We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
Right, all you Euro snobs - it's time to put aside your negativity about MLS and get on board. ABC is favoring us with a double header today. First up - D.C. United hosting the LA Galaxy with old Goldenballs himself. Pull up a comfy chair and join me for what promises to be a great day of footie.
posted by gatorbob @ 11:54 AM
We are all former students at Lakenheath High School and other public schools in East Anglia. We were in school in the 70s and 80s and drank deeply from the well of British culture of those decades - the pints, the telly, and of course the footie!
27 Comments:
Our LOB correspondent The Gooner is in the parking lot of RFK polishing off a keg of the finest microbrew before heading into the stadium. I'll expect to read his beery comments later.
It's the best MLS pairing doing the commentary - JP Dellacamera and John Harkes.
And we're off!
Becks has an early opportunity to cross but it's blocked by Emilio in a rather unfortunate place. Luciano has gone down like a sack of spuds but presumably he'll be able to play on.
PENALTY! Jaime Moreno slots home easily after Quaranta was shoved to the ground in the area.
1-0 D.C.!
Decent chance for D.C. there. Emilio was played in and hit his shot early. It was well saved by Cronin.
This is the main problem for the Galaxy. They only have two plays of real quality - Becks and Landycakes. When Donovan is missing, as he is today, Becks is left to lay on his sumptuous crosses to Edson Buddle.
Becks also tends to start wandering when he doesn't get the supply.
My mistake. Donovan is playing, but you wouldn't know it. He's been completely anonymous so far.
It's been all D.C. so far, with most of the traffic going through Gallardo.
The first real threat from LA. Becks gets the ball wide from Buddle, Chris Klein makes a nice overlapping run to take the fullback with him. Becks chips a lovely ball in to Landy who sticks it in the net but he's ruled offside.
GOAL! A scrappy goal that came from some Keystone Kops defending in the D.C. are. Kudos to Edson Buddle, who stayed with it and finally netted.
1-1!
Looks like Santino Quaranta has a thigh strain problem. He's coming off.
This is exactly the sort of match that you need to present to the mainstream network sports audience in order to grab more fans for MLS. It's been end to end stuff with loads of good chances for both sides. Two goals, one penalty, one disallowed goal. Sure, part of that has to do with some fairly comical defending, but I'll take that over the overly cautious, defensive stuff that sometimes passes for high-level footie.
Fred is having some joy down the right side. He'll have to come into the game more in order to compensate for the loss of Quaranta.
GOAL! D.C. 2-1!
A long cross comes over the left and Emilio somehow contrives to loop a header over Cronin. He was falling back and that was a quality header.
Gallardo throws up an elbow on Landy and picks up a deserved yellow card. Landy was not happy about that challenge, which has left him with a bit of cotton wool up his left nostril.
Half-time: 2-1 D.C.
A terrific, open attacking first half. Let's have more of the same in the second half.
Second half starting...
Josh Tudella picks up a yellow card for a hack on Fred.
The pace has slowed inevitably in the afternoon heat at RFK. Let's hope that Gooner has plenty of liquid refreshment with him today!
GOAL! D.C. 3-1!
Gooner and his entourage are in dreamland now as Marcelo Gallardo sticks in a third for the home side.
Uh oh, Harkesy is tossing in a few golf references. That's the sort of mixed sports referencing that brings American commentators such a bad name. Come on, Harkesy - you know better!
GOAL! 4-1! It's samba time for D.C. Fred lays a simple ball across to his compatriot Emilio and he scores his second of the match.
Ben Olson has come on to a huge ovation from the home crowd for his first appearance of the season.
And now Fred is coming off with Dyachenko on. So a lot of D.C. firepower off the pitch now.
Full-time: D.C. 4-1.
That'll give D.C. United a power of confidence to do over the top of the Western table Galaxy in such comprehensive fashion. It was a great match for a double header. Now, let's get set for the main event and hope for five more goals to come!
Thanks for the commentary Gator. It was a magic day at RFK.
United played up to the level of the opposition and crushed them. What I find interesting is that it was only when they got their goal back and when Landon took that shot to his nose that the heart of LA went out and they allowed us to roll right over them.
Which brings me to the point that Landon Donovan is the ultimate Tin-man. He has no heart whatsover and cannot expect any respect if the opposition know that they can land one shot on him and put out the internal flame. He's just pathetic now. And if he was less whiny, you'd feel sorry.
Second thing was that the Screaming Eagles did a great job with the banners today. They knew this was the ABC game people might watch and the atmosphere was great and they outdid themselves with the Ben Olsen, Heart of a Lion banner. If you didn't see it, I'm sure that it'll pop up somewhere.
Third, a big shout out to Bell's Oberon Ale, now available on draft in 5 liter mini-kegs. It's light and refreshing and the perfect summer whistle wetter.
Totally agree with you on Donovan. Honestly, it was twenty minutes in before I realized that he was on the pitch. He seems to only come to play if he's in front of the home crowd at the Home Depot Center. He needs Fateh Terim to kick him up the arse; I'm not sure that the Sexy Football man is up to the job.
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