MLS: 22/23rd July

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2007-07-22
21:55 New England Revolution - Houston Dynamo 2.30 3.20 2.85
22:55 Columbus Crew - Toronto FC 1.90 3.25 3.75
22:55 New York Red Bulls - D.C. United 2.20 3.25 2.95

2007-07-23
01:55 Kansas City Wizards - Colorado Rapids 1.75 3.30 4.50
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Club Friendlies, World
2:30 AM Los Angeles Galaxy 8.15 X 4.50 Chelsea FC 1.30 bwin

Beckham unlikely to debut with Galaxy

LOS ANGELES -- Because of ankle injury, soccer star David Beckham would not be able to make his debut with the Galaxy this weekend as had been scheduled, it was reported Friday.

Alexi Lalas, the Galaxy's president and general manager, told the Los Angeles Times that outside pressures from television, sponsors and the like would not factor into the final decision on whether Beckham would make an appearance.

"Absolutely not," he said. "It's ultimately up to our coaching staff and our medical staff to evaluate our players and to do what's right for the player and to do what's right for the team. Not just for the short term but for the long term."

Beckham also said it would unlikely that he would play this weekend. "At the moment it doesn't look good that I'm going to play," Beckham told ESPN TV, adding that his left ankle is still swollen and he's receiving treatment for an injury he suffered June 7 while playing for England.

Beckham said however that "I'm here for five years," not just for tomorrow's friendly against Chelsea, a British team. "It's more important to me personally that my ankle is right, and I don't think it'll be right for the game.

"Maybe I will play some part toward the end of the game if it's all right, but we'll see."

Beckham's absence will be a disappointment for thousands of fans. The Galaxy has announced that the match against Chelsea -- with tickets priced from 60-500 dollars -- was a sellout.

Beckham, who moved to Los Angeles last week, injured the ankle while playing for England in a Euro 2008 qualifying game against Estonia in early June and was still suffering the effects when he helped Real Madrid win the Spanish league championship on June 17.He has not played a game since.

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Dynamo look to add to shutout record at Revs

A pair of first place teams will take the field Sunday night at Gillette Stadium as the Houston Dynamo battle the New England Revolution.

The defending Major League Soccer champion Dynamo lead the Western Division by three points over FC Dallas, while the Revs hold a modest one-point edge over Kansas City for the top spot in the East.

Houston is hoping to extend its unbeaten streak to 11 games. The club has a league-high 33 points and has not walked off the pitch without any points since May 27, at D.C.

As for the Revolution, they are trying to stay undefeated in the month of July after shutting out the Red Bulls on the 14th, and splitting the points with Chivas on the 7th.

New England is trying to win the season series between the two teams after already getting by Houston, 1-0, back on May 19, in the only other scheduled meeting of 2007.

Shalrie Joseph who scored the sole goal for the Revs in the other encounter with Houston this season, is nursing a quad strain, but is expected to play.

Taylor Twellman will lead the New England offense on the field with his seven goals. However, finding the back of the net on Sunday will not be easy as Houston has surrendered a league-low 10 goals in 18 matches so far this season.

Pat Onstad, who is expected to be in the net for Houston, will be trying to post his eighth shutout of the season. As a team, the Dynamo have recorded seven straight shutouts, and have not yielded a goal since a 2-1 victory at Columbus on June 10.

New England will have home-field advantage though, only losing once in seven matches in Foxborough this season. In fact, New England has collected three or more goals in five of those seven home outings.

Matt Reis, who has started every game this season between the posts for the Revs, will be attempting to grab his seventh blanking of the season.

The Revs have never lost to Houston in three all-time, regular season matches.

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Red Bulls to be without Angel versus United

Red Bull New York enters the second game of a five-game homestand Sunday when it hosts D.C. United in a Major League Soccer fixture.

It will be the second meeting between the Eastern Conference rivals - who are tied with 24 points although D.C. has a game in hand - after United captured a 4-2 victory over New York on June 10 at RFK Stadium. Both teams are coming off disappointing efforts in their last league fixtures, with D.C. blowing a 3-0 lead to earn a draw with Dallas, while New York fell to New England 1-0.

