Without a captain the ship will sink

     Saturday night the LA Galaxy took on the KC wizards at the Home Depot Center in what many thought would be the turn around game for LA, but it turned out to be the exact opposite. At this time I would like to give a warning, what you are about read is solely my opinion and I will probably say some things you will not agree with. We don’t have to agree, but at least hear me out.

     The Wizards took us down 2-0 at home, how the heck did that happened? While most people will look for answers as to what was different with the Galaxy I decided to take a look at what’s been consistently wrong. Many may consider this blasphemy but I’m calling out names starting with Ricketts. Remember when were shutting out teams and everyone was going home with unused chicken coupons? Suddenly things get rocky in the back 4 and we start to lose. Now let me see if I got this right, when we lose it’s the defense’s fault right? But when we got all those shutouts we gave the credit to Ricketts? The mistakes the defense makes have never lead to a 1 on 1 between Ricketts and a striker. Saturday’s second goal was all Rickett’s fault. It’s hard to block a goal off the post but it’s even harder when you are blocking the far post on a free kick from almost midfield. When ever I watch a game with a soccer fan who has never watched the MLS before the first thing I always hear is “your keeper sucks.” Being the loyal a Galaxy fan I always answer “he started the season with 9 shutouts and he’s the MLS All-Star’s keeper” only to be hear back “he must have a great defense in front of him.” Sure he made some great saves, but his wild goal kicks up top are just basically giving away possession, and we all know that the Galaxy’s strength is in its speed. How can we expect them to be quick when they have to use their legs to win the ball back every time it’s a goal kick?. How can we expect to get into an offensive rhythm if we have to fight for the ball most of the game? I believe this is where the galaxy miss Juninho the most, when he's in the middle the Galaxy win more possession and that allows Donovan to spread out more and save his legs for his sprints, not just chasing the ball around. Another name that needs to be called out is Leonardo, whose mistakes never lead directly to a goal but result in other defenders having to over help leaving another man open. He’s also not good at handling pressure, and the Galaxy have been seeing a lot of that lately. De La Garza isn’t exactly the Galaxy’s answer to this spot, but I believe he’s capable of filling those shoes while Berhalter is away. Still, this is not Rickett’s fault or Leonardo’s fault. This is the team’s fault, and when that happens we look at the captain and the coach to make the adjustments on and off the field.

     Ever see Kobe grab a teammate by the jersey and give him hell for missing a mark? Or watch him demand the ball and put up a 3? Listen to him give the ref a mouthful and get a technical? Remember when Phil Jackson publicly called out Gasol and let him know his team was counting him? These are the things that separate the champions from everyone else. I hate to say it but we’re not looking like champions by any sense of the word. See Kobe seems to understand one thing that Landon doesn’t and that is that there is a time to play your role, and a time to be a leader. Lets face it, the passion is gone from the Galaxy and that all falls on leadership. Where’s the fire?! Where’s the magic?! Where’s the Galaxy team that we all fell in love with that played every game like it was for the championship?! See that picture up above of Donovan, when's the last time you seen that passion?  Donovan seemed really interested in leaving during the transfer window, maybe his heart left but he’s stuck here and it’s showing in his game. The Galaxy need a captain and they need one now. I know one guy who would love that armband…here’s looking at you Beckham. @Trunksra

