played keep away and Dallas ran after the ball with very little in the way of offensive chances. Two things are clear in the 5-1 Galaxy victory, first it should have been more like 8-1, but Landon did not finish a couple of chances that on most days would have found the back of the net, the second thing is that LA is finding out how to take advantage of teams that overplay the superstars. While both Landon and Beck’s were a big part of the effort, it was a guy making $150,000 a year that almost single handed got the win, on most teams Edson would be one of the top paid players, but on LA he is number 5 on the earning list.
RSL travels to Dallas next weekend, can RSL shake their road issues and play up to the quality they have shown at home? Will Morales be healthy enough to play, can RSL finally figure out how to use Kenny Deuchar, can RSL take advantage of Serioux being out on red card suspension? That match preview will be coming up on Thursday evening.
OFF MY SOAPBOX
This entry was posted on May 19, 2008 at 12:08 am and is filed under MLS Review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.