Los Angeles Galaxy vs. Red Bull New York: Highway to the Danger Zone

New York vs. Los Angeles is always an exciting rivalry. It's akin to a certain Kenny Loggins chart-topper...

"Revvin' up your engine
Listen to her howlin' roar
Metal under tension
Beggin' you to touch and go

Highway to the Danger Zone
Ride into the Danger Zone..."

After struggling to find their footing or their scoring touch in the heavy rain against FC Dallas, Bruce Arena will hope that there will be no rain and better play from his Los Angeles Galaxy when they host Hans Backe's New York Red Bulls on Saturday, May 7 at the Home Depot Center in Carson, California.

Although the Galaxy still have Major League Soccer's best overall record at 4-2-3 (15 points), Los Angeles blew a golden opportunity to gain momentum ahead of one of the most significant contests of the season.

The match is certain to be star-studded, with the Galaxy's Landon Donovan, David Beckham and Juan Pablo Angel taking on New York's Thierry Henry, Rafa Marquez and rising young up-and-comer Juan Agudelo.

The Red Bulls come into the contest as the leaders of the MLS Eastern Conference with a 4-1-2 record (14 points).

Offensively, New York is a scoring juggernaut, with a league-leading goal differential of plus-8. A major component of this offense for the Red Bulls is Luke Rodgers, who is tied with Henry for the most goals this season for the club with three. Agudelo has two goals to his credit this year.

Henry and Jan Gunnar Solli are tied for the most club assists this season with three. Other providers for this balanced Red Bull attack include Dane Richards and Dwayne De Rosario, both with two assists.

The New York back line, led by Roy Miller, Tim Ream, Teemu Tainio and Rafa Marquez, has only allowed two goals this season and is one of the most tenacious units in the league.

Goalkeeper Bouna Coundoul has a 3-1-1 record to go with a 85.7 percent save percentage and an impressive 0.40 goals against average. His counterpart, the Galaxy's Donovan Ricketts, has a 3-1-2 record, a 0.67 GAA and a 81.0 percent save percentage.

Like New York, Los Angeles has a balanced offensive arsenal capable of generating chances off of space and set pieces. The heart of this attack is the combination of Landon Donovan and David Beckham.

Donovan currently has three goals to lead the Galaxy, while Beckham's numerous free-kick opportunities have resulted in a club-leading four assists.

Forward Chad Barrett and midfielder Juninho need to also finish their chances. Both have two goals so far, and both are capable of scoring more, but they may have it rough against the Red Bulls back line.

Perhaps the biggest battle will involve the vulnerable Galaxy back line of Omar Gonzalez, Sean Franklin, Todd Dunivant and A.J. DeLaGarza, who allowed players like Dallas's Fabian Castillo and Brek Shea get space in their defending third. If the Galaxy are unable to plug the gaps, the speed of the Red Bulls back line will make this a nightmare outing for the LA defense.


Prediction

A rout. This match will be a rout of the home side by the road side on this side of the countryside in the Lower 48. New York are a team on a mission, and with Real Salt Lake starting to eat their dose of kryptonite, expect the Red Bulls to chase the G's out of Victoria Street and into the danger zone as Backe's men storm into the ascendancy in the overall standings.

Red Bull New York 3, Los Angeles Galaxy 0

Kickoff at the Home Depot Center is scheduled for Saturday, May 7 at 8:00 p.m. PT/11:00 p.m. ET and will be televised by ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes.


Ins and Outs

More misery for the Reserves

This may not turn to be a nice year for Curt Onalfo's LA Galaxy Reserves, who dropped another 3-1 decision, this time to Chivas USA at the Home Depot Center on Tuesday.

Hector Jimenez scored the only goal for the Galaxy in the 35th minute. Adam Cristman and Gregg Berhalter saw action for the second string after a long layoff due to injury.

“It was good to get them out,” Galaxy reserves coach Curt Onalfo told MLSSoccer.com's Luis Bueno. “That’s part of what these games are for.”

“It was good to finally get a little time on the field with the reserves,” Cristman said. “It took 10 to 15 minutes for myself to get in the game, which is a little too long. But once we started clicking, we kind of stuck to our game plan in getting balls behind, I think we had some success.

