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CARSON, Calif. (AP)—Tristan Bowen scored in the 83rd minute and Josh Saunders
made 13 saves to lead the Los Angeles Galaxy to a 1-0 victory over Boca Juniors
of Buenos Aires in an exhibition match Sunday night.

Mike Magee began the scoring play with a right-wing cross to Michael
Stephens in the penalty area. Stephens sent a short pass to his left to Bowen,
who poked an 11-yard shot past diving goalkeeper Javier Garcia.

Saunders made two big right-handed saves in a 3-minute span. Saunders dived
to his right to stop Gaston Rossi’s 25-yard shot in the 65th minute, and
deflected Lucas Viatri’s 10-yard header over the crossbar in the 68th minute.

The Galaxy’s Landon Donovan and Edson Buddle missed the game to train with
the United States’ World Cup team. Buddle is Major League Soccer’s top scorer
with nine goals, while Donovan leads MLS with nine assists.

Boca Juniors played without forward Martin Palermo, the club’s all-time
leading scorer, midfielder Claudio Morel and defender Gary Medel. All three are
training for the World Cup with Argentina, Paraguay and Chile, respectively.

The game was Boca Juniors’ first of a three-match tour. Boca Juniors will
play the Seattle Sounders on Wednesday night and the Portland Timbers on
Saturday.

MADRID (AP)—Real Madrid will have to quickly get over the disappointment of a
Spanish league defeat to Barcelona if it wants to maintain its hopes of winning
the title.

Barcelona has a three-point advantage following Saturday’s 2-0 victory at
Madrid, which cannot afford any kind of slip-up if it is to overtake the
defending champion to win the championship.

With Barcelona hosting the head-to-head tiebreaker, Madrid must win its last
seven games to have any chance, starting Thursday against Almeria.

“The objective is to win every game and see what Barca does,” defender
Alvaro Arbeloa said. “What we can’t do is give up on the games we have left
thinking that everything is lost. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

Madrid will have to rediscover the confidence that was running high before
its record fourth straight loss to its closest rival, which snapped a 12-game
winning streak. Madrid had won all previous 15 league games at the Santiago
Bernabeu stadium.

A dramatic title win may not even be enough to save coach Manuel Pellegrini,
who took a team flush with over ?250 million ($364 million) in signings and seen
it fall out of the Champions League and the Copa del Rey early.

“We’ve had serious problems managing ourselves,” Madrid director general
Jorge Valdano said. “We haven’t reached the right level in important games and
that deserves profound analysis.”

Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said the numbers Madrid had put up this season
— 77 points—were “scandalous” but the Spanish powerhouse worries over
trophies not points, and that doesn’t even guarantee the coach will stay on.
Just ask Fabio Capello.

“We’re a team that if you give us time in the future we’ll go far,”
Arbeloa was quoted as saying in El Pais newspaper. “We’re angry, hurt,
frustrated and upset.”

Barcelona is just the opposite heading into Wednesday’s game against
Deportivo La Coruna, which hasn’t won in six games.

Lionel Messi scored his league-leading 27th goal—and 40th overall—and,
like his team, is full of confidence.

“Once again the team showed today we are superior to anybody else when we
want to be,” Messi said. “We can keep making history. (But) you have to try to
win every game and that’s what we try to do, always.”

Captain Carles Puyol echoed that sentiment as the European champions look to
making a place in football history.

“This is a team filled with hunger,” Puyol said. “After winning six
titles it’s said that motivation wouldn’t exist, but here it is.”

Barcelona could be without striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic (calf) and Eric Abidal
(thigh), while Kaka (groin) is likely to remain sidelined for Madrid.

Valencia needs to rediscover its game against Athletic Bilbao on Thursday
after losing two of its last three games and dropping out of the Europa League.

Valencia was officially eliminated from the title race with a 3-2 loss at
Mallorca on Sunday, but now it has to consolidate third-place with Sevilla and
Mallorca only five points back.

Athletic trails in fourth-place—the last qualifying spot for the Champions
League—by only three points following an emphatic weekend win over Almeria.

Sevilla plays Valladolid, which is battling to get out of the drop zone with
new coach Javier Clemente going for his first win in his second match.

Mallorca is at Zaragoza, which is looking to put further distance between it
and the bottom three.

In other midweek games it’s: Sporting Gijon vs. Tenerife; Getafe vs.
Villarreal; Atletico Madrid vs. Xerez; Racing Santander vs. Espanyol; and
Osasuna vs. Malaga.