(AP Photo)

Galaxy 2 Houston 0

Game story.

It was a weird ending to a weird season that started with a franchise in shambles, a new coach, 16 new players, seemingly interminable and in some cases lucky draws and a very public spat between the team's two superstars.

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Galaxy 2 Houston Dynamo 0

Who would have thunk it at the outset of this season?

Two extra time goals by Gregg Berhalter (!) and Landon Donovan - his 17th postseason goal, the most in MLS (he was tied with Carlos Ruiz previously) - has given the Galaxy the win before an energized 25,373 even though it's past 11:30 p.

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So again, we take a look at the Orange Crystal Ball moving from the unidextrous to bidextrous results.
The first weekend, I have to say, was more than a little strange. From the sublime of the Dynamo/Seattle match to the ridiculous of Warzycha sitting Moreno AND Schelotto to the utterly predictable of a Steve Nicol-team being Lucy to the Chicago Fire's Charlie Brown to the completely surreal of the HDClasico draw. Click to continue reading...

Chivas USA 2 Galaxy 2

This is becoming a game when different players are making their worst errors of the season at the worst possible time.

The culprit this time was usually dependable Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez whose poor attempt at a back pass was gratefully intercepted and deposited in the back of the net by substitute Maykel Galindo who has knotted the game a two apiece.

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Chivas USA 1 Galaxy 2

Looks like we have the most entertaining game of the playoffs so far on display here this afternoon in Carson.

The upper deck has filled in nicely, too, which means a good walk-up (must be the quality of those previews this morning).

This game has threatened to spiral out of control a couple of times, with the fast pace contributing to errors in the middle of the park.

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Chivas USA 1 Galaxy 2

We just saw the Chivas USA screw-up of the season - and now the Galaxy have the lead just before halftime.

An inexplicable hoof back into the penalty box by Chivas USA forward Maicon Santos (was he trying to bicycle kick that ball out of danger?

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The biggest rivalry in Major League Soccer will have its first playoff installment today when the Los Angeles Galaxy faces Chivas USA in the first game of their Western Conference playoff series (5:30pm, ESPN2).

The Galaxy enters as the No. 1 seed in the West, and this series will feature David Beckham's debut in the MLS playoffs, while also signaling Landon Donovan's first appearance in the playoffs since he helped lead LA to the 2005 MLS Cup title.

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STARTERS
Don Garber will take calls on Fox Football Fone-In show on Mon Oct 26 from 6-8pm Central. Jesse Marsch of Chivas USA is also scheduled to appear.
dN
Minnesota Thunder GM Djorn Buchholz has left the team to become CEO of the Austin Aztex. On a personal note Buchholz has been a fantastic person to deal with at the team and will be greatly missed by me as a fan of the team. Click to continue reading...

Galaxy 2 San Jose Earthquakes 0

The Galaxy have held on for the win, but Seattle came back from a one-goal deficit to beat Dallas tonight.

The Galaxy are in the playoffs for the first time in four years.

What does that mean in terms of a playoff opponent?

The Galaxy will play the loser in Sunday's noon game between Chivas and Houston in the opening round of the playoffs; if the game is tied they will play Chivas USA.

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Galaxy 2 Earthquakes 0

After a rather listless first half, an end to end move by the Galaxy in the 77th minute has appeared to seal the win.

Goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts started the play, getting the ball to David Beckham, who passed to Landon Donovan, who in turn got it out wide to substitute Chris Klein on the wing.

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After watching the Palos Verdes Peninsula's Kevin Hartman, the former Galaxy goalkeeper, and Lawndale's Kei Kamara, who was playing against former club Houston, help Kansas City to a 1-1 draw today against the Dynamo, I'd be remiss in not acknowledging the exploits of another South Bay boy this weekend.

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The Columbus Crew stayed on pace for the Supporter's Shield, beating the Los Angeles Galaxy 2-0 at Crew Stadium. Also in the East, Toronto drew with Chicago and New York played spoiler splitting the points with Western Conference playoff hopefuls Chivas USA. San Jose reversed the spoiler role on Sunday, beating Eastern Conference contenders DC United. Click to continue reading...