“This was a good exercise for me and trying to prove I’m match-fit and I can play and earn myself a spot on the 18 and get on the field in the weekend games. It’s really up to Bruce [Arena] and the coaches to evaluate that and determine if putting me in there makes sense. I just have to keep taking care of my body and prove in these exercises and in training that I belong on the field.”

“It would have been nice to have had [Cristman] for 90 minutes because he certainly was creating havoc the last part of the first half,” Onalfo added. “To have to take him out, we kind of lost a little bit of the momentum.”

“I just started running last Monday, so eight days ago I was not able to run and now I’m playing,” Berhalter said. “It went quickly, but it’s a progression. I played 30 minutes and it’s just building on that. I’m obviously not there yet. I’ve been out 10 weeks, so it’s been a while. This is a process of getting back together, but I feel good, I feel strong, and that’s the most important thing.

“I want to get back anyway, regardless of who is fit, who is injured. I have a burning desire to play.”

The Reserves will have more than a month to ponder their lack of form and preparedness, since this is certain to not bode well for the first team's hardware aspirations.

Not only that, with the first teams set to duel later this month, Chivas is suddenly the side that could have the upper hand in the Honda Superclasico.

The next match for the Galaxy Reserves is against the San Jose Earthquakes on Monday, June 6 at 11:00 a.m. PT/2:00 p.m. ET at a site to be determined.


Youth Academy Update

Chris Klein, the Senior Director of the Los Angeles Galaxy Youth Academy, was excited at the plans he had in store for the program in the long term.

“When I came in here, I looked at the entire program and what we aimed to do and the glaring need that I thought we had was the need to get younger," Klein told LAGalaxy.com. "The Galaxy need to start to develop kids over a period of time, not just 2-3 years as we’ve done in the past. Therefore, with the addition of an Under-12 and Under-13 team we have started that process.

"To do that and be able to take a kid from the time he is 11 until the time that he is 18 when we hopefully still have him, we will have had a significant impact on him not only as a soccer player, but him as an individual.”

Klein noted the experience the coaching staff of the various sides brought to Victoria Street.

“The coaches with our older teams, Eddie Soto with the U-18’s and Kenny Arena with the U-16’s have been around the game for a long time and have coached in the college game," Klein said.

"Then we have Craig Harrington, who is overseeing the younger programs, and he is a guy that has a tremendous amount of experience in the youth soccer game, which is important because that is a whole different animal than the professional game, so we’re hiring coaches that have experience in that.

"We brought in Billy Bizarro to coach our U-13’s and Sal Diaz to coach of U-12’s, so we feel very good about the staff we have put together. The objective of the Galaxy Academy is not to win tournaments and to win games, it is to change the model. It is to develop soccer players and individuals, not for when they are 12, 13 or 14, but when they are 18 and ready to contribute to the first team. That is what we are trying to do."

Klein was impressed by the progress of the Under-16 side, who are one of the hottest teams in the US Soccer Development Academy at the moment. However, he also encouraged the players on that team to make the jump.

“Our U-16 team is very good and they have won a lot of games," Klein admitted. "The thing that impressed me when I got here is that Kenny [Arena] has done a very good job of getting them to play the right way and that’s what was important to me. They have played in an attractive style, the players were respectful and on the back of that, they won. What I have done to change that a little bit is that I’ve told Kenny and Eddie [Soto] is that we want to start challenging these players a bit more.

"We are pushing players that in the past were with our U-16’s, we’re pushing them to play with our U-18’s. Younger players from our U-14 and U-15’s, we’re pushing them to play with our U-16’s. Once a player has reached a point that he needs a new challenge, I’ve told the coaches that they need to move them on and they’ve done a really good job of accepting that, knowing that while it might hurt their team, it is the right thing to do for the individual player and the Academy."

The long layoff between December and April helped rest and condition the players, but it did make them restless in terms of match readiness. Not that Mr. Klein seemed to mind...

“The coaches and our staff feel that training is more important than the games," Klein said, "but these are kids and they love to play and the reason that they have gotten to where they are is because they love to play the game. You could see it in their faces, they were tired of training against one another and they were ready to get out onto the field and play games.”