Friendlies, Matches, Pre-season - Written by BlueChampion on Sunday, July 22, 2007 4:26 | 2,816 Views | 56 Comments | Add Comment

LA Galaxy 0 - 1 Chelsea | Diamonds Are Not Forever

Disappointment. Now that’s a goal difference of 3 in as many matches in the US of A. I’m not sure what objectives Jose had for these friendlies. May be, he wanted everyone get some match practice, gain some sharpness and come out without any injuries. If so, Jose would be happy, but I’m not.

We played flat 4-4-2, with Cech (Cudicini 45), Ferreira (Mikel Obi 45), Carvalho, Terry (c), Ben-Haim (J Cole 45), Wright-Phillips (Shevchenko 45), Essien, Lampard (Sidwell 73), Malouda (Johnson 73), Drogba (Hutchinson 88) and Kalou (Makelele 60).

I was watching the match live. At about the 15th minute, my internet connection went off and never came back for the next three hours! You have to see these things just like you look at injuries. They just happen.

Anybody who had seen the whole match live, might have a different opinion than mine. May be, we played brilliantly but were unfortunate to end at just 1-0. While I’m happy for John Terry scorig 2 goals in 3 matches, from the team morale perspective, it would have been lot better if Sheva had scored these instead of Terry.

terry_galaxy.JPG

The whole thing of ‘world series of soccer’ thing is a big joke or at least the nomenclature of it. For the records, we did not win this trophy as we were only 5 goals short of what was required.

It’s kind of obvious that the orthodox 4-4-2 works for us better than the diamond which impacts our width and can be a real failure if the tip of the diamond is a waste of space. 4-4-2 with wide midfielders was very refreshing to see, with our various attacking options.

Sometimes, if a formation does not work for you at all and then you move to a better formation, suddenly you’ll feel like you’re playing with an extra man. Like they say in Chess, a blocked bishop is no bishop. If this orthodox 4-4-2 means that Ballack won’t be able to play too many matches, so be it. We all know that he is a class player and when his place is threatened he should come all guns blazing, when given a chance.

I don’t want to talk about Beckham as you’re probably going to be bored, with the amount of Beckham-mania in the Press. I’m happy we don’t have to play LA Galaxy any more. I pity those teams that play against LA Galaxy, David Beckham himself, LA Galaxy themselves and the football fans in America for the obscene amount of Beckham-news they might have to read.

To sum up what we’ve seen in the tour of America, we have seen almost all players in our squad in action; Hutchinson and Cork are pretty decent; Joe Cole is the man to watch this season; we don’t seem to need a certain 30m right back; we’ve officially ditched 4-4-2 diamond; Terry is back and it shows; Malouda won’t take a season to get accustomed to the Chelsea system; Drogba continues from where he left last season; we still retain the habit of winning.

Finally, Chelseablog has got a face-lift. Go see it. It’s nice!

[tags]Chelsea, LA Galaxy, Jose Mourinho, John Terry, David Beckham, Beckham, World Series of Soccer, goal video[/tags]



56 Comments

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1. Andrew



Jul 22, 2007 @ 6:12

2. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 6:21

Am glad Pizarro has finally joined. with the planned 4-4-2 this year, I can see him really having a blast especially from jan when Drogba leaves for ACON. I do not know but my instincts tell me that he and Sheva will be having a very promising partnership. Having just finished the Copa tourney, he like Alex may not need much more pre season training. Hope we see him in action before long

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3. Jo



Jul 22, 2007 @ 7:37

pizarro nt named in the chelsea squad for the match….benhaim playing LB…arjen robben is out due to knee injury…..joecole did nt start…surely second half he will start

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4. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 7:43

half time now. Chelsea looking very sharp with Malouda, Kalou, Essien and Ben haim particularly being very impressive. Galaxy are playing the game of their lives and showing a very good fighting spirit.

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5. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 7:46

48 min. Terry just got the opener. Gooooooaaaaaaallllllllllllll

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6. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 7:51

Joe Cole in for SWP. He has brought so much dynamism into the attacking thrust. Sheva is in as well and so is Mikel.

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7. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 7:53

Another goal- No Offside. what a goal that would have been- magical movement- between kalou, sheva and Drogs. If this is the stuff ahead of us this year, then Chelsea would be on a whole different level

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8. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 7:56

essien is now at right back, mikel and Lamps now in midfield.

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9. lordkanu



Jul 22, 2007 @ 7:57

10. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 7:58

Maka now in in place of Kalou

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11. lordkanu



Jul 22, 2007 @ 8:01

12. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 8:06

13. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 8:07

Becks about to make a grand entrance

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14. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 8:08

Obi Mikel just nearly got another. what a player he is turning out to be- just brilliant

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15. lordkanu



Jul 22, 2007 @ 8:09

so 1-0 k. hey dude whats ur msn id?

