In between two Saturday home matches, the 1-1 draw against New York Red Bulls last Saturday and a match against Sporting Kansas City coming up this Saturday, MLS thought it'd be fun for the Los Angeles Galaxy to travel to Philly for a midweek match against the Philadelphia Union. The club will be without David Beckham, who manager Bruce Arena decided could use a rest. The game will be broadcast on Fox Sports West at 4pm.
This is the second meeting between Philadelphia and Los Angeles this year, with Philly losing 1-0 at Home Depot Center on April 2nd. With Tuesday and Thursday used for travel this week, the Galaxy will only practice once before each other their matches. Last season it took until June 5th for the Galaxy to complete a season series. It's likely this match lands where it dose because of the Galaxy's participation in CONCACAF Champions League starting in July.
The Galaxy swept the season series last year, Philadelphia's first season in MLS. A victory in Philadelphia tonight would mean back to back sweeps of the new franchise. If the Galaxy are able to do so, this would be the first time in club history that the Galaxy won the season series against another club two years in a row.
Both David Beckham and Juninho made the MLS.com Starting XI of the week for their performance against Chicago. Beckham's play in central midfield has directly contributed to Landon Donovan's sudden emergence as the Galaxy's goal scorer. In the last four matches, Landon has scored four goals in the last three matches. He currently is leading the Galaxy in goals for the season. Juninho and Chad Barrett are tied for second with two goals a piece. Juan Pablo Angel has yet to fill the void that Edson Buddle left, having only scored a garbage goal in the Galaxy's 4-1 loss to Real Salt Lake.