Birchall Agrees to Terms

It's official.

Chris Birchall is has agreed to terms with the Galaxy and will be officially added to the roster once he receives his ITC on July 15.

Read the full release here and be sure to check out his training stint with the club from back in May as shown in the season's debut episode of This Week Inside the Galaxy.



Chris had to fly back to England to get his P1 Visa, but he will be back with the team later this week to get ready for next week's game against New York.

Join us in welcoming Chris to the Galaxy.

A Deserved Day Off - Now With More Links!

Like the players, the blog staff worked long and hard hours on Saturday night. True, the win is a VERY nice reward for all the work, but sometimes we miss our friends and family so we need to take a day off...which we're doing on Monday.

The team has the day off so were doing the same, meaning that there likely will not be any new posts until Tuesday when the team begins preparations for the Honda SuperClasico.

But in the interim, be sure to vote for Alecko Eskandarian for the MLS Goal of the Week award and check out the recap of Saturday night's victory, courtesy of Simon Jude Samano at mlsnet.com as well as his look at Alecko's immediate impact.

Lastly, don't forget to get your final votes in for the MLS All-Star Game as voting closes at 3 p.m. (PT) on Monday, and enjoy another look at Donovan Ricketts' final push to be named to the All-Star Game.



See you Tuesday!

Postgame Reaction

Here is the official quote sheet form tonight's game...

MAJOR LEAGUE SOCCER QUOTE SHEET
SATURDAY, JULY 4, 2009 – LOS ANGELES GALAXY 1, NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION 0

LOS ANGELES GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On tonight’s match:
Certainly, a good win. We were challenged a lot and had to defend a lot of restarts from the New England team. Their throw-ins in the last half of the field looked dangerous. Our center backs played real well on the evening. It was just a blue collar type of game tonight. You have to win these games in this league. Obviously, both teams are missing players, and it’s never an excuse. You have to deal with it. [Josh] Saunders did a great job coming in for Donovan Ricketts. We are missing some other players. We are happy we didn’t have to use [Dema] Kovalenko tonight; we can save him for another week, which is a real plus. Obviously some other guys are missing. We’ll have some additions over the next couple of weeks, but to get these last two wins at home are very important. It helps us move up the ladder a little bit, and position our team to be competitive for hopefully, a playoff run in the second half of the season.

On Alecko Eskandarian:
I thought that obviously besides the goal, he was really pretty active. He offers us some good mobility. Partnering up with Buddle, they were able to combine and create some chances. We certainly didn’t anticipate having to play him 60 odd some minutes. He wasn’t expected to be in the starting line-up, but with the unfortunate injury with [Alan] Gordon—he came and did a great job.

LOS ANGELES GALAXY FORWARD ALECKO ESKANDARIAN
On joining the Galaxy:
It’s pretty good so for. I thank Bruce [Arena] for bring me in, and having the confidence to let me start today. It was a last second thing, but I can’t say enough about Bruce, coaching staff and my teammates making me feel so comfortable right away. I felt like I’ve been with them for three weeks instead of three days.

On his first Galaxy goal:
I know I timed my run perfectly, so I knew that I was onside, but I was just hoping the linesman wouldn’t blow the call, so I knew that I was on side. It came on my right foot, which is my weaker foot, I just wanted to guide it into the goal. With a ball like that, it was a great ball by Todd [Dunivant], you’ve got to hit it on the first time, so I did my best to keep it low and hit it toward the corner and it worked out pretty good.

LOS ANGELES GALAXY DEFENDER TODD DUNIVANT
On the win:
It’s great. It’s huge for us. We haven’t been able to put two wins together all year. Doing it 1-0 was the hard way, but it’s also a good sign because we haven’t had a lot of those victories in the past few seasons. It shows that the team is making progress, and I think the character of this team is really showing throw.

On physicality of the game:
It was a physical game. A lot of fouls. It was one of those games, again, that we scored a goal and then lost our momentum, lost our flow of play. It’s something we have to work on. I guess we haven’t been used to leading a whole lot this year, and we’ve done it the last two games.

LOS ANGELES GALAXY GOALKEEPER JOSH SAUNDERS
On his clean sheet:
It’s awesome. Ian [Feuer]’s been saying it all week—if you put the effort it and you are going to reap the rewards. It said it to me after the game, “See when you work hard, that’s exactly what comes of it.” He said he was extremely happy for me, and I ultimately trust him with everything we do. It’s definitely showing on the field.

