Barca skip past LA Galaxy at the Rose Bowl; United crush San Jose
Goals from Luis Suarez and Sergi Roberto were enough for Spanish giants Barcelona to defeat the Los Angeles Galaxy 2-1 in the International Champions Cup at a jam-packed Rose Bowl on Tuesday night.
The win sees Barcelona open the International Champions Cup with three points and was also the highest attended club soccer game featuring an MLS team with an announced attendance of 93,226. The previous record was held when both teams met each other at the Rose Bowl in 2009.
Without star forwards Lionel Messi or Neymar in the lineup against the Los Angeles Galaxy, some wondered if Barcelona would still have enough firepower to overthrow an in-form Galaxy side.
Their worries were put to rest on the stroke of halftime when Luis Suarez capitalized off a missed clearance by Leonardo and struck home to give Barcelona a lead that it wouldn’t relinquish for the rest of the game in the first half.
The second goal came from a turnover in the Galaxy’s defensive third and, after another bad clearance, the ball rolled to Sergi Roberto -- standing alone in the middle of the box -- who buried his shot to double the lead. This punctuated the fact that Barcelona came out of halftime looking even better than it did in the first half, with multiple shots coming in the first few minutes.
First, Douglas cut inside from the right and fired a shot that barely went over the crossbar. Then halftime-substitute Andrew Wolverton was forced to make a goal-line clearance in the 53rd minute to try and keep the game within touching distance.
But Roberto’s goal undid the Galaxy, who managed their first shot in the 65th minute and barely managed a couple shots on goal. The Galaxy had a few threatening moments after that, mainly due to the presence of Bradford Jamieson IV and Ariel Lassiter, but failed to make many of their chances count.
The Galaxy finally found the back of the net in the 90th minute but the late goal by Tommy Meyer would matter only as a consolation.
LA’s midfield never really figured itself out, constantly giving the ball away and hoofing balls forward for first-half players Robbie Keane and Steven Gerrard to try and run on to. Barcelona’s defenders easily held them in check, spinning them off the ball and keeping the club’s two most potent forces quiet for 45 minutes.
Barcelona’s midfield had no such problems, running the Galaxy rampant before dispatching many inch-perfect passes for their forwards to run on to. While it took Barcelona awhile to score, there was never really any doubt that they would.
Suarez’s goal was well deserved, as Barcelona had bossed the game for much of the first half. The first time LA managed to string together three passes was by the 15th minute and by then Barcelona had already threatened the Galaxy multiple times.
It took the Catalan club 35 minutes to get a shot on goal but Rafinha’s shot was well worth the wait, as his curling effort was narrowly pushed wide by Brian Rowe. While Barcelona didn’t threaten often in the first half, instead choosing to pass its way around LA’s defense and visibly frustrate them with every show of flair.
The Galaxy were especially frustrated on the flanks, where Barcelona wingers continued to show their pace, guile and willingness to run at LA’s backline before firing in a dangerous cross. LA’s inability to handle this, despite the fantastic play of centerback AJ DeLaGarza to be in the right place at every right time, proved to be too much for the Galaxy to pull off the upset.
The win sees Barcelona move on in the International Champions Cup and was also the highest attended club soccer game featuring an MLS team with an announced attendance of 93,226. The previous record was held when these two teams met each other in 2009.
San Jose Earthquakes 1, Manchester United 3
Juan Mata and Memphis Depay scored five minutes apart in the first half, and Manchester United drew a big Bay Area crowd as the Red Devils beat the San Jose Earthquakes 3-1 on Tuesday night for another preseason victory in the International Champions Cup.
Andreas Pereira added another goal on a header off Jesse Lingard's cross in the 61st minute for Manchester United. Coach Louis van Gaal went with his second 10 players in the field after halftime before a packed stadium.
Mata scored in the 32nd minute when he dribbled just inside the 18-yard box, hit the right crossbar and the ball bounced into the net after barely missing the outstretched foot of Depay.
Depay got his turn soon after when he connected in the 37th minute.
Fatai Alashe made a sliding one-touch goal off a pass from the end line by Shea Salinas in the 42nd minute for San Jose, which lost 2-1 to Club America on July 14
A couple hundred fans lined up near the player entrance to enthusiastically greet the Red Devils' arrival by police escort at sparkling first-year, 18,000-seat Avaya Stadium, which will host the MLS All-Star game next July.
The match had initially been slated for Memorial Stadium on the University of California campus in Berkeley but was moved to accommodate Man United since the club is staying in San Jose and training at the Earthquakes' complex this week.
Information from The Associated Press contributed to this report.
