Creating a Culture Through Torrential Rain

The Rains had been forecast for a week. Wet weather, and torrential rain was predicted for the game. I went through 4 people who backed out because of what was supposed to happen. But as we all know – It doesn’t rain in Southern California!

But starting on my drive up to the stadium the sky began to open up. The wind began to blow and by the time I arrived at Five Guys Burgers, the wet, cold weather was upon us.

Now being a native of Southern California I am used to the beach mentality of “Why go out in the rain today, when you know its not going to be raining tomorrow.” I am used to the excuses of being cold, and I very familiar with the “I don’t even own an umbrella.” So I was certainly ready for the lack of enthusiasm heading into the match. I expected there to be empty seats. I expected an empty parking lot. I expected lots of extra schedule magnets. What happened in reality, kind of shocked me!

Arriving in lot 13 I found the ACB already partying, in the rain. I saw my friends, already celebrating, eating and laughing, in the rain. I saw an entire parking lot come to life, in the rain. Where was I? These are not people I would ever associate with “cold weather.” Or “sideways rain.” The installation of canopies to shield ourselves from the 30 mph winds was a welcomed addition, but more importantly it was the addition of Galaxy fans that made everything fun. Even when the wind attempted, and succeeded in one case, to break our canopies, we just held on, kept drinking, and talked about how proud we were of everyone.

Now already I can hear the Seattle fans trying to say that they deal with this all the time. Calm down, no one is trying to short you on your obvious accomplishment of having year round crappy weather. But in Los Angeles, I haven’t been to a rain game since I became a season ticket holder. So this simply doesn’t happen. And to see a supposed, 27,000 people at the Home Depot Center was unbelievable.

I am not going to vouch specifically for all 27,000 people but a good majority of the people were sitting in the rain for the whole game. But the best site to see was a packed Angel City Brigade supporters group being loud and staying behind the team for 90 plus minutes. And the LA Riot Squad was just as loud, and just as enthusiastic. For anyone questioning whether or not MLS is growing in passion and fan base, I would dare you to see a sold out stadium in the rain in Los Angeles, 5 years ago.

You can now feel it in the air. You can see it on the streets. Soccer has arrived in the United States. Now it is up to passionate fans, and consumers to keep the stadiums filled and keep introducing new people to the sport. People are now growing up being Supporters of the Galaxy. They were born into a team. They didn’t choose it, they were called to it by location, and by family allegiances.

I take my hat off to you LA Galaxy Fans, and fans around Major league soccer. Because of you this sport is growing. Because you danced and sang in the rain for most of the day your children will get to enjoy the beautiful game right in their own backyard!

Game Recap:

I am going to keep this short and sweet. While the Galaxy certainly let some chances get away, there was plenty of finger pointing that could be done at the officiating. While two goals were definitely offside, I cannot agree with disallowing the goal when New England Goal Keeper, Matt Reis dropped the ball after getting run into by his own player. The finish by Juninho into the net was clean and no one was offside. What is truly amazing is that this is the same referee who repeatedly ignored hard fouls on the field and failed to issue a single card in the whole game. Leading most of the fans to believe that the phantom touch on the keeper would have been welcomed anywhere else on the field.

This officiating crew also refused to acknowledge a handball by New England in the box with the defender literally laying on top of the ball. However, I blame them not for getting some very important calls wrong, but also for being inconsistent with what was a foul and what wasn’t a foul. Major League Soccer Refuses to take steps to improve the level of refereeing in our games. It is one of the reasons we continue to be called a “retirement” league, and a laughing stock to the rest of the footballing world. If we don’t demand excellence and consequences for our referees then the league as a whole will not improve. Here is to hoping that the referees don’t screw us in Salt Lake like they did last year.

Highlights:

Juninho is a beast from 25-30 yards out. He schooled two excellent goal keepers in the last week with swerving and diving balls. He is more decisive and quicker to shoot this year than last year, and you can just see his confidence rising. If he can keep this up, he just may be an MVP in the making.

Other great players were Sean Franklin and Todd Dunivant. I can’t tell you how much pressure we are putting on opposing defenses when you can overload the field with quality attacking defenders. The fact that Franklin spent most of the second half of Sundays game in the final third of the field and the majority of that was in front of David Beckham, tells you how much he loves to go forward. Dunivant is the same on the left side and i will continue to argue that we have both the best right back, and the best left back in the league. In fact we have so many great defenders it is going to be interesting when Omar Gonzalez makes it back from his shoulder injury. Who wants to tell AJ DeLaGarza he has to move back to the bench? Not me!

Lowlights:

Mike Magee and Chad Barrett have been anything but dangerous. Magee missed an absolute sitter on a free kick from David Beckham and Barrett has only minimal forays into box. I am starting to think that having two uncreative forwards is hurting our scoring chances. But seriously, it was good to see Juan Pablo Angel make his debut, but he doesn’t quite look comfortable with the Galaxy yet. And JPA… STAY ONSIDE!

Another question that is popping into my head is that Beckham has looked out of it. I understand that most of his quality service issues probably had to do with the gusting wind, but he doesn’t seem to be clicking with the rest of the players. He seems disjointed and out of rhythm. I hope this changes and quickly.

Overall we should have won this game 3 – 1. But with the weather the way it was, I would say that 1 – 1 isn’t a disaster. Juninho looks great and the Galaxy did hold a 69% to 31% possession advantage over the entire game. Its tough to win a game when the visiting team starts stalling 5 minutes after kickoff! Its a shame too, because normally these two team play exciting football. But because of allowing the early goal, the Galaxy weren’t able to dictate the pace of the game before New England could just hunker down in their own end. I am pretty sure if Stevie Nichols could have moved the bench behind the goal, he would have. Got to get all 18 players behind the ball!