The whole backline is awesome. Since the beginning of the year they have progressed as a unit. Their ability to move together and feed of each other and know where they each other is going to be, is great. Gregg [Berhalter] is a great leader back there. He’s hard on us. He expects the most from us. It shows. We’ve gotten a lot of results. There might not be a lot of wins in the win column, but we’ve gotten a lot of results keeping the goals now. I can’t say enough about the four guys in front of me.

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION HEAD COACH STEVE NICOL
On the match:
Well, I guess the bottom line is that the score is one-nil, sometimes in this game you don’t get what you deserve and we absolutely deserved at least a point today. We had a right winger playing left back, we had a ton of things against us tonight, but we stood up and we showed what we are made of. We could’ve had a penalty at the end. We didn’t quite get on the end of some things in the penalty box. Whether that means we need to put a better ball in or make a better run. But, we absolutely gutted it that we didn’t get a point.

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER JEFF LARENTOWICZ
On the team’s performance:
I’m very proud of the guys. We came out slow and we went down a goal, but everybody played hard, everybody fought hard until the last minute. There shouldn’t be a guy in the locker room that is not proud.

NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION MIDFIELDER KENNY MANSALLY
On the Revolution’s schedule:
We are unlucky because we’ve been playing a lot of games before coming here—SuperLiga and stuff like that. But, I think we did well. In the second half, we came out all out, but we couldn't finish it. The Galaxy played a great game.

Galaxy Win Second Straight, Defeat New England 1-0

LA Galaxy 1, New England Revolution 0
Saturday, July 4, 2009
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.

Scoring Summary:
LA – Alecko Eskandarian 2 (Todd Dunivant 1) 8’

Misconduct Summary:
NE – Kenny Mansally (Yellow Card) 50’
NE – Wells Thompson (Yellow Card) 61’
NE – Pat Phelan (Yellow Card) 65’
LA – Gregg Berhalter (Yellow Card) 72’
LA – Bryan Jordan (Yellow Card) 87’
NE – Matt Reis (Yellow Card) 87’

Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Josh Saunders, A.J. DeLaGarza, Gregg Berhalter, Omar Gonzalez, Todd Dunnivant, Stefani Miglioranzi, Jovan Kirovski, Eddie Lewis© (Chris Klein 64’), Mike Magee (Tony Sanneh 78’), Edson Buddle, Alecko Eskandarian (Bryan Jordan 67’).

Subs Not Used: Kevin Guppy, Leonard Griffin, Dema Kovalenko, Kyle Patterson.

New England Revolution: Matt Reis, Amaechi Igwe, Darrius Barnes, Kevin Alston, Wells Thompson (Nico Colaluca 83’), Jeff Larentowicz©, Pat Phelan, Kenny Mansally, Sainey Nyassi, Michael Videira, Kheli Dube (Edgaras Jankauskas 61’).

Subs Not Used: Brad Knighton, Bobby Shuttleworth, Gabriel Badilla, Chris Tierney, Stephane Assengue.

