Galaxy Up Two - Nil At Halftime

The Galaxy have taken an early two goal lead on a 40’ goal by Todd Dunivant and a 46’ penalty kick by Landon Donovan. Not at the game, at home with ill family member, but trying to put the pieces of the story together. The shot chart is ridiculous, no chances for Real Madrid, while the Galaxy are just going bananas. It’s the aggressive, possession heavy Galaxy team we’ve seen these last few weeks without the early match breakdown that puts the Galaxy in a come from behind position all game. Too bad this one doesn’t count, is against a pre-season form opponent, and that opponent is lacking Kaka, but all that aside, this is brilliant.

The Dunivant goal came off a Landon Donovan corner, the ball mingled around the box for awhile until the defender slammed it home, a circumstance the Galaxy have been on the other end of a few times this last month. Ricketts has done a great job, denying Angel di Marta twice. The buzz from the stadium is that Omar Gonzalez has been fantastic, and this result definitely suggests a stellar performance from both Ricketts and Omar.

Rosters For Galaxy Versus Real Madrid

Los Angeles Galaxy

GK Donovan Ricketts
DEF Sean Franklin
DEF Omar Gonzalez
DEF Gregg Berhalter
DEF Todd Dunivant
MID Michael Stephens
MID Juninho
MID Chris Birchall
MID Landon Donovan
FWD Edson Buddle
FWD Clint Mathis – Captain in his last Galaxy match

SUBS: Perk, Saunders, DeLaGarza, Cazumba, Leonardo, Klein, Kovalenko, Lewis, Bowen, Jordan, Kirovski, Magee

Real Madrid

GK Jerzy Dudek
DEF Sergio Ramos
DEF Raul Albiol
DEF Ezequiel Garay
MID Royston Drenthe
MID Lassandra Diara
MID Mahamadou Diarra
MID Angel Di Maria
MID Esteban Granero
MID Rafael Van der Vaart
FWD Karim Benzema.

David Beckham is also in the house.

It's Really Here, Galaxy Versus Real Madrid

7:30, TV: Fox Soccer Channel 

After what feels like an entire season of hype, today at the Rose Bowl The Los Angeles Galaxy are set to take on international super-team Real Madrid in a friendly match. 

World Cup winners Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, and Xabi Alonso arrived together a few days after the rest of the team, but are ready to go. Casillas won the Golden Glove for the 2010 World Cup, had six saves in the final against the Netherlands, and was the first Spanish player to hoist the World Cup trophy. Kaka revealed recently that he played through the World Cup with an injury. The Brazilian star had surgery in Belgium on Thursday, and according to his doctor, his injury is "career threatening" so needless to say, he won't be playing in the game today.

Cristiano Ronaldo will be the events headliner. Ronaldo has scored 23 international goals. Since joining Real Madrid he's scored 35 goals, 26 in Spanish League play and 7 in European Champions League. In his club career, which began in 2002, he's scored a whopping 156 goals.

This game is more about celebrating soccer than it is about competition. Last years match against Barcelona at the Rose Bowl drew 90,000 and this year shouldn't be any different. 

The Galaxy may not be looking for a particular result tonight, but after a putrid last ten days, a good showing will do wonders for the team's goodwill. Club America were able to score 2 goals in a 3-2 loss against Real Madrid earlier this week, so at least meeting that benchmark would be a good result for the Galaxy. 

After all the talk of Landon Donovan needing to face tougher European competition after the World Cup, it will be interesting to see how the midfield battle of Donovan vs. Ronaldo works out.