Galaxy take third place

Well, at least the Galaxy salvaged a third place finish from the Pan-Pacific Championship.

The Galaxy got first-half goals from Ely Allen and Josh Tudela to edge Sydney of Australia’s A-League.[…] Sydney FC lost 3-0 Wednesday to the Houston Dynamo, the two-time defending MLS champion. L.A. rebounded from a 1-0 loss to Gamba Osaka.

Not everybody has been impressed with the new tournament.

NY Times Goal Blog: “Soccer Fever Fails to Grip Hawaii”

I would love to be able to tell you that the state of Hawaii is gripped by soccer fever this week. Unfortunately, the first two games of the Pan-Pacific Championship Wednesday night drew few fans to Aloha Stadium.

The organizers of the tournament claim there were over 15,000 fans in attendance. However, it looked like less than half that many to me. This is the first Pan-Pacific Championship, and unless attendance improves for Saturday’s matches, it may be the last.

We shall see.

Update: The LA Times weighs in,

“Pan-Pacific problems go beyond surface”

The future of the just-concluded Pan-Pacific Championship in Hawaii was up in the air Monday after officials from Major League Soccer, Japan’s J-League and Australia’s A-League met in Honolulu.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do to figure out the future of Pan-Pacific,” MLS Commissioner Don Garber told the Honolulu Advertiser. “We want to see it continue. For now we’ll take a deep breath and think about what would happen if we had more time to plan.”

Poor attendance and an awful playing surface. Not a good combo.