As soon as I pulled into Gillette stadium you could tell that this was not a regular MLS game. Two hours before kickoff the parking lot was filling up as fans came to see the rockstars of Major League Soccer; David Beckham, Landon Donovan and the LA Galaxy.
A crowd of 21,793 saw the LA Galaxy beat the New England Revolution 1-0. Miguel Lopez was the Galaxy scorer as he headed in a great Beckham cross.
With the win the Galaxy moved to 8-2-5 on the season and extended its winning streak to four games and its shutout string to 321 minutes. New England meanwhile fell to 3-5-4 as they were shut out for the fifth time this season.
The Galaxy lived up to the hype. Their movement and passing was the best I have seen at Gillette all season. The Galaxy achilles heel is its defense and against a better team they would have been one down inside the opening 2 minutes when Boggs somehow poked over a great cross by Feilhaber. Should have been a goal, and that has been the story of the Revs season. Lack of a cutting edge in front of goal.
LA almost made it 1-0 in the 24th minute when Gonzalez saw his header from a Beckham corner kick rebound off the bar.
That was the closest either team came to scoring until the 69th minute when Lopez broke the deadlock. Beckham was given all the time in the world to pick out Lopez with his cross and the header beat Reis.
This was LA’s third game in 7 days and they noticeably tired as the game progressed, giving New England a chance to push forward. New England almost capitalized in added time azy scenes when both DeLaGarza and Donovan cleared shots off the line. Good defensive plays by the Galaxy, but Schilawski should have scored.
Galaxy coach Bruce Arena was obviously happy with the win and the third clean sheet of the week, why Revs boss Steve Nicol was left to rue the missed opportunities once again.
