Los Angeles Galaxy Archive

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Whitecaps lose Leveron to suspension: San Jose’s Chavez has ban reduced

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/15/2013

Johnny Leveron

Johnny Leveron

We love to complain about how referees continually sabotage the efforts of our favourite teams, and then look away when they make calls in our teams’ favours.

So, Whitecaps fans have something to chew on Wednesday morning. Would the Caps have been able to overcome the Galaxy by a 3-1 count Saturday had Johnny Leveron been sent off for his early two-footed scissor challenge on the Galaxy’s Jose Villarreal?

Leveron was given a yellow for the sliding foul he committed early in that match. But the MLS Disciplinary Committee ruled on it Wednesday, and deemed that it should have been red. Leveron has been suspended one game for a reckless challenge that endangered his opponent, and will miss the May 18 match against the Timbers.
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Bruin named MLS Player of the Week: The 11′s nod went to Teibert

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/13/2013

Russell Teibert

Russell Teibert

Most of the time, the bodies of work we look at are fairly consistent when voting for an MLS Player of the Week.

Most of the time, we judge players on the basis that they each play a single match on the weekend.

But in the odd weeks where some teams play two games because of the midweek schedule and others play one — that makes it difficult.

This week, Houston Dynamo forward Will Bruin won the Player of the Week vote. He scored twice and added two assists in a midweek 4-0 win over D.C. United, but didn’t do much in a 1-0 loss at home Sunday to Sporting Kansas City. And that brings up an uncomfortable question: Does a “meh” game on Sunday weigh down what was a spectacular midweek effort?
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Russell to the rescue: Canadian has game to remember for the Whitecaps

By
Martin MacMahon
– 05/12/2013

Russell Teibert

Russell Teibert

The seven-game MLS winless streak is finally over for the Vancouver Whitecaps, thanks to a two-goal performance from Canadian youngster Russell Teibert, who scored his first professional goals.

And the Whitecaps did it against the defending MLS Cup champion Los Angelees Galaxy, a team they had previously failed to beat in five prior matchups, defeating the visitors 3-1 at BC Place in front of 21,000 fans.

The Niagara Falls, Ont. native hit a cracking left-footed effort in the 63rd minute after a nice set-up from Nigel Reo-Coker, curling his shot from outside the area past a sprawling Carlo Cudicini.

The 20 year old then followed that up by bursting through into the area 13 minutes later, to finish a play set up by Gershon Koffie, who cut back near the endline before passing into the path of Teibert.

“It’s a blur,” Teibert said of scoring his first goal. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I was just overwhelmed.”
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Magee narrowly edges Impact’s Bernier for MLS Player of the Month

By
Steven Sandor
– 04/03/2013

Mike Magee

Mike Magee

The MLS Player of the Month vote was almost close enough to warrant a recount.

In the end, Los Angeles Galaxy striker Mike Magee edged Montreal Impact midfielder Patrice Bernier for the March honour. Magee scored five goals for the Galaxy, a team which has had to deal with an injury to Designated Player Robbie Keane and that star Landon Donovan has been out of the lineup until a sub appearance last weekend in Toronto.

Bernier’s contributions aren’t as obvious on a stat sheet. Holding midfielders are hard to quantify. Heck, on his own Twitter feed, Bernier has stated in the past that it’s one of the most underappreciated positions in the game.

Still, Bernier’s work in leading the Impact to a four-game winning streak to start the season didn’t go unnoticed. He got a significant number of Player of the Week votes throughout the March voting periods. And, he got 15 Player of the Month first-place votes.

But Magee got 17.
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Russell’s error the latest in Toronto FC’s history of late-game miscues

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/30/2013

Darel Russell

Darel Russell

Veteran English defender Darel Russell has only been a member of Toronto FC for a few weeks, but he joins an ever-growing list of Reds’ players whose late-game mistakes have cost the team points.

Since day one of this franchise’s existence, finishing off games has always been a major issue for the club. Late goals to turn wins into draws. Late goals that turn draws into losses.

Jose Villarreal’s injury-time reverse-scissor-kick goal gave the Los Angeles Galaxy a 2-2 draw with TFC in its 2013 BMO Field-opener. But the goal was set up by an awful defensive-header attempt by Russell, who was first to a ball in the TFC area, but sent it right into the middle of the box rather than away from danger. Villarreal, who came in as a second-half sub, punished the mistake.

