Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Colorado Rapids: Analysis, Reaction and More

Bruce Arena’s Los Angeles Galaxy travel to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, Colorado for an important match with Gary Smith’s Colorado Rapids in Major League Soccer play.Depending on how the USA vs. Jamaica encounter in the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup quarterfinals pans out on Sunday, this will be the last match the Galaxy will have without either their starting goalkeeper, Donovan Ricketts, or their top scorer, team captain Landon Donovan. The Los Angeles Galaxy are currently 8-2-7 (31 points) and are currently the team at the top of the MLS overall table, though second-place FC Dallas has two games in hand. As for the Colorado Rapids, led by Jamie Smith, they are 5-3-7 (22 points) and are fourth in the MLS Western Conference. Keep it here on Bleacher Report for continuing coverage of the 2011 Major League Soccer season, as the race to MLS Cup 2011 continues in earnest.Read more MLS news on BleacherReport.com

Los Angeles Galaxy Ins and Outs, June 16, 2011

Welcome back, Todd Dunivant Colorado Rush Hall of Fame inductee Todd Dunivant returns to his old stomping grounds as Bruce Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy take on the Colorado Rapids at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City Colorado. “It was a special night for me,” Dunivant said of his induction to MLSSoccer.com's Luis Bueno. “You go back and you don’t know exactly how those kinds of things go but they did a real good job. “It was a really neat. It was tough to hold back the emotions and then showing the video and having my family there, it was a special night.” Coping with the altitude will be important for Dunivant. “I used to be tougher but now when I go back, I feel it like everyone else,” Dunivant said. “Growing up I thought it was a myth but I was always used to it but going out of it and then going back to Colorado, man, it hits you like a ton of bricks. You do notice it.” Omar Gonzalez starts to wonder As for defender Omar ...

Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Colorado Rapids: In Search of a Winning Formation

Bruce Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy are in search of their first victory for the month of June. After leaving four points at the table at home against D.C. United and Toronto FC, the G's get their next crack at three on the road against the COlorado Rapids at Dick's Sporting Goods Park on Saturday, June 18.Currently, LA are 8-2-7 (31 points), good for the best record overall in Major League Soccer.The play of midfielder Miguel Lopez has been a highlight for what has been an average month for the club after Landon Donovan and Donovan Ricketts had CONCACAF Gold Cup obligations to meet.“They’ve been two players who have been playing week in and week out when they’re fit and when they’re here,” midfielder Chris Birchall told MLSSoccer.com's Luis Bueno. “It’s hard for players to come in really because they know even if they play well they’re going to be out when they come back.”The issue now for the next two matches is what formation Arena and company will utilize to get a winning result.“We’ve got a squad where different players can play different formations and we’re still probably trying to find out what’s our best formation,” Birchall added.“We were getting ...

2011 MLS Power Rankings: Week 13

It's been a terrible weekend for U.S. Soccer, with the men dropping a 2-1 stinker to Panama in Tampa on Saturday. Back on the home front, Major League Soccer marches on, with a full slate of results.Sporting Kansas City got their first win in a long time, while Toronto FC pulled off a huge upset on Saturday against the Los Angeles Galaxy. Meanwhile, the New York Red Bulls take over as our top team with their win over the New England Revolution.We have it all for you. Here's this week's MLS Power Rankings on Bleacher Report.Begin Slideshow

Alan Gordon Gets Sweet Revenge as Toronto FC Defeat LA Galaxy 2-2

Now some of you may be wondering, wait a minute, wasn't this match a draw? Technically, yes it was, but only by the seat of its you-know-what.However, don't tell this featured columnist, a.k.a. yours truly, that. This result, for Bruce Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy, was as good as a defeat.The warning signs were obvious.Exhibit A: Canada defeats Guadeloupe in a CONCACAF Gold Cup Group C match, 1-0.Exhibit B: The United States (have mercy on this side, oh football gods) post their worst performance since the 4-0 body bag game against Spain...a 2-1 defeat to Panama in Group C.People, this is similar to Luxembourg beating Germany, or San Marino beating Italy. Hello, hello, hello, I must be seeing some blood in the waters outside Tampa, and boy is it red with rage.Exhibit C: A trio of women, named T-RIO (insert snicker here) post renditions of "O Canada" and "The Star-Spangled Banner" that were so atrocious, they are worthy of an apology to Barack Obama and Stephen Harper.And Exhibit D: the power going out at some of the workstations in the press box at the Home Depot Center, the most notable being mine. (This is on my end; I just wanted to ...

Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Toronto FC: Live Blog, Play-by-Play Analysis, Reaction

Bruce Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy host Aron Winter's Toronto FC in a key Major League Soccer encounter tonight at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.The Galaxy are 8-2-6 (30 points), good for first place overall in the league and are looking to bounce back from a disappointing scoreless draw against D.C. United. As for Toronto, they are 2-5-7 (13 points) and are in need of some points to get back in the hunt in the MLS Eastern Conference.Keep it right here on Bleacher Report for ongoing coverage of the 2011 Major League Soccer season.Read more MLS news on BleacherReport.com

Los Angeles Galaxy Ins and Outs, June 10, 2011

The bells must ring...for JuninhoJuninho will be out for Saturday's match between the Los Angeles Galaxy and Toronto FC due to a wedding he plans to attend in Brazil.“He’s been pretty much a rock on the team,” forward Mike Magee told LAGalaxy.com's Larry Morgan. “He’s done an amazing job. He’s logged a lot of minutes, but I think it’s going to be good for him to get a break anyway.“He’ll definitely be missed.”“He’s got a special occasion going on back in Brazil,” said midfielder David Beckham. “We’ve said all the way through the season we’re going to have to go without players in certain games, and obviously there’s going to be players injured. It’s just another one of these games that we’ve got players that can come in and play the same sort of ways he plays.“We just have to deal with what we’ve got. We’ve got a great squad of players, so we should be fine.”In 15 starts, Juninho has recorded two goals and an assist with Los Angeles.FIFA U-17 World Cup: Jack Mac called backHomegrown player Jack McBean will return to the USA Under-17 National Team for the 2011 FIFA U-17 World Cup.The USA takes on the Czech ...

Los Angeles Galaxy Ins and Outs, June 8, 2011

Bruce Arena: What, me worry?Los Angeles Galaxy manager Bruce Arena does not believe the Galaxy will be in dire straits after seeing Landon Donovan leave for the USA national team.“We’re fine, believe me,” Arena told MLSSoccer's Luis Bueno. “I don’t know how many goals we scored last year, but Edson didn’t score all of them. He just happened to score the first eight or nine. And now Landon has scored (seven) in a row and everyone concluded that that was a crisis.”Arena was quick to point out that football is a team game, and it's the efforts of the rest of the squad that dictate their ultimate destination in terms of playoffs and all that jazz.“There’s nothing wrong with it. The attacking players, you want them scoring goals,” Arena said. “If they happen to be scoring all of them, that’s life. That’s not a negative. That’s a positive. That’s like saying Barcelona has a lot of problems with Messi scoring all those goals, or Real Madrid…holy (crap) are they in trouble, Ronaldo has scored 40 goals in the league.“The reasons those guys score goals is they’re playing on a good team. It’s not an accident. It’s part of the teamwork.”More ...

Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Toronto FC: Production, Anyone?

Bruce Arena's Los Angeles Galaxy ran out of gas last Saturday in their scoreless draw with D.C. United. This Saturday, they have to put up with another team that they have been unable to produce goals against: Toronto FC.For the past three straight matches, Toronto and Los Angeles have played to scoreless draw. At some point in this series, there has to be a ball that goes past the end line.277 minutes without a goal. Whew. That is an eternity readers. With a capital E. The Home Depot Center, which will be a few days removed from the 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup party van stopping by, is due for some scoring.One man that can get this job done for Los Angeles is the interim captain for the month of June: the one, the only...David Beckham.Beckham leads the team with seven assists and will be calling upon the power of the set piece slot machine to look for the payout in the form of potential scorers like former TFC forward Chad Barrett, who has three goals this season, and Juninho, who has two goals to his name.Other players like Miguel Lopez, Mike Magee and Omar Gonzalez could pay a role in ...

2011 MLS Power Rankings: Week 12

As a number of players leave MLS to fulfill international obligations, the league marches on with their most recent slate of matches.This week, a new team takes over at the top spot in this week's Power Rankings in the form of FC Dallas. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Galaxy move down a couple of while Real Salt Lake goes for another crack at the top. Let's go ahead and take a look at this week's Major League Soccer Power Rankings.Begin Slideshow