Ok, so I didn't watch any of the Houston vs. Sydney game yesterday but I did catch some of the L.A. Galaxy vs. Gamba Osaka matchup (finished 1-0, Osaka) in the innagural Pan Pacific Championship held in Hawaii. Needless to say, watching LA play was painful. They looked like a bunch of scrubs. I had to turn it off by half time. Osaka scored a goal in the first 5 minutes by their Brazilian striker Bare. He scored 20 goals last season for the Japanese side, all during the run of play. That is a rather impressive stat (i.e. no PKs). He cooly slotted home the decisive goal past a shaky LA defense. I know it is still preseason, but LA is going to have to fix several things if they want to improve upon their record from last year. Defense is definitely one area where they are going to need to pick it up a bit. Losing a valuable contributor due to Ty Harden's unexpected retirement did not help their situation either. It will be interesting to see if some of the rookies like Valentin can combine with whoever else they scrape together to help solidify a porous Galaxy back line. I wonder what Beckham is thinking about his decision to come to the USA at this point....
Also, I can see why Allen Hopkins is not a booth commentator and is restricted to the sidelines. Hopefully Harkes/Delacamara will be an improvement upon the MLS booth team from last year.
RESULTS:
L.A. Galaxy 0 - 1 Gamba Osaka
Houston Dynamo 3 - 0 Sydney FC
Saturday February 23
FINALS:
Gamba Osaka vs Houston Dynamo
THIRD PLACE MATCH:
LA Galaxy vs Sydney FC
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