Notes:
• With the win the Galaxy are now 4-3-9 on the season, giving them 21 points. LA is now tied for fourth place in the Western Conference, even on points with Colorado, who lost 2-1 to Chicago earlier in the day. Both teams are one point ahead of Real Salt Lake, who is now in sixth place with 20 points.
• Bruce Arena made two changes to the team that defeated Houston 1-0 at home last weekend. Josh Saunders and Alecko Eskandarian were in the starting XI in place of Alan Gordon and Donovan Ricketts. Ricketts missed the game while with the Jamaican National Team at the CONCACAF Gold Cup and Gordon was originally in the starting lineup, but was removed after suffering a left calf strain in pregame warmups.
• With Eskandarian stepping into the lineup in lieu of the injured Gordon, Kyle Patterson was added to the substitute’s bench.
• Landon Donovan missed the game while recovering from an illness. Donovan had not trained with the club since returning from the FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa on Tuesday.
• The Galaxy were also without Sean Franklin and Julian Valentin who missed the game through injury.
• Josh Saunders was making his first start in an MLS game since the 3-2 home loss to Colorado on April 4.
• With Ricketts away on international duty and Saunders getting the start, the Galaxy called up MLS League Pool Goalkeeper Kevin Guppy for the game. It is the third time in the last four games that Guppy has served as the Galaxy backup goalkeeper.
• After being acquired by the Galaxy on Wednesday, Alecko Eskandarian made his Galaxy debut in the game, starting up front alongside Edson Buddle. Eskandarian is the 10th different player to make his Galaxy debut this season.
• Eskandarian’s goal in the 8th minute was the first goal scored by a Galaxy player on his debut since Edson Buddle on June 17, 2007. Buddle scored the Galaxy’s second goal in a 3-2 home win over Real Salt Lake.
• That goal was the third fastest scored by LA this season. Only Landon Donovan (3rd minute @ FCD on 5/23) and Aland Gordon (5th minute @ TFC on 6/6) scored earlier in a game than Eskandarian.
• Todd Dunivant assisted on Eskandarian’s goal for his first assist of the season. It was his first assist in MLS since August 26, 2006 when he was a member of the New York Red Bulls. Dunivant’s last assist with the Galaxy came on June 3, 2006 in a 2-1 loss at Houston.
• Josh Saunders earned his first win of the season and kept the first clean sheet of his MLS career. Saunders is now 1-1-1 on the season and 2-3-1 in his MLS career.
• Saunders made four saves in the game to earn the victory.
• Chris Klein entered the game in the 64th minute, stretching his MLS record consecutive games played streak to 131.
• With the win, the Galaxy have now won two consecutive games for the first time this season and the first time in Bruce Arena’s tenure as Galaxy head coach. Prior to the last two games, the last time that the Galaxy had won two straight games was on June 7 and June 14, 2008 when they defeated Colorado 3-2 at home and beat San Jose 3-0 on the road.
• The Galaxy have now won two straight games at home for the first time since May 24 and June 7, 2008 when they defeated Kansas City 3-1 and Colorado 3-2.
• All three of the Galaxy’s wins at home this year have come by identical 1-0 scorelines.
• The win snapped a nine-game winless streak against the Revolution in the regular season. Prior to tonight’s game the Galaxy had last beaten New England in the regular season on April 3, 2004. LA had been 0-6-3 against New England in the regular season since that game.
• The attendance for today’s game was 20,609.
• The Galaxy are back in action on Saturday, July 11 in the second installment of the Honda SuperClasico against Chivas USA, with Chivas USA serving as the home team for this game. The game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and can be seen live on Fox Soccer Channel.
• For more about this afternoon’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.

Talking About a Revolution

Warmups are nearing an end here at The Home Depot Center and as the Galaxy get ready to take on the New England Revolution on a picture perfect Fourth of July here in Carson.

It was eant to be the same starting starting 10 field players from last weekend's 1-0 win over Houston, but a late injury, a calf strain sutained in pregame warmups, to Alan Gordon has scratched him from the lineup. In his place, making his Galaxy debut, is Alecko Eskandarian. In addition to Alecko, the only other new face in the starting lineup is Josh Saunders who returns in place of Donovan Ricketts who is currently with the Jamaican National Team.

Here is how the Galaxy look.

-----------Buddle--------Eskandarian-----------

Lewis----Miglioranzi------Magee----Kirovski

Dunivant---Berhalter-----Gonzalez---DeLaGarza

--------------------Saunders-----------------

Subs: Guppy, Sanneh, Griffin, Kovalenko, Klein, Patterson and Jordan

And here is how New England looks...

--------------------Dube--------------------

-------------------Videria-------------------

Mansally----Larentowicz-----Phelan-----Nyassi

Thompson-----Igwe-----Barnes------Alston

---------------------Reis---------------------

Subs: Knighton, Shuttleworth, Assengue, Badilla, Colaluca, Jankauskas and Tierney

This Week Inside the Galaxy - Episode 8

Enjoy the latest edition of This Week Inside the Galaxy as we look back at the win over Houston, join the fans as they welcome Landon back from South Africa, meet the newest member of the Galaxy, Alecko Eskandarian, and look ahead to this weekend's game against the Revolution.

Enjoy!



When you;re done with the video, be sure to read Mark Rogondino's latest View from the Booth, Larry Morgan's preview of Saturday's game and the MLS preview, complete with all the stats and trends heading into the game with New England.

Celebrate 4th of July With The Galaxy

Three reason why you should celebrate Independence Day with the LA Galaxy this Saturday at The Home Depot Center.

1. Galaxy vs. New England Revolution at 8 p.m. A win on Saturday could lift the Galaxy back into the playoff picture.
2. Landon's back. After helping the USMNT reach the finals of the FIFA Confederations Cup in South Africa, Landon returns the squad.
3. Fireworks. It just wouldn't be the Fourth of July without fireworks. Come out and enjoy one of Southern California's biggest fireworks display, powered by 95.5 KLOS, starting at 10 p.m.

Come for the soccer, stay for the fireworks.