Soccer: It's status in the U.S.A

Good Afternoon everyone. Hope you're having a great day. Today I'd like to talk about the great sport of Soccer or how I first learned to say it, futbol. Before I became a complete fan of all sports I was first a fan of soccer. Growing up in a Mexican family that's the only sport worth talking and watching. I watched the FMF mostly but I'm more of an International fan. International soccer is more than just soccer. They're representing a whole country and in this sport that's big. That's why my favorite sporting event is the World Cup. One true champion and everyone else comes in second place. Not literally but you know what I mean. Soccer is the worlds number one sport no doubt about that but, that fact does not apply in the U.S. The Men's national team is improving, and the Women's team is dominating, more and more kids across the States are growing up playing soccer, but it's still not catching on to the overall mainstream of sports that is football, basketball, and baseball. My take on this is very simple. We are spoiled to be able to be a fan of great leagues like the NFL, NBA, MLB, both College football and basketball,  and for some the NHL. We can choose what we want to play or follow. There's also other things like tennis, boxing, golf, etc. Most other countries don't have this and their whole core revolves around soccer. It doesn't help that the media never talks about soccer unless the Men's national team is doing something big. I have never turned on a radio station that has it's topic on the MLS. Sure ESPN carries some MLS games but It's never talked about on the biggest sports show on TV that is Sportscenter. They only talk about it when big names are in the news or if it's the MLS  championship and even then they don't mention it till the end of the show. Any other championship is talked about through the whole show. Its sucks but that's the way it is and I don't see it changing anytime soon. In my opinion the MLS will never catch on to the other leagues because of the reasons I've mentioned and THEY ARE NOT GETTING ANY HELP FROM THE MEDIA! Like I said, I personally love the sport, am not an MLS fan, but I do hope that it gets to a point where we include it with the other sports. Then I might jump on the bandwagon. Thanks for reading. - Ramses Sanchez - @Sportsallday83

Hitchhiker's Guide to the L.A. Galaxy

Happy Monday! Galaxy fans it’s time for another Hitchhikers Guide to the L.A. Galaxy. It’s been kind of a crazy week for me and I’ve been a little short on time. There has been a lot going on in the MLS and a lot in my life so it’s hard to find a balance between the 2. Still, I will always love the Galaxy and for that reason alone, I will make time to blog. Let’s tweet it up.

@llovelylleslie “Omar Omar Omar USA USA USA!!!!”

Way to go Omar! Making U.S. fans and Galaxy fans proud playing in his first ever cap for the USMNT. Omar Gonzalez got the starting role and held it down the whole game against Brazil. He did look a little fatigued, but with his schedule who could blame him. Lets hope he makes it to Brazil in 2014.

@LizLeppanen: “http://twitpic.com/2df6vo - Daughter showing off her Landon tattoo she got at the @LAGalaxy Soccerfest on Saturday.”

That “tattoo” looks great, where do I get mine?

@RaymondLeone: “La Gazzeta dello Sport FRONTPAGE Aug. 6 Dinho verso i Galaxy "Ronaldinho to the Galaxy" http://bit.ly/9JD81U”

We all saw it and by now we all know it’s not true. Well, at least for now…

@Edge4L: “check out David Beckham in this years @lagalaxy jersey http://tinyurl.com/332u82a picture taken by Robert Mora”

David Beckham is back with the team, well not completely back but it feels good to see him back in a Galaxy jersey. He should be ready to play by October 1st, but knowing David we know there is a good chance we will be back before then. Since the Galaxy didn’t sign a 3rd DP we can expect the focus to shift in Beckham’s direction, let’s hope he’s up for the challenge.

@floyd88snyder: “Real Madrid come back to beat Los Angeles Galaxy in 5 goal thriller”

I know this game was only 9 days ago but it already feels like forever. What a great game, both sides were able to provide some great play and even a little kung fu. I remember reading another tweet on this that made me laugh, something like “Our starters kicked your ass the second half, oh yea? Well our starters kicked your ass the first half.” Lol, yeah that pretty much sums it up but the final score of 3-2 tells a lot more.

@beck723: “wish beckham can help @LAGalaxy win the title this season, and eventually proves capello wrong and gets his place back in the england squad”

This week Fabio Capello announced that Beckham would no longer be called to play for England’s national squad. He offered Beckham the chance for a farewell match in November, but Beckham’s people were quick to decline stating that Beckham was surprised to hear Capello’s announcement and was under the impression he would get to play for England in the 2012 Euro Cup. “The End of an Era” were the headlines coming out of England shortly after the announcement, but I don’t believe it. Beckham has made a career out of proving people wrong and Capello’s words have surely fueled the fires of Beckham's return. Let’s hope that all this motivation will transfer into on-field success for Beckham and the Galaxy.

