Columnist Nick Green has written 100 Percent Soccer
since 2005. A
native of England, he began writing about soccer in
the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat
in the stands for one in
the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home
Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas
USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer.
Married to a long-suffering soccer widow, he has a cat
named Pele.Saturday Galaxy Gameday & More
The Galaxy are set to feast on Canadian cutlets shaped like Toronto FC soccer players at Home Depot Center tonight with LA seeking a five-game winning streak against the worst team in MLS.
(The last time the Galaxy won five regular season games in succession: the magical 1998 season when a free-scoring front line with such strikers as Welton, Carlos Hermosillo and Clint Mathis were racking up 5-1 and 8-1 victories).
Toronto are weakened yet further by the loss of Carl Robinson (Wales); Andrew Boyens (New Zealand); and potential Rookie of the Year candidate Maurice Edu (USA), who are all on international duty this weekend.
At least Toronto may feel slightly at home on what will likely be a cool night in Carson.
Beat writer Billy Witz has a preview that focuses on the Galaxy's maturing (and inexpensive) youngsters.
Kick off is at 7:30 p.m. and I'll blog from the game as usual.
Meanwhile, the suspicion is Chivas USA's Ante Razov is gone for the rest of the season (although the club is awaiting the results of an MRI) and there's more soap opera out of the U.S. Women's National Team camp ahead of today's (non-televised) game against Mexico. More details here.
In college soccer, the UCLA men and Stanford tied 0-0 Friday. With the tie, UCLA moves to 4-5-2 on the year and 0-1-1 in the Pac-10. Stanford moves to 4-2-5 overall and 1-0-2 in the Pac-10. The Bruins play at 2:30 p.m. Sunday against California.
In the other game of the doubleheader, a goal in the 82nd minute by Bruin midfielder Christina DiMartino helped the top-ranked UCLA women’s team to a 1-0 victory over Oregon State before 1,492 fans at Drake Stadium. With the win, the Bruins move to 8-1-2 overall and 1-0 in the Pac-10. UCLA also extended its home winning streak to 33 matches, the longest streak in the nation. The Beavers fell to 7-4-1 and 0-1 in conference action.
Notable: Bruin goalkeeper Valerie Henderson broke the school record for career shutouts. She now has 32.
UCLA hosts Oregon at noon Sunday at Drake Stadium.
Also, Gonzaga struck twice in the second half to win 3-1 over the Loyola Marymount men in a West Coast Conference match Friday in Spokane, Wash.
Next for the the 2-6-1 Lions is a game Sunday in Portland.