Galaxy-Pachuca

FULL TIME: Galaxy 2, Pachuca 1. Nice win for the Galaxy. Hard to believe this team got the crap kicked out of them by Tigres just one week ago.

90 - Caballero lets loose a shot from inside the box but Cannon makes nice save

90 - Three minutes of stoppage time

81 - Galaxy answers; Cobi Jones with a shot inside the box, Landon deflects it and ball goes over goal line. 2-1 Galaxy.

78 - Pachuca golazo; Alvarez centered to front of goal, GR redirected it into goal, game now 1-1

76 - Nothing going on. Shot hit wall and Pachuca player knocked it over endline

75 - Pachuca gets free kick from 22 yards out, Danger lurks.

71 - "Tonight's attendance: 19,317." Told ya.

66 - The cute Galaxy intern just sat next to me; I'll try to maintain my focus... on the game

65 - Galaxy sub: Vagenas in, Pavon out; semi-useful for useless

64 - Kirk centers to Pavon who puts shot on goal but Calero pounces on it; Gordon was in position to tap in a rebound but no dice

63 - Gimenez free kick misses left post by inches, centimeters even

61 - Just informed of the subs rule: four subs plus the goalkeeper

60 - Alvarez butchers a pass that he should have collected; He's on the left side and Kirk is in at right back; the matchup favors Pachuca

56 - Damian Alvarez in for Fernando Salazar. Somebody better mark this guy; he's good.

50 - Wow. Alan Gordon scored on a nice goal. Donovan finds Gordon with a pinpoint cross from the right side of the field on the left side of the box; Gordon trapped it with his shoulder and ripped a left-footed shot past Calero. Nice goal.

49 - Be back in a few; gotta start writing my PE story

47 - Klein sends Carlos Pavon racing down the field unmarked but Pavon blasts a shot wide of the net.

46 - Cobi Jones for Kyle Martino the only sub for both sides

HALF - In preparation for my long drive home which will probably start sometime after midnight, I pounded some coffee at halftime. Oh yeah, bust out the coffee bong.

45 - Ensuing corner looks like Xavier nearly got a hand to a ball

45 - Carlos Rodriguez forces Cannon to make a diving save

45 - Looks like there'll be one minute of stoppage time

41 - Gimenez with another long range shot, Cannon has an easier time with this one

39 - Gimenez puts a dipping 30-yarder on goal; he can score from long range as Houston knows; he's the one that scored the game-winner in that 5-2 game earlier this year

35 - Jazic finds Gordon unmarked in penalty area but Gordon pushes ball over crossbar; had more time and could have done better

33 - Xavier clears but plays with fire, header goes just wide of own net

32 - I'm guessing here, but this is probably the first time Beckham has seen Pachuca play maybe ever; he may not even know there existed a Pachuca Club de Futbol before today

27 - Scoreboard just showed David Beckham sitting in a suite; many in the crowd booed and whistled.

26 - Klein crossed from the right side of the six-yard box to Carlos Pavon who put his header attempt on the side netting. Nice play up until the poor finish.

23 - A colleague just asked me if Kelly Gray had played in the Dynamo-Pachuca game earlier this year. I felt so lame because I hadn't made the connection. Yes, Gray did play the full 120 minutes down in Hidalgo in the 5-2 thriller and it would have been nice to have talked to him about it yesterday. Crap.

16 - Chitiva's on fire; he somehow got past Kelly Gray, fed Marquez Lugo who had made a nice diagonal run in the box but ML sent it wide (from now on, Marquez Lugo is ML and Gabriel Rey is GR, damn it)

15 - Galaxy having trouble maintaining possession and stringing some passes together; Pachuca is not

14 - Carlos Rodriguez dribbled into box unmarked, tried to find Gabriel Rey but Cannon dived and scooped it up

12 - Landon Donovan fed Alan Gordon a nice through ball on a counter, but Gordon was ruled offside; TV replays appeared to show that Gordon was onside, possibly even; don't worry, though, one reporter said "he would have missed it anyway."

10 - Chaco Gimenez tried a shot from 25 yards that almost landed in the Stadium Club instead of feeding a wide-open Chitiva on the left flank; after the shot, Gimenez motioned to Chitiva angrily for some strange reason

7 - Chitiva dangerous again; broke down left flank, centered ball and Marquez Lugo tried to re-direct it on frame but Kyle Martino clears ball over endline

6 - Pachuca on a quick counter, Abel Xavier saves Galaxy by clearing a ball into touch

6 - Nice passing by Tuzos; Chitiva sends through ball to Marquez Lugo, who fires shot over bar from about 15 yards

4 - Landon Donovan gets called for knocking down Gabriel Caballero from behind, though the contact seemed minimal.

2 - Luis Gabriel Rey gets his head to a cross but sends it high. Two minutes, two shots.

2 - There's about 12-14,000 here right now, which means they'll announce 18-20K.

1 - Game underway. Alan Gordon gets free at top of area and rips a shot over the bar 15 seconds in.

0 - Jay-Z is blaring in the stadium as we await the almighty television to dictate when we start. I prefer Soundgarden's "The Day I Tried to Live" that was playing before pre-game warmups, so I hope this game starts soon.

Oh what the hell. I'll try doing this as a running blog. Just finished watching the FC Dallas-Chivas match and it was pretty good for the most part. Nice goal by Arturo Alvarez, disputed goal by Antonio Olvera.

Lineups are in:

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

Pachuca: Miguel Calero; Carlos Rodriguez, Marvin Cabrera, Aquivaldo Mosquera, Fernando Salazar, Leobardo Lopez; Andres Chitiva, Christian Gimenez, Gabriel Caballero; Rafael Marquez Lugo, Luis Gabriel Rey.