In front of 23,087 fans in Honolulu, Hawaii Gamba Osaka from Japan crushed the Houston Dynamo 6-1 to take the first ever Pan Pacific Championship. Brazilian striker Bare stood out in the final with four goals.
It was a good start for Houston scoring in the 11th minute, as Ricardo Clark connected on a header to give Dynamo a 1-0 lead. But after that is was all Gamba Osaka. Bare began his scoring barrage in the 14thth minute to tie the score and then scored again in the 26th minute to give Gamba Osaka a 2-1 lead going into the half. Things did not get any better for Houston in the second half as Bare scored again in the 60th minute. 14 minutes later Lucas, another Brazilian, had a brilliant left footed strike that found the back of the net to make it 4-1. Bare added another goal to his hat trick in the 72nd minute and Masato Yamazaki scored only 6 minutes later to make it 6-1.
The coach of Gamba Osaka Akira Nishino said after the game,
“I am very pleased with how we used an aggressive style and we showed that we have very strong condition.” Dynamo’s coach Dominic Kinnear dealt with the defeat with a little humor as he was asked if the 6-1 loss was the worst defeat as a head coach and he replied, “I think it was actually the worst of my life.”
Galaxy Beat Sydney FC to take 3rd Place
The Los Angeles Galaxy took third place in the Pan Pacific Championship with a 2-1 victory over FC Sydney. David Beckham had one of his better games in a Galaxy uniform with 2 assists. Ely Allen scored in the 3rd minute after a beautiful cross-field pass from Beckham to give the Galaxy a quick 1-0 lead. FC Sydney pulled even in the 42nd minute with a fantastic 30-foot left footed strike from Brendan Renaud that found the top corner of the net. In the Beginning of the 2nd half Beckham sent a low cross that Sydney keeper Ivan Necevski could not get to and L.A.’s Josh Tudela easily buried in the back of the net to make it 2-1 L.A., which stood until the final whistle blew.
Galaxy coach Ruud Gullit stated, “This is a good start to our preseason. We are making good progress and I am pleased with how things have gone in Hawaii.” The Galaxy will now fly off to Asia for a pre season tour.