@BradLtv: “@edsonbuddle congrats on your 13th goal yesterday! you carried the @lagalaxy to a win!! @lagalaxy still #1 in the West”

Saturday the Galaxy stuck it to a sold out Red Bull arena with a 1-0 victory over the Red Bulls. Sure 1-0 doesn’t sound like much but honestly the Galaxy were in full control of this game. Edson Buddle scored his 13th goal, this guy is on fire! We may not have signed a 3rd DP but with Buddle and Gonzalez it feels like we’re cheating with 4 DP’s. The Galaxy were looking like the team we seen start off the season so hot, mostly because of the return of Juninho…or maybe the absence of Gordo. Juninho made his presence felt in the midfield, something that the G’s have been lacking for some time now. Magee also returned to Galaxy, but looked a little sluggish and also made some risky tackles. I’m a fan of Magee, I’m sure once the rust wears off we can expect some great play from him. Bruce Arena had to watch the game from a suite having spent the 2 nights prior to the game in the hospital with “viral complications.” Let’s hope Arena gets better soon, he didn’t seem to bad up in the suite. Overall the Galaxy are looking great and are only going to get better with Beckham's return, it looks like we are on our way back to the MLS cup. Go Galaxy!

That’s it for this edition of Hitchhiker’s guide to the LA Galaxy, thanks for reading. @Trunksra

Hitchhikers Guide to the L.A. Galaxy

It’s Friday! Woot woot! Even better, it’s the Friday before The Galaxy take on Real Madrid at the Rose Bowl. I’m really excited; it’s been a busy week in the world of Soccer so let’s get right to the tweets.


@Ryan_Weiss: “Sad to see an era come to an end” RT @LAGalaxy “legend Clint Mathis will retire after Saturdays match against @RealMadrid http://bit.ly/bExGvT

Clint Mathis is set to retire after Saturday’s match against @RealMadrid, a perfect game to say goodbye. No disrespect to the HDC, but the Rose Bowl full of fans is a great way to say goodbye. I’m hoping Mathis finds the net Saturday and puts an exclamation point at the end of his career. Good luck Clint!!! Go get yours.

@Edge4L: My dad been telling me about this been all over Spanish Radio RT @mlsrumors Landon Donovan to CF Monterrey?

I’m not sure what’s funnier about this tweet, the fact the rumor only lasted about 3 hours or that black strip on @Edge4L’s avatar that’s been plaguing people on twitter. This rumor came straight from CF Monterrey by publicly expressing an interest in Donovan on their website, but that’s about as far as it went. This might become more realistic in the offseason, but seems unlikely.

@GarMar88: Although #LAGalaxy won't advance in #CCL, we won 2-1.We put an end to our budding losing streak but we still have to get it together. :/

Bittersweet was the feeling most Galaxy fans felt after Wednesday’s win over The Islanders. Sure, we played a great game, but being eliminated from the CCL fotruly sucks. At least we got a win on the road, which makes me feel a little better. Hopefully we can focus on the MLS Cup now and get back on track.

@DamianCalhoun: “Ronaldinho to the Galaxy rumors are just like Bebe's kids...they don't die, they multiply. #robinharris #mls”

Hahaha, couldn’t be any truer. The Ronaldinho rumor has somehow crawled out of the dirt it was buried in to come back to life once more. Apparently the Galaxy have put a new offer on the table for 8mil and reports are coming out of Italy stating that AC Milan are on the brink of releasing the Brazilian. I’m not sure if its true, but this time around it has more credibility and a different feel to it. If you want to read up on it a little more check out yesterday’s article.

@ChrisV323: Imagine the @LAGalaxy in The Final vs New York.. Donovan, Beckham, Buddle, And Ronaldinho vs a wack team of Henry, Marquez, And Angel.GO LA

Lol…

@GrantWahl: Alan Gordon--longest-tenured LA Galaxy player, the Shane Smeltz of MLS--traded to Chivas USA for allocation money.

