New England Revolution 3 LA Galaxy 1

A commanding first-half performance from Khano Smith’s New England Revolution gave the Boston outfit a well-deserved victory in their MLS pre-season clash with rivals LA Galaxy last night.

In front of a reasonable crowd of around 600 at the National Sports Centre, the Revs took the lead with 22 minutes of play gone after James Riley popped up in the box unmarked to nod in a Andy Doorman corner, while only three minutes later last year’s MLS runners up went further ahead through Arsene Oka.

The former Ivory Coast club player latched on to a loose ball in the Galaxy box to despatch a stunning left-foot volley past Joe Cannon in the LA goal.

In truth, the two strikes came from out of the blue after a somewhat turgid opening 20 minutes where not one shot on goal was generated. Khano Smith, deployed once again on the left side of midfield where Revs manager Steve Nicol believes he is at his most effective, displayed one or two nice touches but didn’t have a major impact on the game. With only nine minutes of play gone he was put in the clear by a through ball from midfield which caught the static Galaxy back four high up the pitch.

But the former Dandy Town striker’s first touch let him down and the ball was safely gobbled up by Cannon.

As they did during their 3-1 victory over Bermuda on Tuesday night, the Revs made a large number of substitutions at half time — six in all — with the changes predictably affecting their rhythm and fluency.

The Galaxy, by contrast, began the second half with more purpose and attacking intent and eventually pulled one back from a Nate Jaqua header in the 60th minute.

But as the minutes ticked by, the team that will eventually welcome David Beckham into their ranks struggled to carve out many other clear-cut chances and it was the Revs who eventually found the net again — forward Chris Loftus nodding in an excellent Jeff Larentowicz cross from the right flank.

Tonight, meanwhile, Kenny Thompson’s Bermuda take on the Galaxy at the NSC with kick off scheduled for 7.30 p.m..