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.Half Time: Galaxy-Earthquakes
Fluid, creative and dangerous - in short all the things the Galaxy weren't last weekend - were hallmarks of the L.A. offense in the first half, yielding two goals without reply.
And it could have been more.
With Ely Allen proving a handful up the left flank, the Earthquakes defense has showed it can't handle the Galaxy's speed and anticipation so far.
After a shaky start that saw an Earthquakes goal disallowed after just two minutes (presumably for offside), the first goal came just seven minutes later.
A Ryan Cochrane error was seized upon by Landon Donovan who delivered a pass David Beckham side-footed into the net.
The second came eight minutes before half time when Alan Gordon fed Beckham, who slipped a wonderfully weighted pass to Donovan who beat Joe Cannon to the ball for the goal.
The Galaxy could have had a third just before the break when Alvaro Pires missed from point blank range from a Beckham free kick.
Overall, this was a completely different Galaxy team from the one we saw in Colorado with L.A. out-shooting the Earthquakes 11-2.