Alan, Alan, Alan…..I promised myself I wouldn’t say anything negative about you so I won’t. Let’s just leave it at that. Good luck with the goats and thanks for your years with the Galaxy.

@LAGalaxy: Gonzalez (@omar_gonz) joins @EdsonBuddle & @landondonovan on #USMNT roster for 8/10 match vs Brazil: http://bit.ly/9nsg2x

Finally, Omar gets the call up to the USMNT. He’s been called up to camp before, but has never played a minute. Not sure if he will get to see some action against Brazil, but I would love it if he did. This kid is a beast in the box and can hold his own with most. This is a great opportunity for the USMNT to start exploring new possibilities, but with most of the WC roster returning that won’t be achieved. Let’s hope Buddle and Gonzalez see some major minutes.

That’s it for this Friday’s Hitchhiker’s guide to the Galaxy. See everyone tomorrow, thanks for reading. GO GALAXY!!! @Trunksra

????? to the Galaxy

This morning word hit the net that The L.A. Galaxy are giving up Alan Gordon to Chivas U.S.A. for some $$$. Earlier this week The Galaxy announced the Retirement of former #USMNT Clint Mathis. Yesterday, we heard about the signing of GK Brian perk and speculation that Saunders is on his way out. But, out of all these pieces of news, the next is the most important. Landon Donovan phoned in to KIIS 102.7 yesterday morning to promote the upcoming match vs. Real Madrid, but before it ended he made a comment a lot of people over looked. Donovan, when asked about his future with LA replied, “I'll see what happens as it comes around. For now it's still pretty preliminary, but I would guess at some point soon it'll be more realistic." You can make what you want of that but I believe it’s pretty clear.

So, The Galaxy have not only made cap room, but also some roster space. The one thing I believe is clear is that someone is on his way in. But who? No one really knows. The only rumored trade to The Galaxy has been about Ronaldinho. Now, with that in mind lets take a look at what most are considering a non-related story. Apparently, AC Milan has accepted an offer of €8m from Brazilian club Palmeiras for “not on the market” Ronaldinho. What you might not have heard is that The Galaxy have made a new offer to Milan for the same amount. What I believe adds to the legitimacy of this story is lack of a contract extention between Milan and Dinho, when negotiations were going “so well” last week. Ronaldinho to The Galaxy? Probably not, but if he’s not heading to LA, who is? Let us know what you think. @Trunksra

Just some guy named Brett Favre

By now you probably have heard that Brett Favre has "retired" for the third time and believe it or not, I do care. Brett and I go way back simply because I'm a die hard 49ers fan and had to witness a lot of Brett Favre heroics against them. I remember all the games against the Packers, especially the ones at Lambeau Field where it always seemed like something magical was in the air and the 49ers just didn't have a chance. I truly honestly really disliked Brett Favre. One of the highlights in my life is when I got the chance to go see my first 49ers game in San Francisco and it had to be against Favre and the Packers. Let's just say he picked us apart. So the first time Brett retired I could care less. The second time he retired I was hoping it was for sure this time. I was getting sick of all the Favre talk about weather or not he was coming back or not. But this time around I'm actually bummed out if he does end up retiring. I actually want and hope he comes back. Last year was probably his best year ever and he made the Vikings a very enjoyable team to watch. To me he can still play and I hate to see great players leave when it's obvious they're still one of the best players in their league and Brett is one of them. I will not believe he's retired for good until a whole NFL season goes by, then i might. Whatever happens noone really knows, but in the end he will do whatever is best for him and his family and we will all move on to what should be a great NFL season. Thanks and God Bless.

Hitchhiker's Guide to the L.A. Galaxy

Welcome back everyone! This is only the second edition of Hitchhikers Guide to the @lagalaxy and I’m already a couple days late. Still, can you blame me? My Birthday was on Friday and I was sick at home with a cold and by the way the Galaxy have been playing you don’t exactly wake up with the urge to blog. Anyway, as loyal Galaxy fans we have to take the good with the bad. OK, lets get to the tweets.




