Finally, some fireworks were set off by LA Galaxy this week and for 24,333 supporters, the highest crowd of the season at the Home Depot Center besides two sold-out derby games against Chivas USA, the football was not bad either. "The best we've played this season, certainly at home," Frank Yallop, the Galaxy head coach, happily declared in the locker room after his team's 2-0 victory over Chicago Fire while the Fourth of July celebrations carried on in the stadium. "Two weeks ago [after a 3-2 defeat against Columbus Crew, Galaxy's fifth in 10 Major League Soccer games to that point] was rock bottom but tonight was the first time I actually sat back and relaxed and thought, 'We look controlled and it will take a good goal to beat us. I felt comfortable and a lot of what I saw makes me think we're headed in the right direction."
Tactical naivety, a symptom of the shortfall in experience of many American players, is the biggest flaw that Abel Xavier, the former Everton, Liverpool and Middlesbrough defender, has identified in three MLS games in which he has played. The athleticism and effort of players is exemplary, even in a side as deficient in most other areas as Chicago Fire, who are bottom of the Eastern Standings. Only the pace and engine power of their strikers posed a threat to Galaxy whose tactics of sitting deep and breaking with speed were vindicated.
Goalkeeper Joe Cannon had no real save to make and, defensively, Galaxy were solid throughout, albeit against a distinctly average team. "In some games we have allowed one-on-one situations to develop - not because of a lack of determination but rather the tactical capabilities of a player - but that wasn't a problem in this game," Xavier emphasised. "The more we work on this area the harder we will be to beat." The alternative would be to play Chicago every week.
Landon Donovan's return after he missed three games while on Gold Cup duty with the USA provided Galaxy with all the vision and ambition they required going forward. With four goals this season, including the two he despatched from the penalty spot which doused Chicago's fire, Galaxy's 25-year-old captain is clearly their most influential player. He started the game alongside another recent signing from Toronto FC, Edson Buddle, in a two-man strike force before withdrawing to the right side of midfield in the second half to make way for the debut of Honduras international striker Carlos Pavon and was equally effective. Pavon, too, was hungry and moved well in and around the penalty box while Peter Vagenes and Kelly Gray repeatedly broke down Chicago attacks before intelligently passing the ball to Donovan or left-sided midfielder Kyle Martino whose runs into the box invited the challenges which yielded both penalty kicks. Ty Harden, one of nine US-born players in the Galaxy starting line-up and, at 23, the youngest, barely set a foot wrong at the heart of a defence marshalled efficiently by Xavier. "Our back four didn't allow Chicago to get a sniff and, for the whole team, concentration and unity was the key," said Martino.
The equilibrium will be altered dramatically by David Beckham's arrival on Thursday ahead of his official unveiling on Friday. Already the travel plans are creating a headache for the Galaxy hierarchy ahead of a spate of away games, five out of six MLS games in August following Beckham's anticipated debut against Chelsea on July 21 at the Home Depot Center. Galaxy's $250m man will fly first-class along with a handful of other Galaxy staff and players while the rest of the team will travel economy on the same commercial flights. Beckham's travelling companions will alternate among team-mates in the interests of fairness and harmony, though Yallop is giving greater thought to how he will integrate Beckham into the 4-4-2 system he favours, which he may adapt to 4-3-3 to maximise the qualities of Galaxy's first galactico and its current star player.
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"David will play in the middle with the ability to drift to the right side of midfield and serve the ball in or cut inside and shoot and he and Landon will set the rhythm for the team," Yallop revealed. "The two of them will be great on the ball because they rarely lose it and they'll work out between them where Landon will be. If we play 4-3-3, he might play just off the strikers where he can get involved a bit more or if it's two up front and David's underneath, we'll figure out something else because Landon always wants to be involved and it will be poetry when they both get going."
It has been more Ali G than Wordsworth so far this season for Galaxy, though Yallop was not alone in believing that Wednesday's game was a kind of watershed. "David Beckham's name has cast a giant shadow over the club and the pressure, the anticipation and the spotlight that his arrival has brought on us has been a distraction right from the start," said Martino, a USA international. "The season's not starting [when Beckham arrives] and that's something we've tried to focus on in the locker room and tonight we said, 'We've got to get things right before he gets here. The team's not going to change and go through a 180-degree turn just because he's here. We need to make sure that when he gets here we're gelling and firing on all cylinders and I think we're starting to see out of players the things we know they're capable of. The players' on-pitch huddle [at the end of the game] was an opportunity for us to say, 'Guy's, it's beginning to come together. But we're not where we want to be yet, a team that makes it impossible for other teams to come to the Home Depot Center and get three points and nearly impossible to get one. So we congratulated one another tonight but we didn't make it a celebration."
Just as well, for the carnival is about to start.