7/6/05: Four, Three, Two, One

Earth below us, drifting, falling, floating weightless...


Oh, I get it now. 7-6-05-4-3-2-1

Not Peter Schilling's Major Tom.

 

I know a movie star, I've got her plastered to my wall
Just like we're dear old friends, like she already knows me
She's perfect as she seems, lifts me right out the Mezanine
I finally fell in love, I've been waiting forever
4 3 2 1 Went out the barrel of the gun

 

Guster. Good choice.

 

Seconded.

Bongo-tastic.

 

From the San Bernadino Sun article:

"Look for Galaxy star Landon Donovan to miss some Gold Cup time with the national team to play for his MLS club in its July 18 exhibition vs. soccer superpower Real Madrid at the Home Depot Center. If Real Madrid shows up with even a few of its stars (Beckham, Ronaldo, Raul, Zidane, Figo), the Galaxy will need all hands on deck to avoid a blowout."

Really had to dig for that tidbit! The quarterfinals are July 16-17; I suppose one could argue that the US won't need Donovan for such a match.

 

Real Madrid won't beat Los Angeles 10-0 or anything like that. They might be able to, but they'd "shut it down" long before that.

 

anybody have a log in they'd be willing to share for the NY Times? There is a new Adu to Metrostars article but no bugmenot passwords are working. Thx.

 

userid: bigsoccer3
password: bigsoccer

 

Dude! I read through all that other-sport junk, all the while thinking I would eventually get to some well-known soccer "news." You should have added a note outside the link:

"Landon Donovan will actually ditch national team to play against Real Madrid!"

 

We'll see which players the Galaxy will have for this one, but Donovan's presence will be huge. I said last year when RM was planning to play here, the chances of a pre-season RM, thinking they are playing another Hong Kong XI, losing to a mid-season full-strength Galaxy are 50-50.

(arguments about all the stars, better league, etc. condensed here for acknowledgement, and rest assured I know who is on the team! - BUT the last stretch of last season was RM's best since 2002. In the ealry games of a season, they have lost to teams that end up relegated, and the psycological aspect of expecting a fairly easy win in almost every game is big.

 

Thanks!

 

I hope that was sarcasm. There is no way that they lose 10-0. That underestimates the quality of the sport here. They might even win, but I doubt it. Not if RM take it serious, which I also doubt. I just don't think any club in the world would walk into the HDC and beat the Galaxy 10-0. I don't even think a club could, even if they took it seriously.

 

Not sarcasm. I'm not saying Real Madrid could beat the Galaxy 10-0. I'm saying that if they could (maybe they're having a really good day and LA a terrible one), they wouldn't. I'd bet they go no more than 4-5 (again, if they can on the day).No need to embarass your hosts in a friendly game.

 

Now wait a minute. If FIFA won't let the Mexicans release 5 guys to play for Chivas in a club cup tournament that actually has some significance, how could they release Donovan to play in a friendly? Or does FIFA not have jurisdiction because it is a inter-confederation competition?

 

Guys, watching the Galaxy vs Revolution game at the HDC one thing became aparent to me... Real Madrid is going to feast on LA. I swear that was one terrible 80minutes of game right up until the last 10 minutes where both teams seemed to wake up a bit as if coming out of a trance. The game had NO URGENCY what so ever... I sometimes wish MLS would just add in the USL first division sometimes and make it a Pro/Reg league with some fun to it. Games like the one on the 4th of July would disappear. No urgency man, none!

 

I love what Alexi has done in such a short time up there. Not that he has done anything substantial for the team, mind you, but he definitely has them in the news. And that press is free advertising.

Now he needs to produce some results on the field. If he can do that we will have a legitimate story line on our hands.

 

if that glamor boy misses a US match for an effing friendly, he has lost his marbles as has Bruce Arena for letting him. It's not like LD wants to be in the shop window.

 

This effing friendly could potentially be more of a competitive match than any match that the Copa de Oro could produce aside from a Mexico v US final.

This Gold Cup reeks of disinterest thanks to Concacaf who has not yet managed to do anything right.

Has Cuba scored a goal in this competition yet?

 

That’s because both teams:
1) Had all their stars away playing for a stupid redundant tournament.
2) Are virtually guaranteed playoff spots because 66% of the teams in MLS make the post season and because of that no team has that sense of urgency until the last few weeks of the season.

 

Yeah....

Most of these preseason matches are dreadful. I'd say the likelihood of the Galaxy getting the ******** kicked out of them by Real Madrid is at least equally as high as there will be a few lopsided games in the Gold Cup. Additionally, I didn't notice us winning the thing last time out or making it to the final match, so maybe we should ease off of the arrogance towards this tournament.

 

Did you watch the first two Gold Cup games last night? They were both exciting and very competitive.

Cuba advanced to the quartefinals last time thanks to beating Canada.

 

Hey, hey, come on now...they've got Naldo!

 

Exactly what I was eluding too, pfft!