@llovelylleslie: “Woooooo! RT @LAGalaxy Landon Donovan knocks in the PK for his 100th #MLS goal! #LAGalaxy”

@JMoNGE: “Video of @LAGalaxy's @LandonDonovan's 100th MLS Goal taken from Section 121 - http://bit.ly/bKNfO7 - #MLS”



That’s right! Landon Donovan finally scored #100! He’s the 6th player in MLS history to do so. He also scored #101 in the same game, both off penalty kicks in comeback effort that fell short in Sunday afternoon’s 3-2 loss to the Chicago Fire. Check out @JMoNGE’s video of the PK, definitely captures the essence of the Home Depot Center.

@SEN0486: “Just purchased my tickets to @LAGalaxy vs. Real Madrid!!! http://bit.ly/clGtMT”

This Saturday, August 7th 2010, the Galaxy will hold their annual summer exhibition. This year's exhibition will be at the Rose Bowl against La Liga Giants Real Madrid. Ronaldo and Kaka among others are expected to play. If you haven’t bought tickets you might be out of luck as I hear most of the cheap seats are already sold out. Lucky for me my tickets were apart of my season tickets for the Galaxy.

@LSanchez: “I'm glad I never bought an @LAGalaxy jersey with @landondonovan's name on it. True captains don't talk about wanting to go to another team”

Rumors surfaced last week about LD possibly leaving LA. This week Donovan made some comments that didn’t exactly say he wants to leave, but that he is very open to the possibility. My stance on this scenario has always been the same, Donovan is great player but if he wants to leave, let him. I don’t want anyone wearing a Galaxy jersey if they don’t want to.

@jwmcclelland: “MLS All-Star game proves how worthless All-Star games are. Would have rather seen Mancs v Galaxy or @Columbus_Crew #mlsallstar”

A little harsh, but a 5-2 loss for an “All-Star” team is just plain sad. I understand it’s supposed to all be in fun, but what’s fun about watching your favorite players get smashed? There is something belittling about the fact that we get all the best players in our whole league to face Man U. and still lose by 3. If we are not going to put our best foot forward in the international ring, maybe we shouldn’t step in at all. We may understand the loss and the fact that the team is not really a team, but overseas this takes a toll on our leagues reputation. Maybe we should go back to an East vs West setup again. Anyway, just because the MLS All-Star game is flawed doesn’t mean all All-Star games are. I happen to love the NBA’s All-Star weekend and you can catch me behind the tube all weekend long.

@FanUnited: “Becks confirms he is not joining West Ham http://bit.ly/bPboet”

Word hit the net this week that West Ham United we’re talking to David Beckham about a possible move back to the EPL. A spokesman for Beckham quickly dismissed the rumor saying, "David is happy at the Los Angeles Galaxy and has no interest in leaving, and is looking forward to returning to the team on August 9." I’m glad to hear this, but if there is anything that we learned from Beckham’s time in the MLS is that you can take anything he says seriously.

@Marcial_Diana: “Los Angeles Galaxy smashed by PR Islanders, 4-1: MLS's best club, the Los Angeles Galaxy, was embarrassed at home ... http://bit.ly/9v4W9R”

Last Tuesday the Galaxy faced the Islanders in the preliminary round of the CONCACAF champions league at the Home Depot Center and things got ugly. The Galaxy were smashed by the Puerto Rican club 4-1 in what many thought would be an easy win for the Galaxy. For those watching it really felt like the Galaxy never even had a chance. Hopefully the Galaxy can answer back on Wednesday in Puerto Rico but its highly unlikely. The Galaxy are starting to show major signs of fatigue and all this flying around is not helping one bit. Let’s see what happens come Wednesday. That's all for this edition of Hitchhiker's Guide, thanks for reading. @Trunksra