Russell, who got the start at right back, with Richard Eckersley moving to the left side, was also exposed on the first goal of the match. Early in the first half, he allowed Mike Magee to get ball side, goal side of him on the far post. Magee then smashed home the ball Marcelo Sarvas placed across the penalty area.
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Galaxy’s CCL hopes force Impact to juggle its schedule

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/21/2013

LA-Galaxy-logoAs has been expected for almost two weeks, MLS has postponed the Montreal Impact’s April 6 road date against the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Commissioner Don Garber had been quoted on MLSSoccer.com, saying that the league was looking at clearing the schedules of the Galaxy and the Seattle Sounders, who each play Mexican opposition in the CONCACAF Champions League semifinals. That came to pass Thursday, as the league has cleared the Sounders and Galaxy of playing commitments for the April 6-7 weekend. That now gives both MLS clubs the chance to have a weekend off between their two CCL midweek semifinal legs. The Galaxy will play Monterrey, the two-time defending CCL champs, while the Sounders play Santos Laguna, who knocked Toronto FC out of the tourney last season.
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Magee wins first MLS POTW award of 2013

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/04/2013

Mike Magee

Mike Magee

The Los Angeles Galaxy may have lost the star power of David Beckham and, at least temporarily, Landon Donovan. Still, the team began its quest for an MLS Cup threepeat with a fine 4-0 win over Chicago and produced the first Player of the Week of 2013.

Mike Magee, who scored three times Sunday in that win over Chicago, won in a landslide in the first ballot of the season for the members of the North American Soccer Reporters. Of the 29 ballots received, Magee received the first-place vote on 25 of them.

Magee’s third goal was highlight-reel worthy, a volley struck across his body that he smacked into the far corner after he chested down a loose ball.
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Football fashionistas: We rate the new MLS kits

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/28/2013

impact_thirdFRONT(FORMATTED)Judging from the readership numbers — which spike every time we put up a story about new kits, redesigned kits, anything to do with kits — we’ve surmised that, to be a Canadian soccer fan, you have to be a bit of a fashionista.

If someone could create a tour of soccer stadiums and fashion weeks around the world, it’s be a smashing business.

But kits are important to fans. They want to be proud to wear the club’s colours. They want the road kits to be sharp. And marketers love it, because soccer kits change seasonally. Adidas gives us new MLS kits at almost the same pace as Marc Jacobs introduces new fashion lines.

With MLS creating a “Jersey Week,” where many MLS teams  revealed or will reveal their new kits at special events or, as they are known outside of the sports world, “fashion shows,” we thought it would be fun to play Vogue. That is, give you a one-stop look at the new kits, with our, ahem, expert commentary. With all three Canadian teams putting their new kits out there, we thought it would be fun to look at the best, the worst, the exciting and the boring of what’s already out there.

Just as a disclaimer — The 11‘s editor HAS judged fashion shows before. Seriously.

We’ll start with the Canadian teams:
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Bonjour’s foul was his last significant action as a Whitecap

By
Steven Sandor
– 01/25/2013

Martin Bonjour

Unfortunately for Argentine defender Martin Bonjour, the final memory most Whitecaps fans will have of him is this: Looking back towards referee Silviu Petrescu, arms raised in innocence, as the official points to the spot.

Bonjour was officially cut loose by the Vancouver Whitecaps on Friday. After starting the season as a regular, he was pushed to the fringes of the lineup for the second half of the season.

Bonjour’s base salary in 2012 was US$192,000, which is far too much for any MLS team to be paying for someone who’s not a lock for the starting XI. When Irish defender Andy O’Brien came on board, Bonjour was pushed into the fray.
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TFC snatches Canadians Bekker and Welshman, Whitecaps aim for offence, Impact selects wild cards

By
Steven Sandor
– 01/17/2013

Kyle Bekker

Kyle Bekker and Emery Welshman are going home.

Bekker, the Oakville, Ont. midfielder, Canadian national U-23 player and MVP of the recent MLS combine was Toronto FC’s first selection of the SuperDraft. TFC then traded down, picked up a pile of allocation money, then selected Mississauga’s Welshman at No. 16.

It’s now clear that comments made by TFC President Kevin Payne on Wednesday, that TFC was concerned about Bekker’s size, was all just smoke and mirrors. GMs do that.

“Kyle is a player we know well and we rated him among the top players in the draft going into the combine and felt even more strongly after it,” said Payne in a release issued by TFC. “Our objective was to trade down so we could acquire more assets and we’re happy to accomplish that and still get the player we wanted.

Bekker came into the combine projected as a late first-round pick. But, after he signed a contract with MLS, he became the focal point of the combine — and, by, the beginning of the week, was being pegged as a top-five pick.
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