What a Week - Part 1

Now that we've all had a bit of time to unwind, let's look back at what was a truly unforgettable week that featured Landon and the MLS All-Stars taking on Everton, the European and La Liga champions Barcelona arriving in Los Angeles and beginning their quest to win those titles again. And it all culminated in Saturday night's game that saw the two sides go toe-to-toe for 90 minutes in front of more than 93,000 fans.

So join us as we look back at the week that was...

The entire team was given Monday and Tuesday off following the 1-1 draw at Kansas City, meaning that Wednesday was the first day back to work for the players.

While most of the squad was out on the training field being put through the paces, Landon was in Salt Lake City, where he had flown earlier in the day, for the All-Star Game.

He came on for Seattle's Fredy Montero at halftime, much to the delight of the Galaxy fans who had gathered at a block party in Pasadena to watch the game, and twice nearly gave his side a 2-1 lead, only to see Tim Howard deny him in the 67th minute and the post deny him eight minutes later.The match would go to penalties, where Landon, who became the first athlete in a major U.S. sport to appear in nine All-Star Games before his 28th birthday, was able to convert his, but it was not enough as Tim Howard stopped Freddie Ljungberg's final attempt, to give the visitors the win, 4-3 on penalties.

On Thursday, Barcelona held two training sessions at UCLA in their first full day in the Southland. In between the two session, head coach Pep Guardiola and defenders Dani Alves and Carles Puyol met the media for a press conference at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles.
Down in Carson, the Galaxy were back in training, but neither David or Landon were on the field as Landon was flying back from Utah and David was in getting some treatment on a sore back. While some were worried that his back would limit his involvement against Barcelona, David remained optimistic about his availability and both he and Bruce talked about how much they were looking forward to the game.

Once Friday came around, it became clearly to all of us that something special was upon us as the tickets continued to pour out of the box office, with more than 80,000 having already been sold more than 48 hours before kickoff.

Despite the big numbers, the media push continued as Landon, who was named the MLS Player of the Month for July, visited with Kevin and Bean at KROQ before training...


and later in the day, David stopped in at the new ESPN Studios at LA Live for the taping of that night's SportsCenter.

While David was speaking with Stan Verrett, Barcelona was wowing the Galaxy season ticket holders with a training session at the Rose Bowl. Messi, Marquez, Henry, Xavi and the rest went through the paces as they prepared for the first game of their three-game U.S. tour.

Or if all of that was too much for you, look back at both team's preparation for the game with This Week Inside the Galaxy.

We'll be back tomorrow with the second and final part of this where we look at the actual day of the game with all its pomp and circumstance.