Josh Ouellette
By Josh Ouellette
God, StubHub is fun when the LA Galaxy are rocking and rolling around the pitch. Granted last Saturday’s game started off shaky with a goal on a defensive lapse (or a great headed goal from Juan Manuel Martinez depending on how you view it), but when Gyasi Zardes equalized a few minutes later on a beautiful shot across goal into the back corner… there wasn’t a quiet fan in the stadium.
Three more goals before halftime, much in part to brilliant pressing play from Emmanuel Boateng supplying attack after attack from the left wing, the Galaxy had the game in the bag going into the break despite Nick Rimando saving Steven Gerrard’s early penalty attempt.
Last week I mentioned how LA should beat teams like Houston in dominating performances like it did. But this past weekend the Galaxy laid down the gauntlet against the last undefeated team in the MLS.
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And it’s not that Los Angeles shouldn’t beat teams like Real Salt Lake. But to beat down a pretty strong defensive team 5-2 with Rimando—arguably the best keeper in the MLS—between the posts, well that’s just impressive.
What is even more impressive is the way Boateng made short work of Claremont native Tony Beltran all night long and was responsible for three of the Galaxy’s goals, including scoring one of his own thanks to having the discipline to continue his run into the box. His best play came in the 45th minute when Beltran basically took Boateng down and the scrappy Ghanaian proceed to basically crawl back to the ball and poke it to Giovanni dos Santos, who in turn sent a beautiful chip shot over the head of Rimando for LA’s fourth goal.
And I use the term scrappy as a term of endearment. My favorite players in any sport are scrappy. I love the way Steve Nash played basketball. I love how Kyle Beckerman plays for the US National Team (despite hating him when he plays for Real Salt Lake). One of my favorite area high school players over the past decade is Andrew Elffers. My favorite NFL player of all time is Frank Wycheck. And Boateng is quickly becoming one of my favorite Galaxy players… even though he is a threat former West Ham youth star Sebastian Lletget’s spot in the starting XI.
As I sat about 15 rows back of the Galaxy’s first-half goal… I had that defining moment as a sports fan where I fell in love with the way a player played his game. Boateng displayed pace, ball skills, grit, desire and finesse for 90 minutes.
It’s the same love I had for Landon Donovan when he played for the Galaxy and the Red, White, and Blue. It’s the same way I feel about watching Clayton Kershaw pitch. It’s the same way I felt as a kid watching Michael Jordan.
Being a fan of a team is one of the few things in life that can make grown men scream at the top of their lungs one day or even moment, and then wipe a tear from their eyes the next.
I know that Emmanuel Boateng made me scream more than a few times on Saturday. I don’t know when he or the Galaxy might make me cry. But I know I am always ready to hop on the roller coaster of fandom. I mean Saturday was a hell of a ride.
The nervous excitement I felt when the U.S. escaped out of the group of death in the last World Cup sitting in a packed bar as a country yearned for one nation and one team to shock the rest of the world is the way I feel at every game. How I felt when Gerrard sent home the fifth goal of the night by sending three defenders in the wrong direction is the same feeling I had when Adrian Gonzalez and Corey Seager struck out to end the game while I was literally on the edge of my seat at Dodger Stadium last night.
The highs are just as much of a high as the lows. We as fans seek and crave both, even if we don’t realize it. I think soccer has a way of delivering this insane balance over a continuous stretch, unlike any other sport. Just like football builds over four quarters better than any other sport. And how baseball is tantalizing for three outs at a time in a way other sports can’t be.
I challenge any soccer haters to go to a Galaxy game this season, don’t worry it’s not that expensive, and take in the excitement. If you can walk out of StubHub without catching a bit of the “football fever” as I like to call it… I’ll eat my words.
Josh Ouellette is a self-proclaimed lover of the Beautiful Game who feverously supports West Ham United (Premier League) and the LA Galaxy (MLS). His thoughts and opinions are his own and if you have any thoughts on his opinions he can be reached via Twitter (@JoshoYouKnow).
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