"We're an experienced team; we shouldn't play like that," D.C. head coach Tom Soehn said after the Dallas fixture last Saturday. "We played like young kids. We put ourselves in too many situations where we were setting ourselves up to fail instead of getting organized and compacting. A few guys didn't have good performances."

"We just got comfortable I think with 3-0, and we've got to give them credit they never stopped working and never stopped believing," D.C. forward Jaime Moreno said. "They came at us and we just totally lacked concentration and that can happen."

Despite the outcome of his team's game, New York head coach Bruce Arena had a more positive take on New York's performance last Saturday.

"Best we played in a long time," he said. "We played against a very good team that has experienced players in every position and a little bit better than the team we put out on the field tonight. It's a game where both teams had good chances in the first half. In the end their experience made a difference on the day. For the most part, I think we gave a great effort for 90 minutes."

New York will get a boost offensively with the return of young striker Jozy Altidore, who missed the previous four contests with the U.S. U-20 National Team at the World Cup.

"We will have to see what he looks like once he gets back," Arena said. "It will be nice to get him back, but we will just have to wait and see."

"He has done a great job for the national team in the U-20 World Cup," New York striker Juan Pablo Angel said of Altidore. "I am sure he will come here with a lot of confidence off that performance. Hopefully he will be a good addition again."

On the down side, the Red Bulls will be without 2007 MLS All-Star MVP Angel after he received a red card for elbowing fellow all-star and New England midfielder Shalrie Joseph in the face during Saturday's loss while the two were going up for a ball in the midfield.

"One thing that I will say is that I didn't have the intention to hit him," Angel said. "I went for the ball and didn't move my elbow at all. I didn't have the intention to hit his face at all. I am disappointed at the sendoff today but I am looking forward to coming back stronger from this."

Angel is currently third in the league in goal scoring with nine goals in 11 games, behind Kansas City striker Eddie Johnson and D.C. forward Luciano Emilio, who both have 10.

Emilio's scoring along with the recent play of midfielders Fred, Ben Olsen, Christian Gomez and forward Moreno are a big reason why United has just two losses in its last 12 games.

For D.C. to be successful in New York, the backline is going to be key. Players like Greg Vanney, Devon McTavish, Josh Gros and Bobby Boswell are going to have to do a better job than they did in the second half against Dallas.

"It's very disappointing, obviously and when we have so many games on the road recently and coming up in the future we need to take advantage of being at home," D.C. midfielder Brian Carroll said. "A tie is not the end of the world but it's certainly disappointing being at home and going up and then giving it up. It's going be a tough pill to swallow and we're going to have to wash out the taste and figure out exactly what went wrong besides the lack of possession - and just letting it be too easy for some of their guys going forward."

After Sunday's fixture United's schedule doesn't get any easier with a game at New England Aug. 5, before hosting David Beckham and the L.A. Galaxy Aug. 9. New York plays next against CD Chivas USA on Thursday before hosting Toronto on Aug. 11.

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TFC aiming to end road trip on winning note at Crew

Toronto FC concludes its six-game road trip on Sunday with a visit to Crew Stadium to take on the Columbus Crew.

The Canadian side is 1-1-3 on its current trip, including a 0-0 draw last time out against the red-hot Houston Dynamo. The point was even more precious for the club considering that they were reduced to 10 men before halftime after Maurice Edu was sent off with a red card.

"I don't think he deserved it," Johnston told the league's website of Edu's red card. "I think the referee was showing him a yellow card, and I think he made the wrong decision. I don't mind paying the penalty for saying that. Edu's not a dirty player. He went for the ball, he looked up and [Brian] Mullan got a bloody nose. That's all he had. I'm sorry to see that, but Maurice is not a dirty player and he wasn't intentionally going for him."

While Toronto is unbeaten in its last four games, the club still has just one win in its last five, leaving the team in sixth place in the seven-team Eastern Conference. However, Toronto is just three points behind Columbus and five points back of fourth-place New York in a tight East race. A few more wins instead of draws will put Toronto right in the mix for a playoff berth, but Johnston does not feel as though his club is under pressure to win.

