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Magee leads Beckham-less Galaxy past Fire 2-0Magee leads Beckham-less Galaxy past Fire 2-0Magee leads Beckham-less Galaxy past Fire 2-0Magee leads Beckham-less Galaxy past Fire 2-0

Aug 20, 2009 - 4:49 AM By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO STATS Writer

BRIDGEVIEW, Ill. (STATS) - No David Beckham. No problem for the Los Angeles Galaxy.

The Galaxy overcame the absence of their English superstar Wednesday night as Mike Magee had a goal and an assist in a 2-0 win over the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park.

Los Angeles (8-4-10) won despite playing without Beckham and defender Eddie Lewis after both were issued red cards in Saturday's 2-0 loss to Seattle.

Those absences, combined with injuries to forwards Edson Buddle (foot sprain) and Alecko Eskandarian (broken nose), moved Magee into the lineup for the first time in three games.

Magee, a Chicago native with 75 friends and family in attendance, made his mark in the 23rd minute, scoring his second goal of the season and ending a personal 13-game drought after fellow forward Jovan Kirovski transitioned a turnover into a quick counter-attack.

"To come home in front of friends and family to get a win in a nationally televised game and to get a win is the most important thing," Magee said. "I've been on the bench for awhile. My legs felt good and I got some pretty good opportunities and I took advantage of them."

Magee added an assist in the 54th minute, sending a lead pass to Landon Donovan, who raced 50 yards past two defenders before hitting a shot to the far post under the arm of diving goalkeeper Jon Busch.

"Mike had a good game," Los Angeles coach Bruce Arena said. "Obviously, the finish for the first goal was a huge play in the game. Give him a lot of credit."

Donovan, second in the league with 10 goals, started for the first time since being diagnosed with swine flu last week. The illness limited the Galaxy captain to 45 minutes off the bench Saturday.

Los Angeles moved past Seattle and into second in the Western Conference, five points behind first-place Houston.

The Galaxy, though, lost goalkeeper Donovan Ricketts in the 85th minute after a collision with Fire forward Stefan Dimitrov. Backup Josh Saunders replaced Ricketts.

The Fire (9-5-8), who failed to put any of their 10 shots on goal, lost for the second time in three games. They remain second in the East, four points behind Columbus.

Chicago's best scoring chance came just before halftime, when Cuauhtemoc Blanco's corner kick found the head of defender Wilman Conde, whose shot sailed barely over the crossbar.

"If you can't get up for big games like this, then I don't know what the problem is," said Busch, who had three saves. "This is when big players step up. It doesn't have to be fancy soccer. It has to be effective soccer. It doesn't matter about flicks and fancy ... that's (expletive)."

Busch played a second consecutive game in net without defender Bakary Soumare in front of him. The Mali international, who was named to the MLS Best IX last year, isn't with the club after a reported altercation with coach Denis Hamlett during halftime of a 3-2 loss at Houston on Aug. 9.

"If you look at what we've done without him in other games, we've been fine," Busch said. "We have quality defenders. We're professionals. We get paid to play soccer. All the other stuff is (expletive). We don't make excuses. We need to get a job done and we didn't get a job done. That's the bottom line."