No galaxy of stars but lots of heat in California Clasico

DERBY DAYS: San Jose Earthquakes v Los Angeles GalaxyIt may not be major league soccer as we know it, but the California derby will generate its fair share of passion, writes DAMIAN CULLEN.

REMEMBER THAT team David Beckham played for which had more money than sense? That professional outfit every other club believed received favourable treatment from referees and league officials? That side supporters of all other teams loved to hate?

Doesn’t exactly narrow it down much, does it?

The talented, wide midfielder has been on the pitch for many of the world’s most famed rivalries – Manchester United versus Liverpool, Real Madrid versus Barcelona, and last February he played in AC Milan’s 2-1 defeat by Inter at the San Siro.

Those match-ups have history stretching back more than a century, and are tangled up in issues relating to class, politics, culture and even war.

So it’s unlikely, given the choice, Beckham would select a LA Galaxy versus San Jose Earthquakes match-up as his preferred derby game.

That won’t matter much, though, to the 20,000 spectators who make their way to the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum this Saturday, when the team from Los Angeles visit the home of the San Jose Earthquakes for the state derby.

Beckham won’t be there, as he’s officially still an AC Milan player until next month, when, according to Galaxy officials at least, he will return to LA. And the visitors will also have to cope without their home-grown star – Landon Donovan, who scored for the USA against Italy in Monday’s Confederations Cup game.

Before Beckham crossed the Atlantic, Donovan was the face of soccer in America, and so far in the 21st Century has been the face of American soccer throughout the world. In his first season in MLS, Donovan enjoyed early success with the Earthquakes, winning the MLS Cup in 2001 and 2003.

Donovan had joined the Earthquakes from Bayer Leverkusen, and returned there in 2005 for another brief visit before returning to America – though this time for the LA Galaxy.

In his first season back Donovan led his new side to the MLS Cup title again, and has gone on to play more than 100 times for the Galaxy, earning a scoring-to-matches average of more than 50 per cent.

He was in an Earthquakes jersey for the most famous California Clasico in MLS history.

In the 2003 season, the Earthquakes and Galaxy met in a two-legged, MLS Cup play-off. The first game, played on November 1st, at the new, 27,000-capacity Home Depot Center on the outskirts of Los Angeles, went to the home side – with both Sasha Victorine and Carlos Ruíz scoring in the second half.

Any hope that San Jose could claw back the deficit at the Spartan Stadium – then home of the Earthquakes – eight days later appeared to be quickly snuffed out when Ruíz pounced again after seven minutes, before Peter Vagenas made the aggregate score 4-0 six minutes later.

Game over.

Or, at least, it should have been.

Jeff “Goose” Agoos led the comeback, before Donovan struck to level the second leg, and leave the home side with a reason to return to the pitch after the half-time oranges.

When Jamil Walker claimed the home side’s third goal immediately after the break an amazing result beckoned. The Galaxy, however, managed to regroup and appeared to have held out for the win, repelling all further San Jose attacks, until moments before the full-time whistle when Chris Roner sent the game into extra-time (which in MLS speak was “sudden-death overtime”).

It was left to Brazilian striker Rodrigo Faria to complete the greatest comeback in MLS history, with his vital contribution coming after more than three hours of football between the sides. San Jose went on to claim another MLS Cup title.

When the teams met in the play-offs again in 2005, Donovan was now in the all-white strip of the Galaxy. And again he was on the winning side, scoring two of the LA side’s goals in their 4-2 aggregate victory on their way to the MLS Cup.

The MLS season runs from March to November, and is split into two conferences, with, naturally enough, the teams from San Jose and LA occupying the Western Conference. The two sections don’t meet until the end-of-season play-offs.

Though the rivalry seemed alive and well, the win in 2003 was the last trophy the Earthquakes claimed before – in true American style – the club folded and moved, following the conclusion of the 2005 season, en bloc, to Houston – before returning last year to San Jose – which is situated at the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay Area (which you may know better as Silicon Valley).

They simply picked up where they left off, and the ’Quakes and Galaxy met last April when a Bryan Jordan strike for the Los Angeles side late in the game cancelled out a Pablo Campos headed goal.

San Jose may be a long way removed from Europe’s biggest footballing cities, but, this weekend, at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, the passions, the cheap-shots, the early and late tackles and the fans who combine high excitement with low tolerance will be much the same as everywhere else in the world.