That's it!!! Mike Magee turns this game on its head, is involved in all four goals as the Galaxy defeat DC United by a final score of 4-1.
87' GOAL LA!!!!!! Magee scores his second of the night off of a Steven Gerrard free kick
83' GOAL ROBBIE KEANE!!!! The captain converts the spot kick from twelve yards out.
82' Magee is again involved in the action, as he was clean through on goal. Dykstra stuck out his leg and took down Magee.
PENALTY LA!!!!
81' DeLeon's shot is hit poorly and is nowhere near the frame of the goal.
80' DCU have a corner but not before Sebastian Lletget gets replaced by Baggio Husidic.
75' Not much has happened in the last ten minutes. LA happy to sit back and absorb a bit of pressure as the match starts to wind down.
65' Sebastian Lletget found Mike Magee wide open on the left side of the box. He took his time, and two touches later, he chipped the ball over Dykstra to take the lead.
GOAL LA GALAXY!!!!
63' Boswell has a header stopped.
61' This second half is wide open. Makings of a great last 30 minutes.
58' DeLeon had the chance to regain the lead but his shot bounced back off the far post.
55' Mike Magee delivered a cross off of a corner and Daniel Steres made a little diagonal run to get his head onto it before it passed Dykstra.
GOAL LOS ANGELES GALAXY!!!!! It's been coming early and the pressure finally paid off a corner.
52' The Galaxy come close to scoring twice in a matter of second. A cross was played towards the back post and Keane's header slammed off the cross bar before Zardes' follow up was caught by Dykstra.
48' Lamar Neagle gets booked for a tackle on Robbie Rogers.
46' Galaxy give away a corner in the opening minute.
46' Robbie Keane and Mike Magee (halftime substitute for Giovanni Dos Santos) get the ball rolling to start the second period!
HT: At the end of the opening 45 minutes, Lamar Neagle's strike separates the two sides.
45 +3' Dykstra claims another cross in the penalty area, this time from Ashley Cole.
45 +1' Good defending by Steres to poke the ball away from Rolfe at the last moment.
Because of earlier injuries, six additional minutes have been added to end the first half.
43' Rowe stuffs DeLeon's shot from a fairly tight angle.
41' LA's corner comes to nothing but they look the better of the two sides despite giving up that early goal.
33' After a lengthy delay, Birnbaum is back up on his feet.
30' Steres and Steve Birnbaum collide in the air and both trainers are called onto the field.
29' Ashley Cole concedes a corn won by Chris Rolfe.
25' This time it's a curling deliver that Gyasi Zardes and Nigel De Jong both try to get onto the end of, but it's the Dutchman who fires it out of play.
25' LA gets another free kick....
24' Gerrard's free kick slams straight into the wall.
22' Robbie Keane goes down inside the area after a slight push, but the ref was never going to reward the pk.
19' To make matters worse for the hosts, Brian Rowe is coming in to replace an injured Dan Kennedy.
17' The Galaxy keep trying to cross the ball into the box but DC's goalkeeper has been alert thus far.
13' Dykstra comes off his line to snag a cross before Robbie Keane could get on the end of it but the Galaxy captain was offisde anyways.
That was Neagle's first goal in the DC United shirt.
5' Gerrard gives away possession and when AJ DeLeGarza tried to clear it away, the ball fell straight to Lamar Neagle who slotted his shot into the bottom right corner of Kennedy's goal.
GOAL DC UNITED!!!!!!!
2' Dos Santos' cross is caught easily by Dykstra
1' And we are off!
The players are walking out onto the field! Anthem's next, then it's go time!
It looks like the Galaxy are lining up in a 4-2-3-1 while DC are throwing out a 4-4-2 diamond. Should be an interesting tactical battle especially with young Daniel Steres starting in place of Jelle Van Damme. How is he going to cope with three attackers looking for space in behind? Big test for the debutant.
Both DC and LA are on the pitch warming up. 40 minutes to go.
D.C. United starting XI: Dykstra; Kemp, Boswell, Birnbaum, Franklin; Rolfe, Macelo, DeLeon, Nyarko; Acosta, Neagle
Los Angeles Galaxy starting XI: Kennedy; Cole, Steres, DeLaGarza, Rogers; Gerrard, De Jong; Zardes, Dos Santos, Lletget
They have arrived!