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16. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 8:11

sidwel for lamps and Glen J for Malouda

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17. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 8:14

77 min. Becks just stepping in now to thunderous ovation

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18. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 8:25

ac`tually watching it on EsPN

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19. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 8:29

20. lordkanu



Jul 22, 2007 @ 8:31

21. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 8:33

22. lordkanu



Jul 22, 2007 @ 8:33

23. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 8:36

Terry is awarded Man of the match

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24. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 8:41

25. sooraj.....



Jul 22, 2007 @ 8:59

yeah mikel’s just been brilliant in the match….
sheva was good too…….

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26. Mikey



Jul 22, 2007 @ 9:17

Mikel was great. Sheva was very clever, but somewhat sluggish and not too explosive. Essien was fantastic, as usual.

Malouda had a solid first half and put in some good crosses. Joe Cole looked very good, and extremely promising. I’d have him on the right wing over SWP any day.

Lampard was so-so. I lost track of him for most of the match. Ben Haim, surprisingly, did a really good job and actually got into the attack quite well!

Kalou’s pace is astonishing but sometimes I think he gets a little bit ahead of his feet and can look clumsy. It showed in this game.

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27. Adonis



Jul 22, 2007 @ 10:08

Terrific match, we accomplished what we wanted for sure I think. I thought out of everyone, Terry and Cech impressed me the most. I’m not saying no attackers played well, our team was alright, but our defense won us the game. Ferreira, Johnson, and Ben Haim were solid, but not too tested. Drogba was ok, not as good as last game, Malouda was good, Joe Cole was lively, SWP was somewhat invisible, Mikel was terrific, Makalele was also invisible(which is good for a CDM), Essien was… ESSIEN! Lampard was average, and Sheva was much better than Kalou, who I thought had a lousy game. In the first half Kalou squandered a huge chance where Drogba was alone in the middle of the box and the LA keeper off to the right near Kalou. He shot wide instead of passing for the sure goal. AGGRAVATING! Cech had a tremendous save the first half, and Cudicini took over the second half and barely touched the ball as Chelsea thoroughly dominated possession.
As some people feared, no Robben means a highly likely move to Real. It’s going to be sad to see him go, but I’m sure we’re still a very deep team at the wings.

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28. Adonis



Jul 22, 2007 @ 10:11

Oh, I forgot about Carvalho… He played a terrific match, attacking much more than usual… fantastic match with no mistakes. As good as Terry, Cech, Essien, and Mikel.

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29. AgentBlue



Jul 22, 2007 @ 11:59

My team looked very pleasant today! I dont know if ya’ll noticed but the we were passing the ball a lot more. We were slick in possession and totally controlled the ball and the game. Reminded me of 2 seasons ago…..Hmm.. Maybe a sign of things to come this season. Only problem though was that we were hesitating too much when it came on to our shooting, Sheva was guilty of that! I didnt see much of this long ball tactic that plagued us last season! im hoping we get rid of it!! Malouda was, Sheva were lively. Essien, Mikel, Carvalho, Terry, Joe, were fantastic. Joe was especially lively with his skill. Lamps was somewhat ineffective??????? Drogba was somewhat invisible????????? Swp was nothing more than ok. Kalou has decent pace, but he dribbles and leaves the ball behind him most of the time. He seems tangled up too often whenever he has possession!

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30. Adonis



Jul 22, 2007 @ 12:35

I agree AgentBlue… and since when hasn’t Terry scored with his foot?? I haven’t seen it for a while!!

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31. blue champion



Jul 22, 2007 @ 12:56

Adonis - Terry blasted with his right foot in our 4-1 demolition of West Ham, after being 0-1 down and Maniche sent off after 15 mins (05-06 season). Remember? I loved that (the original) Ronaldo style goal from Terry.

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32. Manish



Jul 22, 2007 @ 13:15

33. bigbadblue



Jul 22, 2007 @ 16:22

I thot the team had a good game. It was the high intensity game I was looking forward to but it had good pace. Other than Lamps, I think every other player was way above average. Ball was on the ground a whole lot and the movement was quite good especially leading up to the disallowed good. Would have been a lot more than 1 if not for waste full ness (Kalou/Drogba).

I think Jose is qiute pragmatic but I dont believe that we go out to seek narrow wins. If we had a higher conversion rate of opportunities, we definitely have higher scores because truth be told, we do create chances in abundance.

anyways, I have seen all three matches and the improvement is really apparent. IMO, we will get it right this time. and lastly, i think the modified 4-4-2 looks good…so does the 4-3-3 (second half). I say let Mikel run that midfield, he was absolute class today and its clear that his quick thinking and passing game allows us greater movement.

