Mike Magee goalie: How it happened for this Chicago born soccer player

I had the chance to talk to Mike Magee when the Los Angeles Galaxy came to town in April.  He is as down to earth as any Midwestern can be.  In fact, two good friends of his growing up lived down the street from me and were a good friends of mine.  I plan on publishing the results of interviews I had with Magee and fellow Chicagoland native Michael Stephens when the Fire travel to LA but for now the big news is Mike Magee ended up as the goalie in tonight's Los Angeles Galaxy's game against the San Jose Earthquakes.  How did it happen?  Let's take a look at the videos after the break.

LA Galaxy's starting goalie Donovan Ricketts, well, he started tonight's game.  San Jose's Khari Stephenson came in hard and collided with Ricketts.  Ricketts was injured to the point he had to be subbed out for backup goalie Josh Saunders.

Then in the 43rd minute, Saunders was playing tricks with the ball when San Jose's Steven Lenhart appeared to knock the ball out of Saunders' hands.  The LA goalie quickly picked the ball up and then appeared to elbow Lenhart in the head.  The referee noticed the play and handed Saunders' the red card.

At that point, Bruce Arena had to put in a non-regular goalie into the game.  He choose Chicago native and Sockers FC alum Mike Magee.  Magee responded to the call with six saves and a clean sheet.  The game ended in a 0-0 draw.  One of his saves is below.  Give it up for Chicago's own.  I don't like seeing LA add even more points but seeing San Jose get only one point out of Magee being in goal for 47 minutes is well worth it.  Congratulations Mike Magee from a Chicago soccer blog.