We are about an hour away from kickoff! Lineups should be coming out any minute now.
In the last five matches played between the Galaxy and DC, it is Los Angeles who holds the slight advantage. Tonight’s hosts have won twice, lost one and drew the other two. The biggest victory for them came two seasons ago when they scored four goals to United’s one.
Seven new faces were brought into the LA Galaxy squad in a little bit of an overhaul. Omar Gonalez and Juninho were both sold to Liga MX clubs and recently, Dan Gargan and Ignacio Maganto were released because they would have been far down in the pecking order and would see next to no playing time. Mike Magee, Emmanuel Boateng, Jeff Larentowicz, Nigel De Jong, Ashley Cole, Jelle Van Damme, Dan Kennedy have all been added to the roster. Defense will have been a key area for Bruce Arena and he seems to have got some good additions.
Over the course of the offseason, DC upgraded their midfield and attack. Speedster Patrick Nyarko was brought in from Chicago and he will look to provide the capital club with a bit of with. The midfield, however, is where they have really improved. Marcelo Sarvas and Lamar Neagle are the two biggest acquisitions in that area of the squad and they will start in the middle immediately. One bright youngster to look out for is Luciano Acosta. He’s a 21 year old Argentine who is on loan from Boca Juniors and has a knack for getting into spaces in and around the eighteen yard box.
For the Los Angeles Galaxy, their preseason went decently. They played against two international teams before a closed door friendly against the Seattle Sounders. FC Shirak were the first opponents of 2016 and the Galaxy came away victorious, scoring twice in the second half. Xolos Tijuana brought their reserves up in the next match a few days later. Unfortunately, neither side were able find the back of the net as it ended scoreless.
Then they traveled to Las Vegas to play a match against their rivals, the San Jose Earthquakes and drove back to Southern California with the win. Their last outing was a rainy affair versus the Sounders. And with the Champions League matches looming, the Galaxy conserved energy. But as a result, Seattle found the back of the net four times in a lopsided night.
Today’s visitor’s preseason did not go so great either. Their first two games came against tough Swedish opposition. IF Elfsborg defeated DC 1-0 while Jonkoping Sodra FC managed to hold onto a 2-2 draw. The Tampa Bay Rowdies of the NASL were up next and DC got their only victory, winning 1-0. Their two final matches before CONCACF Champions League action were played against fellow MLS teams. The Philadelphia Union match was perhaps their best performance, earning a 1-1 draw.
They managed to get decent looks in the final third and the defense did well for the most part. Montreal Impact hammered DC, winning 4-1. Dominic Oduro was a pest in that one, scoring twice with Romario Williams capping off the scoring.
In the return leg, DC played much better. But the Mexican outfit scored in the fourth minute of the match to go up three on aggregate. Chris Rolfe missed a penalty in the 56th minute which would have made the match much more intriguing. However, a lone consolation goal was all that DC could muster as they would lose by a combined score of 3-1.
DC United had an easier opponent, in Queretaro, compared to the rest of the Mexican clubs in the Champions League but still lost on aggregate. In the first leg, the thing that hurt the most was altitude. From the get-go DC looked gassed and the play opened nearly immediately. Queretaro were then able to possess the ball and made United chase most of the match. The hosts managed to get 14 total shots away with seven of them finding the target. Yerson Candelo and Edgar Benitez scored within the last 20 minutes of the match to essentially kill off the tie.
Where they fell short though, or rather got demolished, was in Mexico. Santos Laguna are known for their extremely impressive and that showed on Tuesday night. They dominated the Galaxy in every facet of the match. Santos moved the ball efficiently up the field, defended as a unit, and capitalized on set piece opportunities. And as a result of all this, they came away with a dominating 4-0 victory to advance to the semi-finals of the competition.
Both sides were recently knocked out of the CONCACAF Champions League to start competitive play. The Los Angeles Galaxy, however, fared the worst among the two. In the first leg of the quarter-final match up against Liga MX outfit Santos Laguna, they came away with a 0-0 draw.
Hello, and welcome to VAVEL USA’s LIVE coverage of Major League Soccer. My name is Kyle Sennikoff and tonight’s action, which caps off week one, sees the Los Angeles Galaxy play hosts to D.C. United at the StubHub Center. The match kicks off at 10:00 PM EST and hope you enjoy the coverage!