Across The Pond
The MLS fixtures kicked off a little early this week with it being July 4th and Independence Day in the United States. Despite the US celebrating becoming independent from the UK, he irony is that both LA Galaxy and Toronto have British players in their squads and have proven to be key players this season, none more so than David Beckham of the LA Galaxy.
David Beckham/LA Galaxy
We will start with the New England Revolution, who of course faced David Beckham and his LA Galaxy team mates at the Home Depot Centre. With both teams at the top of their respective conferences, there was bound to be at least some fireworks as these two evenly matched sides look to see who could break away first.
The Revs, minus Alan Irvine's transfer target Taylor Twellman, looked to be the better team in the first half and were rewarded for their efforts. After 33 minutes New England won themselves a corner and after a tantalizing ball in from the left, a powerful header by Shalri Joseph was saved by goalkeeper, Steve Cronin. Sadly for Cronin and LA he could only spill the ball into the path of Adam Cristman who had the simple task of tapping in from close range. 1-0 Revs.
Just 4 minutes later Cristman was there again, this time it was his turn for a powerful header. Another great ball in from a corner was met by Cristman who was head and shoulders above everyone else to make it 2-0. Not a great start for the Galaxy who really needed to sort themselves out if they were going to have any chance of salvaging a result from this match.
Accordingly, Galaxy came out from the break fired up and looked like they were going to get themselves back in the game. After 66 minutes, Galaxy broke on the counter attack with Landon Donovan being the driving force behind most of their attacks. A ball in the box was cleared only as far as Beckham who hit a half volley into the net via a deflection. With the score now at 2-1, it looked inevitable for the Galaxy to equalise but to no avail as sadly for the Galaxy they failed to add to that goal and the game finished at 2-1.
Without a win in three, Galaxy will be looking to rectify that when they take on Chivas USA at home on Thursday 10th July.
Danny Dichio/Toronto FC
Toronto took a break from the MLS and this week concentrated on the cup competitions as they welcomed the visit of the Vancouver Whitecaps. The Whitecaps became the first team to visit BMO Field and come out victorious as they beat Toronto 1-0. Aa goal from Martin Nash from a 36 minute spot kick was enough to send them into the second leg with the advantage. Although with the aggregate score at just 1-0 the game is delicately poised for the return leg on Wednesday.
Toronto don't seem to be having much look at the moment in cup competitions as they crashed out to Pachuca in the Carlsberg Cup this week. With the game level at 1-1 thanks to goals from Christian Correa and Julius James for Pachuca and Toronto respectively, the game went to penalties where Pachuca came out on top winning the shootout 4-3.
Up next for Toronto is the aforementioned return leg with Vancouver Whitecaps in the cup before a visit to Brian McBride's preferred destination, Chicago Fire on Saturday 12th July.
Brian McBride
Speaking of McBride, there seems to be no news on his proposed transfer to the MLS other than that Chicago Fire are becoming increasingly desperate for his services following another disappointing result. Fire are now without a win in their last four games and so are anxious to tie up the player as soon as possible. However, with Toronto playing hardball still it seems this transfer saga is going to drag on for a good while yet. There will be more news on this when we have it.