If coach Sigi Schmid is superstitious, those new kits might sick around a while as the Seattle broke a three-game league winless streak with a 2-0 victory before a crowd of 20,162 at the Home Depot Center.

The result moves the Sounders (8-5-8; 32 points) past L.A. (7-4-10, 31) into second place in the MLS Western Division. Seattle also ended a club-record streak of 335 regular-season minutes without a goal.

“Obviously, we’re happy with the win,” Schmid said. “The card to Beckham obviously changed the game early on. But I thought even before that we were starting to look like we could break through.”

And that was largely the theme of the folks I was able to speak with after the game. Yes, the red card to David Beckham was important. Yes, the limited time for Landon Donovan was important. But the Sounders were without Freddie Ljungberg too (Schmid said he expects a better diagnosis and prognosis once the team returns home.)

But the Sounders also seemed to think they had the better run of play even before Beckham was booted. And really, nothing much matters beyond the cold numbers of the scoreboard and the standings.

"The red card probably hurt them a little bit more, but it’s still a win," Steve Zakuani said. "... I think we were good even from the beginning. If we only had 11-on-11 I think we were passing the ball well. With the 10 it just made a bit more space, and we took advantage. It feels good to get a win.”

As for the Beckham card ... unfortunately, the late start meant I couldn't wait around to chat with Becks. But LA coach Bruce Arena made no excuses.

“I can’t complain,” he said. “He came in pretty hard. I’d have to look at it on the replay, but he came in pretty hard. ... (Overall it was) not a good night tonight. We didn’t deserve any more than we got."

The Sounders return to action at 7 p.m. Thursday when New England visits Qwest Field.

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Important match with second-place in the West on the line ... plus the debut of the Sounders' blue kits. How can we wait?

Well, in part with some reading material counting down the hours to the annoyingly late 8 p.m. kickoff.

Here's my preview story from today's paper.

Here's a story from the LA Times on how the Galaxy is dealing with Landon Donovan's swine flu diagnosis and how to keep it from running through the rest of the team.

That story also included this brief preview box:

Update: The Galaxy's gradual rise up the MLS standings has seen it climb to second place in the Western Conference and fourth place overall in the league. Coach Bruce Arena said Friday no decision would be made before game time on the availability of Landon Donovan, who was diagnosed with the H1N1 virus. Forwards Alecko Eskandarian (broken nose) and Edson Buddle (sprained right foot) are out. The Sounders are led by former Swedish international midfielder Freddie Ljungberg. Seattle, coached by former Galaxy coach Sigi Schmid and feature former Galaxy players Peter Vagenas, Tyrone Marshall, Nate Jaqua and Nathan Sturgis. Seattle is winless in its last three games. The Galaxy is unbeaten in its last six games, winning five.

Here's the LA Daily News' Galaxy coverage.

And finally, here's the MLS Match Center, which will keep you updated on all the league's action. Sounders-Galaxy is probably the game of the day, but there are a few others that are interesting to the tight Western race: Houston at Salt Lake, Chivas at New York, and even heating FCDallas at hot Columbus. If Dallas wins that, Seattle suddenly has another Western opponent to worry about.