And those words are: Western Conference Champions!

In another step in the worst-to-first journey that MLS Coach of the Year Bruce Arena has taken the team on, the Los Angeles Galaxy turned away a stiff challenge from the Houston Dynamo in 30 minutes of extra time with a 2-0 scoreline.

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Having a good year these two.

If you are one of my players reading this pay attention to what they are saying, this could be you one day!

Believe in it!

JM

If you are watching this video on the main page of the blog and the video is sticking out into the categories on the right hand side I apologize.

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And that word is: Punchless.

Or it could be seven words: This team is nothing without Landon Donovan.

So let's start with the positive: shutting out Houston at home in front of a sell-out crowd and forcing Pat Onstad to actually make some saves. Once again Donovan Ricketts proves his worth making a busload of saves and the backline bends but doesn't break.

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And those word are: Gutting it out.

The Los Angeles Galaxy took three points at home from a determined Fire team populated with a large number of replacement for injured players. As has been the case all season, the defense provided the base from which the Galaxy was able to generate just enough offense to put the game away.

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Photo by Getty Images
And those words are: Not the time to tinker.

Let me be clear at the beginning. I'm not a coach, I've never been a coach, and I don't have access to the kinds and amounts of information an MLS coach has at his disposal, nor the skills to interpret it. But, having said that, I just plain didn't understand Bruce Arena's starting lineup yesterday.

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Loads of goals this week in MLS. Some were good and others were so-so. Throw in a few PKs and it was a busy weekend in MLS.

There are plenty of goals this week, especially since we had a 6-3 game and a 3-2 game.

Order of video: Frankie Hejduk, Maicon Santos, Dave van den Burgh, Jeff Cunningham, A.

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Photo by Getty Images

And those words are: EPIC FAIL! Or maybe I've got five words: What the @#$%&! was that? 6-3? That's a team record for goals allowed in a game. 4 FCD goals game after the 70th minute. Three came after the 81st minute. It was an unbelievable set of breakdowns across the board and a new-look, increasingly confident, and very fast Dallas team took full advantage.

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And those words are: That's what I'm talking about!

Last week I was all about "No More Ties!", not because i have a vendetta against neckwear (and a penchant for lame puns), but because winning teams know how to scratch out wins from adverse conditions at crunch time. The frustrating game in DC was the catalyst, though it was the third game in a week played in the aftermath of a hurricane at the end of August in DC's home stadium.

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Aaaaaand we're back with Los Angeles Galaxy analysis.

My apologies to everyone for disappearing just as the Galaxy does three games in a week. I was at a conference in Pittsburgh then in my hometown in North Carolina for some family-time as we saw my grandmother off into the next stage of her journey through the universe.

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Photo by C.J. Guntner

And those words are: Getting there.

In the normal MLS scheme of things I wouldn't be so cautious about a win on the road over the New England Revolution, but the fact is that if not for the Red Bulls' epic FAIL of a season, New England's struggles would be much bigger news.

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Photo by Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

Here are a series of impressions from my experience of the Galaxy - Barcelona match.

*****
Saturday morning at the Farmer's Market I frequent I met fellow futbol blogger Jennifer Doyle who writes From A Left Wing which explores the "cultural politics of soccer".

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And those words are: I'll take it.

The Galaxy put together their longest winning streak of the year at three, all 1-0 victories, all against tough teams (Houston, New England, Chivas), though you could argue that this is turning out to be a kind of lost season for the Revs. The scoreline is starting to remind me of the increasingly iconic 2-0 result that the US MNT always seems to get in huge games.

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And those words are: Pleasantly Surprised.

I watched this game twice, once in person (commenting from the stands on Jen's pre-game posting) and once on the MLSLive.tv stream and both times I was impressed at how the Galaxy ended up playing their game and made the Dynamo adjust to them. How unusual!

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And those words are: That was disappointing.

I admit that I was suckered by the recent 10 game non-losing streak into believing that the technical deficiencies of the team could be compensated for by heart and determination. Even as I wrote about the mediocrity of the midfield, the ability to gain points on the road and refuse to lose got me into the dangerous head space of thinking that the Galaxy could consistently compete with any team in the league.

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I've got two words for you in the aftermath of the Galaxy's second victory of the year, on the road in Toronto.

And those words are: Edson Buddle.

Two appearances in the last two games, both with less than 30 minutes to go in the match and two goals displaying heads-up play and clinical finishing.

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I gave myself the better part of two days before committing this Galaxy-FCD postmortem to the foreverness of the internets because I wanted to get past the bitter taste of frustration lingering in my mouth after Saturday's excursion to Frisco. I wanted to see if that would change what I had to say.

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This was the best game of the season from the Galaxy by far. For long stretches the midfield dominated possession, taking the game to the San Jose defense, resulting in 12 shots (four on goal) and three corners. The Galaxy's make-shift frontline had consistent problems in the final thrid of the field, often failing to shoot or put the shots on frame, but the fact that the team was even in that position was something of a revelation after the first three games of the season.

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Ah, the season home opener! Plenty of California sunshine (with the occasional cloud and rain shower), a full stadium (well, 18,000 announced attendance), a team fresh off pre-season (except for injuries to the starting keeper, starting forward, starting left back/midfielder, and possible starting holding midfielder plus the absence of the team's highest paid player) ready to redeem itself for the last two years.

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