                                   Photo by ISIphotos.com

The Los Angeles Galaxy and Houston Dynamo move closer to automatic playoff berths in the Western Conference while the Columbus Crew and Chicago Fire kept their places atop the East in a Week 27 of action that saw four ties out of six matches.

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The road to the MLS Cup.
Things are starting to clear up in the MLS playoff race, chase, whatever you want to call it.
Columbus (East No. 1), Houston (West No. 1), Chicago (East No. 2) and Los Angeles (West No. 2) have a solid lead on the guarantee berths.
The wildcard berths at this point look headed to Seattle, Chivas USA, Colorado and D. Click to continue reading...

Galaxy 2 Toronto FC 0

Game story

Toronto's Nick Garcia paid close attention to Edson Buddle. (AP Photo).

Best line of the night goes to Galaxy Coach Bruce Arena explaining why last weekend's debacle and this Saturday's game were so dissimilar:

"In all honesty Dave Sarachen coached the team last week and this week I was fully in charge.

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Galaxy 2 Toronto FC 0

Edson Buddle made it two in the 83rd minute, stroking home the ball from seven yards out off a one-time pass from Landon Donovan who had tapped along a low David Beckham cross. That's Buddle's fifth goal of the season and his second in two games.

The Galaxy should have scored more, Beckham most notably squandering an opportunity in the 80th minute after Chris Birchall had again set him up with a pass from a long Landon Donovan cross field ball.

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Galaxy 2 Dallas 3

How crap is Greg Berhalter? He just got torched not once, but twice on the same play by Jeff Cunningham to set up Dax McCarty who notched Dallas' third in the 71st minute.

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Galaxy 2 Dallas 2

Now that really was A.J. DeLaGarza's first Galaxy goal in the 42nd minute.

He initiated the move just outside the box, was turned back by the Dallas defense and Landon Donovan put Jovan Kirovski through up the right wing. Kirovski's shot was parried by Dallas goalkeeper Dario Sala and DeLaGarza picked up the rebound.

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I know I'm not the only one who thinks that DC United has gotten screwed by poor officiating multiple times this season, but this is really starting to get out of control. I can now count 7 points that have been stolen from us in 2009. If you're in the mood to be pissed off, view the videos and see for yourself. Click to continue reading...

Chicago offense fails to put a shot on goal
BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. - The Chicago Fire looked lethargic, out of sync ... pretty much any adjective that has a negative connotation to it. There was no way to hide the fact that this team did not show up, especially since they failed to put a shot on goal in front of a sellout crowd of 20,000, falling to the David Beckham-less Los Angeles Galaxy, 2-0, at Toyota Park. Click to continue reading...

Chicago Fire 0 Galaxy 2
The Galaxy's Mike Magee is denied by Fire goalkeeper Jon Busch. (AP Photo).

Games like these can change the direction of a season.

The Galaxy (8-4-10) got better as the game wore on, the 9-5-8 Fire worse at a sold out Toyota Park.

The result was a Galaxy away victory; they're now second in the Western Conference although Seattle can retake the automatic playoff spot with a win Thursday over New England.

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The Chicago Fire take on the Los Angeles Galaxy tonight at Toyota Park. No David Beckham, but LA still does have a strong road record while the Fire don't have the best home numbers.

I'll be watching so I decided to do a running commentary. Whether you are watching, or stuck somewhere you can't watch, please feel free to follow along here.

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GottapickgottapickgonnapicksomewinnersrightnowOKOKOKhereIgo!!!!!!!!!
Rules this week: No thinking. Just go, go, go.
Last week: 3-3
year to date: 64-77 (.454 or 17 games above blind chance)
DC UNITED at TORONTO FC. 1-1 draw DeRo scores early, but DC United comes back because, let's face it, Stefan Frei's rookie aura is wearing off. Click to continue reading...

Former Mutiny midfielder Steve Ralston [left] was back in the New England Revolution lineup Saturday night after injury, but his 83rd minute penalty kick goal couldn't prevent the Revs from losing to the LA Galaxy 2-1. The PK was Ralston's sixth of the season, which makes him the Revs leading goalscorer. Click to continue reading...

Any Lionel Messi fans out there?

Here's Messi juggling the ball atop the Space Needle, more than 500 feet above Seattle.

