Sigi Schmidt smokes crack.

That’s the only way to explain his comment that L.A. Galaxy players like Tyronne Marshall were still scrapping, even in injury time, to maybe score a goal and steal a draw or even a win against Real Madrid. Um…the scoreboard said 2-0 to Madrid in the 93rd minute. The Galaxy had only a few sniffs at goal the entire game, and I don’t think anyone, players included, believed they could score two much less three goals in about ninety seconds. They were scrapping for a goal, no doubt, but c’mon. Had they even scored one (which they didn’t) any player even getting close to the goal would have been scythed down so Madrid could preserve the win.

Overall, it was a fun game to watch. Did the Galaxy earn some respect? Probably. But that’s to suggest that they were in the game even for a minute. Madrid’s passing was smooth and sublime and Zidane was, well, Zidane. What’s more, Madrid didn’t keep the pedal down the whole match but rather pulsed it. The Galaxy chased shadows anytime Madrid really decided to go for it and some wayward finishing and some great work by keeper Kevin Hartman kept the scoreline respectable. The gap between the MLS and Europe’s average squads surely isn’t that great, but it’s still a chasm when compared against one of the top teams in the world. It was great to see the difference in quality between the two. Madrid moved the ball faster and played a bewildering one-touch passing game. The Galaxy, like most MLS teams, are sustaining that kind of fluid play for about ten to fifteen seconds before becoming unstrung by a bad run or a poor pass.

All in all, it was about what I expected. And I enjoyed it. Much better than a lot of lackluster, toothless friendlies.

I’m on day 56 for two small stories (at Fortean Bureau and Farthing), day 32 for a story at Strange Horizons, and only day 27 for a long-shot at Asimov’s. I should be finding out on the first three soon. I need to finish more stuff and get it out so I’m not watching the seconds tick by on every submission that’s out. I have a submission tracker on my website so I’ll never forget what’s our where, but it would be nice to have enough stuff in circulation that every other week you’d be getting some kind of news.