The Los Angeles Galaxy offensive attack has been two pronged as of late. The team will be missing one of those prongs on Wednesday, as David Beckham traveled to England to play in Gary Neville's Testimonial Match. Bruce Arena said on Saturday that any darts should be thrown at him, but there is no harm in letting Beck's pay tribute to a friend. It does mean, however, that the Galaxy will be without the man who's given them a league leading five assists off set pieces, including the winning goal in the Superclasico last Saturday. Beckham is currently tied for the league's assist lead with six; Brad Davis of Houston also has six, meaning Galaxy fans will miss seeing two of the game's best crossers going at it.
Luckily the second prong hasn't taken off for national team duty yet. Though Landon Donovan's consecutive games with a goal streak ended on Saturday, he still leads the league's Golden Boot race. It's a site Galaxy fans are getting used to seeing, a Galaxy man leading both the goals and assists categories. Last year it was Edson Buddle and Landon Donovan, this year Donovan and Beckham. Also like last year, the Galaxy find themselves five points clear of the Western Conference top, though Real Salt Lake have only played eight games.
Koke, who joined Houston on April 26th, finally got his first goal, in a 2-2 draw against New York Red Bulls. The corner kick rebound goal looked to be the game winner, until New York scored in stoppage time. The LA Galaxy won both meetings in the season series last year, which extended their unbeaten streak against Houston to four games in MLS play and five in all competitions. The last time Houston beat Los Angeles was Oct 2008, a 3-0 result.