This was their chance. To prove that, at least for one game, they were not just a star’s supporting cast, but players deserving of the leagues respect. With Beckham away on national duty, and Donovan nursing a groin injury, the Galaxy’s lesser knowns were going to have the spotlight. What happened? Stage Fright.

Let’s be honest about this game, it was ugly. Both teams were missing big names. The result was a sloppy game where neither team could string any quality combinations together. The difference however, was that TFC seemed to work harder.

The first half ended scoreless, with the rain starting to poor. The Galaxy had a really tough time adjusting to the wet Field Turf of Toronto in the second half. Every ball seemed to require an extra touch to control. Everyone knows that Toronto has the best home field advantage in the league, but Saturday’s game showed it isn’t only because of its fans. Toronto seemed to understand the pitch and how it would react to the rainy conditions. The Galaxy were left befuddled.

Let’s talk Abel Xavier for a sec. The guy had two decent games for LA leading into Saturdays contest. But can the Galaxy afford to keep a guy around that either cannot or will not play on artificial surfaces? In a Galaxy back line that already is one of the worst in the league, can they really risk the inconsistencies this brings to the team? Roughly 25% of teams in MLS play home games on artificial turf. I don’t see how the Galaxy can expect their defense to improve when the back line will be changing week to week, especially on the road. What this defense needs is some consistency.

Give credit to Toronto. They battled and scrapped for their two goals, with their first coming from a nice aerial effort from James. The Los Angeles strikers, however, could not produce. What became quite apparent in this game, was the lack of creativity through midfield, when both Beckham and Donovan go missing. You cannot expect to start three holding midfielders in Franchino, McDonald, and Pires across a four man midfield and see offensive results. It is my same complaint of Bob Bradley at the national team level. Too many holding players and not enough creativity. And that statement really sums up the Galaxy’s performance this weekend.

A week ago, looking ahead at the next match-up, I was confident in my Galaxy’s ability to win. They were hosting a struggling Toronto FC team that really stumbled through their two opening games. This, combined with the Galaxy’s good form against San Jose gave a me a warm and fuzzy feeling of goals galore this Sunday. Then Toronto had to go and get creative.

Mo Johnston, Director of Soccer for Toronto FC, hasn’t had much to be heralded for so far this season. But that may change with the key additions he made to his squad this week. Along with 2007 Rookie of the Year Maurice Edu and one of MLS’ all-time most lethal strikers Jeff Cunningham, TFC welcomes Amado Guevara and Laurent Robert into the fold. Guevara is the 2004 MLS MVP, but with him comes all the drama that seems to follow. He was shipped out from New York and then subsequently dropped from Preki’s Chivas USA. Is TFC getting the vision and distribution of Amado circa 2004 or the prima donna that no one seems to be able to work with? For the Galaxy’s sake I am hoping for the latter.

Laurent Robert will be participating in his second week with TFC. His story seems to mimic Guevara’s, plenty of potential and pedigree, but has bounced around quite a bit in recent years. Since playing with Newcastle in 2005, Robert has played for five different clubs in four different countries. His set pieces and service from the wings, however, can be dangerous. The Galaxy can not sleep on him.

So while TFC definitely has it’s question marks, so does the Galaxy. For all the demons that were temporarily put to rest with their recent victory, a number of smaller ones have arisen. Namely, what to do with the center of defense. With Sean Franklin’s emergence as a viable candidate last week, does Ruud bench a large salary, big name player in Abel Xavier? My money is on no. I think Ruud will give the pairing of Vanney and X one more shot to see if it truly was the altitude that affected their quality of play in Colorado, or their age and speed. But don’t surprised to see a halftime sub of Franklin if the pairing isn’t working.

Another question mark for the Galaxy is, the center of midfield. Who is going to mark Guevara? The pairing of MacDonald and Pires looked decent in the last outing, but to be fair Ned Grabavoy is not of the same caliber as Amado Guevara. One of these guys is going to have to step up and make sure that every time Guevara receives the ball he is forced to play back to goal. If he is allowed to run at the defense he will pick out a very dangerous Jeff Cunningham. Cunningham’s speed and Guevara’s ability to put a ball into the space between the Galaxy defensive line and goal has to be the Galaxy’s biggest concern going into Sunday’s game.

The good news? Toronto’s defense has allowed six goals in it’s first two games. This bodes well for another exciting edition of the Donovan/Beckham show. Expect to see at least one of these names on the score sheet this weekend.

My Homer Prediction: Galaxy 2 - TFC 1

My Homer Lineup:

GK- Cronin

Def- Klein X Vanney Randolph

Mid- Beckham, Macdonald, Pires, Allen

Fwd- Donovan, Gordon