Galaxy-Chivas running blog

FULL TIME: Match ends, Chivas 2, Galaxy 1. Chivas the deserved winner, the Galaxy were schooled. Thanks for your company.

90 - Bravo goes down inside box and no PK called because it wasn't a PK.

90 - Three minutes of stoppage time.

88 - Galaxy goal: Donovan! The ball skipped inside the box and Landon flicked it over Michel.

87 - Chivas looked like they were in midseason form; I hadn't thought they'd do too well in the Mexican league (I have them in the Liguilla but that's it) but I might change my mind.

82 - Chivas goal: Bravo! He latches onto a cross from Ramon Morales (I think) and he knocks it into the goal, the play started when the ball skipped away from Kelly Gray's foot.

81 - Landon Donovan hasn't played well at all; Chivas' defense has done well to pressure him and the rest of the Galaxy players.

76 - Galaxy sub: Gavin Glinton in, Troy Roberts out

76 - Pavon with another open header, and another bad miss; he rose for an Ante Jazic cross and flicked it harmlessly over the crossbar

75 - Chivas sub: Omar Bravo in, Santana out.

74 - "Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!" The fans are happy that Omar Bravo is coming into the match.

71 - Harmse tackled Pineda from behind, Pineda crumpled to the ground but no card for Harmse

67 - Chivas sub: Padilla out, Patricio Araujo in

66 - Carlos Pavon free header, sends it high.

65 - Vagenas rips 22-yarder that nearly beats Michel on left post; Galaxy corner goes nowhere.

64 - Galaxy sub: Harmse in, Kirk out.

59 - Chivas goal; Maza! Omar Esparza found Maza Rodriguez on the back post and Maza climbed for the header and knocked it past Cannon.

57 - Finally, Arellano out, Julio Nava in. Fans were screaming for Omar Bravo but no dice.

51 - It just occurred to me: I'll be at Lake Powell tomorrow falling on my ass as I try to water ski.... I better soak tonight in as much as possible...

51 - First Galaxy shot on goal: 51st minute, Landon straightaway from 24 yards, easy save by Michel.

46 - Legion 1908 just rolled down their gigantic flag; the middle was the Legion logo and it was flanked on either side by Chivas de Guadalajara and Chivas USA logos. Impressive.

46 - Okay, I'm back. Just knocked out 316 words on the first half. Might have to cut but gotta file right when game ends.

HALFTIME: Like a reader said, Chivas is carving up the Galaxy but to no avail. Chivas grew stronger as the match went on while the Galaxy didn't show much of anything. Okay, gotta do some writing for the PE so I'll be back in a bit.

45 - One minute of stoppage time.

45 - Jazic tried to clear the ball, ricocheted off a Chivas player, off his own face and into touch for a Chivas throw in.

40 - Galaxy sub: Vagenas in, Gordon out. Early reports are that Gordon is suffering from do-nothing-itis.

35 - Ante Jazic called for a foul 27 yards out, Morales hits a free kick on frame but Cannon extends and saves it; the scoreboard flashed to a shot of Frank Yallop and he's biting his nails.

33 - Santana blows what should have been Chivas' first goal; Ramon Morales blows by Xavier, races into into area and rips 12-yarder on goal; Cannon dives and knocks it out to Santana on right side; with an open goal in front of him, Santana instead flops around and hits it harmlessly wide.

30 - Another Chivas corner; Cannon punches it away, goes to Landon for a quick counter, foul and yellow on Kelly Gray. On a quick restart, Arellano winds up with the ball but again makes a mess of a shot in the box.

29 - Chivas corner kick; short corner, Morales to Padilla to Morales to Santana, who fires a shot off Alan Gordon and into touch; Gordon's down in apparent discomfort.

27 - Galaxy subs Peter Vagenas and Kevin Harmse are up; wise move, they need someone to win some balls and mix it up in the midfield; I'd guess take out Alan Gordon who has been the invisible man, move Landon to forward and bring in either Vagenas or Harmse.

25 - Chivas has had the majority of the possession, as expected if you saw the Pachuca match; but Chivas hasn't put anything near dangerous on frame, Padilla and Arellano leave lots to be desired.

24 - Galaxy corner kick, Landon takes it and pass goes off Kelly Gray and scooped up by Michel. Nothing doing.

23 - Arellano again withe the ball on the left of the area, gets around Roberts but Cannon grabs his attempted centering pass with ease.

20 - Omar Arellano with another poor play; he's held the ball on the left flank a few times and has done nothing. Now he just got called for a foul on Troy Roberts as Chivas held possession. No, Omar Bravo's not warming up quite yet.

19 - Oops. Troy Roberts botched a pass from Kelly Gray as it sailed into touch.

16 - Crowd looks like it's at about 30,000; I wonder if the Galaxy will announce 45,000-plus...

12 - Jesus Padilla carried the ball into the box, centered it and forced Cannon to dive; the ball floated up but no Chivas player was nearby and Troy Roberts cleared it; Chivas is starting to show some life.

11 - Omar Arellano had the ball on the left flank but made a mess of it; he over-dribbled and was nowhere near on target with his shot.

9 - Alan Gordon knocked down Maza Rodriguez from behind. No card; could have been a yellow.

7 - Gonzalo Pineda dyed his hair blond apparently because he wanted a different look; it's not Bofo Bautista, who is now with Jaguares.

2 - Sergio Santana with an open 22-yarder that went right to Joe Cannon.

2 - Landon took a long shot and missed by a lot.

1 - Game's finally underway.

0 - That was a debacle. The teams came out and announced that the Mexican anthem would be played first followed by the U.S. anthem. We got some strange little tune that wasn't an anthem at all. So the U.S. anthem started instead and when it was done many people cheered. Then, they announced that the Mexican national anthem was next. We waited, and waited, and waited. People started jeering and booing to fill the silence. Then, we heard some notes that sounded like parts of the anthem, but it sounded as if someone was rewinding it. The anthem started mid-stream, then skipped. It stopped and the announcer apologized and moved on to the starting lineups.

0 - The music hasn't been too bad. No Jay-Z tonight. We've been fed lots of Mana and Jaguares. Heroes del Silencio are on the stadium sound system right now. Mana of course are from

0 - The teams went back into the locker rooms. We're about a quarter-hour from kickoff.

0 - There looks like there's about 20 or so members of the Riot Squad out here. They started to chant and the thousands of Chivas fans in the stands booed and drowned them out.

Lineups are in; David Beckham is listed as a reserve but we were told yesterday that he'd probably be there. Don't see him out on the field, though, as the teams are going through their pre-game warmups.

Chivas: Luis Ernesto Michel; Omar Esparza, Hector Reynoso, Francisco "Maza" Rodriguez, Jonny Magallon; Sergio Santana, Ramon Morales, Gonzalo Pineda, Edgar Mejia; Jesus Padilla, Omar Arellano.

Galaxy: Joe Cannon; Ante Jazic, Troy Roberts, Ty Harden, Abel Xavier; Quavas Kirk, Landon Donovan, Kelly Gray, Chris Klein; Carlos Pavon, Alan Gordon.

And for good measure, the reserves...

Chivas: Alredo Talavera, Juan Ocampo, Patricio Araujo, Xavier Baez, Omar Bravo, Javier Hernandez, Julio Nava.

Galaxy: Steve Cronin, David Beckham, Kevin Harmse, Cobi Jones, Peter Vagenas, Edson Buddle, Gavin Glinton.