"There's no pressure on this group," Johnston said. "They know what's ahead of them - it's the playoffs, and we need to start making a push. We've got a bunch of games coming at home, we've been on the road for a long time now. Hopefully we can get back into the home stadium and get some points. These guys have done a hell of a job."

Things will get better for the road-weary club as they enjoy four of their next five games on home soil, where they have posted a 4-3 record this season.

Columbus turned its season around over the past month with a 4-0-2 mark before last week's 2-1 defeat at Chivas USA. An Eddie Gaven own-goal in the 69th minute proved to be the difference in the game, but head coach Sigi Schmid feels as though his team did enough to earn a draw and is not worried by the result.

"We should have been able to walk out of here with a tie," said Schmid. "We weren't horrible, we had some chances and we gave up a couple of goals that were a little bit soft. Chivas is a tough team at home and we took an early goal but we came back."

The winning run has also coincided with the emergence of keeper Will Hesmer, who took over at the start of the team's unbeaten run and suffered his first defeat of the season in seven games as the club's starting keeper.

Hesmer had posted three consecutive clean sheets before the Chivas contest, but has a good chance to get his fourth on Sunday against a Toronto team that struggles to score goals away from home.

Having reached the midpoint of the season with his team in good form, Schmid was upbeat about his team's chances in the second half of the season.

"We start again," he said. "We start another streak."

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Colorado hopes for Rapid improvement in K.C.

The Kansas City Wizards won for the first time in seven games last week, and will try to continue their winning ways on Sunday when the club hosts the struggling Colorado Rapids at Arrowhead Stadium.

The Wizards 1-0 win last time out coincided with the return to the lineup of the league's leading scorer, Eddie Johnson. The team posted a 0-3-2 mark while Johnson was away on international duty with the United States, but along with the return of defender Jimmy Conrad, K.C. is looking to turn things around and make a run at the top spot in the Eastern Conference.

Even with that poor run of play, last week's win pulled the Wizards to within one point of conference leaders New England, who host Houston on Sunday. Kansas City may have a chance to take over the lead in the East by the time they step onto the field on Sunday night, and with Johnson back in the lineup leading the way, that looks like a good possibility.

K.C. tallied just four goals with Johnson out of the lineup and the team lacked a confidence around the net when it came to finishing. They still created chances, but without Johnson to provide the finishing touch, they were held scoreless twice and scored just one goal in two other contests. They had plenty of opportunities to score and win games, but Johnson's return last week as well as the team's return to the win column has to be a relief to head coach Curt Onalfo.

"It was a great three points," Onalfo said of his club's 1-0 win against Real Salt Lake last week. "At times we were not as sharp as we wanted to be. Some things were a little out of whack in the midfield, but we got things worked out and ended up playing pretty well. At times we were not as sharp as we wanted to be, but it was the first time in a while we played with our full team."

The Rapids will have their full team as well for the game, but it has not done the club much good in recent weeks. Colorado is winless in its last eight games, including six losses. A large part of the team's struggles has been an inability to score goals. The Rapids have tallied just three goals in that eight-game stretch, and have been held scoreless in five of their last six matches.

The Rapids are still sitting in fourth place in the Western Conference, but the L.A. Galaxy has played a number of games less than Colorado, and will likely pass the team in the next month if things don't turn around quickly.

Herculez Gomez leads the team with four goals this season, but has not found the net since June 2. The team's second leading scorer, Roberto Brown, was let go by the team this past week, leaving head coach Fernando Clavijo with little in the way of experienced scorers up top. Much of the scoring burden will fall to Jacob Peterson, who has replaced Brown in recent weeks in the starting lineup. Peterson has scored one goal in 13 appearances this season, but is one of only five players left on the roster to have scored for the squad this season.

Clavijo has quite a turnaround on his hands if Colorado is to avoid missing the playoffs for the first time since the 2001 season.

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22:00 FT New England 3-3 Dynamo Houston (1-0)
23:00 FT Columbus Crew 2-0 Toronto FC (0-0)
23:00 FT Red Bull New York 1-0 Washington D. C. [Red Card] (1-0)
02:00 84' [Red Card] Kansas City Wizards 2-1 Colorado Rapids (2-1)

Waiting for the Kaansas game doesnt fit in with my plans soz