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34. abdullah



Jul 22, 2007 @ 17:01

I just wait till we acheive a high scoring match. We need to score more goals, we dont want it to be like last season were we barely win in the dying seconds of the game with a one goal margin. Lets bring back memories of the beautiful 03/06 seasons were we won the premiership twice. Just so u know Manchetser united demilished Seoul 4-0 in the last friendly game they played. We should start scoring more goals please. Blue4lyfe

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35. DougBushBC



Jul 22, 2007 @ 17:48

As a yank watching it in the states, I thought that the coverage was GARBAGE, i’d rather watch it on the euro stations over the net. No one wants to see Beckham sitting on the bench or posh with *insert random skanky celebrity gal* in the box for 40 minutes of the game. The “beckham cam” was obnoxious.

That being said, the Blues looked great, esp. Shev and Drogba, I thought both played rather brilliantly. I know that in this friendly format, they tried to get some play time for everyone, but I thought they kinda shut down toward the end. None the less, the only good thing to come out of this might be some more frequent state-side coverage of our blues, which would make me a happy fan!

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36. AgentBlue



Jul 22, 2007 @ 18:05

This is nihongo blur here…If this gets posted with the name of AgentBlue BC you have some work to do to preserve our identities .. just a test to make this blog better and secure ..

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37. blue champion



Jul 22, 2007 @ 19:06

AgentBlue or NihongoBlue - A response/solution coming your way!

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38. Zareef



Jul 22, 2007 @ 21:03

I think we done extremly well,3 out of 3 for preseason so far and i think with robben and malouda on the wings we might just win the clampion league..nice work chelsea and jose

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39. Mourofsame



Jul 22, 2007 @ 21:57

The second half was not 4-3-3 but more like 3-5-3 with Essien and carvalho running down the right and left channels threateningly. What do you gus think about that formation?

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40. Nihongo Blue



Jul 22, 2007 @ 22:11

3-5-3 makes us without a goal keeper Mourofsame :o

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41. Maysam



Jul 22, 2007 @ 22:38

1-0 is not a good result , Galaxy is not a world class team, they are not even Pro. I watched Swung - Tiger . Chelsea played against Swung and beat them 2-1 . I can not believe that team scored against chelsea. They are a real amature team. I believe that results are not important in friendly games but If you ask me about results , I will tell you ‘all disappointing’ . However, I think chelsea has not ready yet, and the pitch was kind of small for them because most of chelsea crosses passed Drogba.
I was impressed by Ben performance. he is good. Cech showed he is ready for EPL.
Malouda and Sheva played horrible. if this malouda was ready malouda , Mourinho should use malouda somewhere else but wings. he could not dribile amature Galaxy players he plays mostly phisically.
I have no idea what chelsea formation was in the first half , but i guess malouda was free role
————————-Cech————————-
Ferreira—–Terry————-Carvaliho——Ben
———————Essien————————–
————–Lamaprd———Malouda(FR)—–
—-SWP————————————–Kalou
————————-Drogba———————

in the second half , I was shocked by Mourinho , he showed he does not want to see the quality of hisplayers , he just wants to win, which is good :).
He started second half like this:
——————Cudicini——————–
Essien(go forward)——Terry———-Carvaliho–Malouda(go forward)
—————————————————
———-Lampard——Mikel——————
Cole———————————–Kalou—-
——————Drogba—Sheva————–

Galaxy did not attack that much.
and then chelsea scored very fast ,then Jose changed the team. He knew Galaxy is not the team to score against chelsea.
——————Cudicini——————–
——–Essien——Terry———-Carvaliho–
———————Makelele—————–
———-Lampard——Mikel——————
—Cole————————————Malouda
——————Drogba—Sheva————–

then. ….

——————Cudicini——————–
——–Johnsen——Terry———-Carvaliho–
———————Makelele—————–
———-Sidwell—–Essien—–Mikel—-
———————–Cole——————–
——————Drogba—Sheva————–

and finally
——————Cudicini——————–
Johnsen——Terry—–Carvaliho–Hutchinson
———————Makelele—————–
———-Sidwell—–Essien—–Mikel—-
———————–Cole——————–
——————Drogba—Sheva————–
Jose changed the formation many time.
but anyway, we won , this is important.

to sum up , everyone played but Robben. :)

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42. Adonis



Jul 23, 2007 @ 1:18

Maysam, did you see the goal scored against us by the bluewings?? It deflected off a defender (terry??) and Cech was wrongfooted. It wasn’t like Cech was beaten flat out. It would have gone in against the best in the world (Cech the prime example :D)
And your final formation there is a 4-5-2. Someone’s got to go.

