Crew 0 - 1 Galaxy
Final
  for this game

Galaxy extend unbeaten streak with win over Crew

Jul 21, 2011 - 4:46 AM Carson, CA (Sports Network) - The Los Angeles Galaxy narrowly defeated the Columbus Crew 1-0 Wednesday night at The Home Depot Center in what was a rather dull affair.

If Los Angeles looked to be lacking some sharpness in front of goal, it is probably down to its recent saturated fixture list.

The Galaxy are coming off of a friendly match against Real Madrid, which they lost to the Copa del Rey champions 4-1, and are set to face free-spending English giants Manchester City on Sunday.

It is a common theme for Major League Soccer clubs to struggle in balancing regular season matches with valuable, high-profile friendlies, but the Galaxy stressed that they placed more importance on their match against the Crew.

While it was not a convincing win for the Galaxy by any stretch of the imagination, it is often a good sign for a team to win matches when not playing its best soccer.

That is exactly how the Galaxy will prefer to look at this encounter: three points gained.

Columbus did extremely well throughout the match to limit the Galaxy's chances to set pieces, giving Los Angeles nothing from the run of play.

Unfortunately, that turned out be the Crew's undoing.

After Galaxy superstar David Beckham earned a free kick just outside the penalty area in the 70th minute, he looked set for one of his patented bending free kicks.

The ensuing attempt struck the wall in front of him, but fell to defender Sean Franklin at the top of the box. Franklin's one-time effort was deflected by the Crew defense and left goalkeeper Will Hesmer helpless to make a save.

It turned out to be all the Galaxy would need to secure all three points and extend their unbeaten run in regular season play to 13 games. They are 7-0-6 in that stretch.

The only damper on the night came in stoppage time when Beckham earned a yellow for time wasting, which will see him miss the next MLS match through yellow card accumulation.

The Galaxy's next regular season match is on July 30th at Vancouver Whitecaps FC, while the Crew will host the Portland Timbers at Crew Stadium this Saturday.






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