It's Up for Grabs Now for LA
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Tonight sees the final regular season primetime Thursday night MLS match on ESPN2 as the surging Los Angeles Galaxy host the New York Red Bulls. The Galaxy have won 5 straight matches thereby hoisting themselves back into the playoff hunt. With a sixth victory on the bounce the Galaxy will control their own destiny and tie an MLS record for most consecutive victories, a loss tonight and they are through, a draw tonight means they will need some help on the weekend to make the post season coupled with their own win on Sunday. The Red Bulls have already claimed their spot in the MLS Cup and will face the New England Revolution in the opening round.
Even with their playoff berth assured the Red Bulls do have some incentive tonight. The Red Bulls star striker Juan Pablo Angel is chasing the Golden Boot award. Currently Angel sits 1 goal behind D.C. United's Luciano Emilio. Angel currently is on 19 goals while Emilio is on 20 goals for the season.
This is the second meeting between these two teams this season. The first meeting took place in Giants Stadium in front of a massive crowd of 66,237 fans. That match was certainly one to remember as the Red Bulls came through as winners in total 9 goals were scored in that match. I watched that match and must say that David Beckham was amazing. His skill in set pieces got the Galaxy back into that match even if they did not win it.
Beckham is listed as questionable for this evening's match and I doubt he will even be on the substitutes bench, but I could be wrong on that one. Should the Galaxy win or draw I expect Beckham will be in the lineup for the Galaxy's final match of the regular season. The final match is against the Chicago Fire on Sunday at Toyota Park. The match against the Fire would pit MLS' two biggest signings under the new Designated Player rule, Beckham and the Fire's Cuauhtemoc Blanco.
One other item to take note for tonight's match against the Red Bulls is that it is Cobi Jones Night at the Home Depot Center. Cobi has been a fantastic servant for both club and country and it is nice to see that he will be honored tonight. The first 10,000 fans will get a Cobi Jones T-Shirt and everyone will receive a Cobi Jones thank you card provided by Herbalife. This is Cobi's final regular season game in front of the Los Angeles fans, thank you Cobi and good luck in the future.
So, the Galaxy have it all up for grabs in what should prove to be a very memorable evening at the HDC.