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43. Raging Bull



Jul 23, 2007 @ 1:26

Didn’t think it was a gr8 game but a win is a win.. interesting tactics played in both halfs especially with players out of possition..

Thought Sheva aain looked very sharp and impressive poor decission to disalow Drogs goal gr8 play from Shev..

My MOTM had to be Carvalho solid and got forward well..

Oh yea Sidwell’s tackle was Quality 2! :D

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44. Maysam



Jul 23, 2007 @ 6:03

oo yes , essien , cross off Essien. Dude, you should have watched Swung versus Tiger . they did not even have one shot . Tiger scored three goals very fast and after that they used their younge players. but you are right I did not watch that game and I can not judge.
by the way :)) in stadium they hand out a paper which was written name of players and their numbers on .
I write some of mistakes to show you how VALUABLE and SOCCERSIH are american people.

Number name
26 Ben Hiem
….
..
26 Terry
4 Sidwell
.
.
4 Makelele
2 Glen John
23 Carlio Cudiichini ( look at spelling ) :) 10 A. Cole :) 3 J. cole :)

:)

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45. Maysam



Jul 23, 2007 @ 6:04

46. bigbadblue



Jul 23, 2007 @ 7:20

47. RomanHoliday



Jul 23, 2007 @ 7:34

Who’s American on this site ? What’s your opinion of American ” Soccer” ?
Do you think CFC’s going to the US gets us lots of fans ?
And where’s BlueBlood58 ? Haven’t read any of his insightful stuff for a real long time . Really want to again.

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48. sooraj.....



Jul 23, 2007 @ 8:52

49. Maysam



Jul 23, 2007 @ 11:33

Americans know nothing about soccer , not all of them ofcourse , 99.9 % o f them.

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50. SMITH COLE



Jul 23, 2007 @ 16:11

CHELSEA JUST BOUGHT A NEW STRIKER FROM MALAYSIA ( NORYL NIFIRA )
$21.0 MILLION

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51. Adonis



Jul 23, 2007 @ 22:10

I live in the US (I’m not American) and here people depress me, they know so much. Even that .1 percent, Maysam, they’re pathetically ignorant about the history particularly, and about everything football in general. Maybe Beckham’s going to help that out, but I highly doubt it. I doubt the US’s going to get into football until they win a world cup or something. And that’s not happening anytime soon. Anyways, about the mistakes, I can believe it.
Roman, the MLS, the Major League Soccer which is the league in the US is pathetic. They have eastern and western conferences of teams and playoffs and all this junk. It’s nothing like Europe. And the level is bellow average. There were no world class players or managers before Beckham, and there won’t be too many after him, I don’t think, so the level of the league is going to still be miserable.

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52. Maysam



Jul 24, 2007 @ 2:55

Adonis, where do u live in the U.S.A?
Beckham cannot help them , to be honest with you he did not come here to play soccer. Maybe he effects Galaxy and they improve slightly but he cannot improve the American league. He cannot change the way American people think about soccer.
When Chelsea played versus Galexy , they did not separate fans. Nobody shouted for Galexy . Chelsea fans were far less than Galaxys but you could easily hear Chelsea fans.
They don’t go to stadiums to watch soccer games they just go to spend their free time somehow and observe some chicks, that’s it.

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53. Adonis



Jul 24, 2007 @ 5:00

They really have no apretiation of the sport, it’s not in their hearts or minds like it is with all of us, with the outside world. It’s not in their blood :P
I live on the east coast Maysam. I completely agree that they don’t go to the games for the football but it’s a social event for them. They still don’t care about the beautiful game. I don’t see how they ever will, they have too many sports to follow. And the attention span of the American can’t follow it. They can’t sit still for 45 minutes. I’m not kidding, that’s the reason their favorite sports all are very slow with many stops in them. Isn’t it rediculous how slow american football and baseball are?? I mean, they’re NOT playing longer than they’re playing during a match. That’s what Americans like and I hate. That’s also why I don’t have too many friends that know anything about football, so I LOVE THIS BLOG!!!
Thanks again, BC :D

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54. Najeeb Ts



Jul 31, 2007 @ 21:16

I Know That Chelsea r better than LA galaxy but foot ball is a game any body can win, Then the thing did not suprise me

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55. Sidwell_9



Aug 1, 2007 @ 21:38

how did Becks ?
I didn’t see the game.

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56. Sidwell_9



Aug 1, 2007 @ 21:41

hehe……. John Terry looks like a witch in that picture.

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