Lionel Messi, FC Barcleona, juggling atop the Seattle Space Needle - Click for full size picture - Courtesy: FCB/Sounders FC/SUM

FC Barcelona will face MLS's Seattle Sounders in a sold-out match at Qwest Field Wednesday, August 5.

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The Los Angeles Galaxy hosted Spanish club FC Barcelona in Saturday night at the Rose Bowl in a friendly. The match drew over 90,000 fans was nationally televised. Here's a full recap and video highlights of the match.

FC Barcelona beats Los Angeles Galaxy 2-1 Â - Video Highlights

Spanish club Barcelona edged the Galaxy 2-1 after a 2nd half goal from Suarez at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night.

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In a week when the heavies of European football struggled to make any significant impact around the globe*, comes another surprising result straight out of the bowels of Ireland. Shamrock Rovers, a team whose name sounds more like a wrestling move or a Robbie Williams album title than a football team, made a good account of themselves and put up an almighty battle against the squillion-dollar boys of Real Madrid. Click to continue reading...

In a week when the heavies of European football struggled to make any significant impact around the globe*, comes another surprising result straight out of the bowels of Ireland. Shamrock Rovers, a team whose name sounds more like a wrestling move or a Robbie Williams album title than a football team, made a good account of themselves and put up an almighty battle against the squillion-dollar boys of Real Madrid. Click to continue reading...

Milan e Galaxy empatam, Beckham desentende-se com adeptos
Ambiente de tensão entre médio inglês e público norte-americano
O Milan empatou com o LA Galaxy (2-2) no primeiro jogo da digressão norte-americana. O reencontro dos «rossoneri» com David Beckham não foi de boa memória para o inglês, que foi fortemente vaiado pelos seus próprios adeptos e não se ficou. Click to continue reading...

It was always going to be an interesting game. David Beckham's first game of the season against the team he played for this winter. Would the Galaxy fans embrace Beckham or would they be upset at how he treated them and MLS this winter?

From the banners around the sold-out Home Depot Center it was pretty apparent before kick-off how the Galaxy fans felt.

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Galaxy 2 AC Milan 2

This game petered out after the two second half goals as one might expect, with AC Milan satisfied to share the spoils and the Galaxy with both Landon Donovan and David Beckham subbed out by game's end never likely to muster enough creativity to score a winner.

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Galaxy 2 AC Milan 2

(Blogging software issues - apologies).

AC Milan showed how fast it could strike in the 61st minute, half time substitute Filippo Inzaghi finishing off a a deadly move of stunning swiftness and simplicity with a shot from 12 yards out that beat sub Josh Saunders in the net.

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Just us here for live commentary in the (you guessed it) comments section. I would commit to live-blogging it, but I can't count on staying functionally awake until 1am my time.

It should be a great match entertaining with lots of side action. This is Eskandarian's first game against his former team, and Chivas is his former team by fewer than two weeks.

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Remember if you have any questions for the players or coaches, post here before halftime and I will do what I can.
Venue:
Home Depot Center, Carson, CA
Weather:
Clear and 68 degrees
Referees:
Head Ref: Michael Kennedy
Asst Ref: Corey Rockwell
Asst Ref: David Bragg
4th Official: Kevin Stott
Actual Lineups:
Houston Dynamo (8-2-4,28pts)
GK Pat Onstad
RB Mike Chabala
CB Geoff Cameron
CB Bobby Boswell
LB Richard Mulrooney
RM Brian Mullan
CM Brad Davis
CM Stuart Holden
LM Corey Ashe
RS Brian Ching
LS Kei Kamara
Subs
Los Angeles Galaxy (2-3-9, 15pts)
GK Donovan Ricketts
RB AJ DeLaGarza
CB Omar Gonzalez
CB Gregg Berhalter
LB Todd Dunivant
RM Chris Klein
CDM Stefani Miglioranzi
CAM Jovan Kirovski
LM Eddie Lewis
RS Alan Gordon
LS Edson Buddle
Subs
PRE-GAME:
-Patrick Beatty Click to continue reading...

Lots of other action this week, both in SuperLiga and CONCACAF Champions League stuffs. I don't really care much about that.
I certainly won't launch the Fire up the rankings for a couple wins in SuperLiga. It's a different competition and these are 'MLS' rankings not 'CCL' rankings.
Anyways, both D. Click to continue reading...