The good news is that Bolton are 2 for 2 in their preseason tour of America. The bad news is that Robbie Blake got a bit of an injury, but we'll get to that. I discovered in my search for highlights that there was a way to stream the game live, though I was doing something rather more exciting than watching the Wanderers play at the time of the game. I was unable to find highlights (and I even read the LA Times in search for them, so you know I was serious about it), but I'll pull together a little report from the various reports I've read.
Once again Coyle put out an almost completely different team at the start of the second half, and by the end of the match not a single player had all 90 minutes. This is exactly what he should be doing in his first summer in charge, experimenting and getting a feel for the players. Super Kevin Davies (who has my heart) scored the first and set up the second for my favourite Israeli (but not my favourite Jew, mind), Tamir Cohen. There was a bit of a mess when Blake got a hamstring strain in the 85th minute and had to come off, but Coyle had already used all 11 substitutes. He apparently considered throwing on some boots himself and making a Bolton comeback after 15 years, which would have made me so happy. He instead put on one of our reserves keepers, Rob Lainton (who I have never heard of), as a makeshift striker. Apparently he nearly scored as well, what a story that would have been. This was the penultimate game of the Wanderers premier American tour, the next one being in Toronto. Hopefully next time they'll make it a little further inland, so I can actually go see a match.
Bolton:
First Half Jaaskelainen, Steinsson, Cahill, Knight, Samuel, Petrov, Davis, Mark Davies, Matt Taylor, Kevin Davies, Elmander
Second Half Bogdan, Ricketts, Andy O'Brien, Knight (Riga 63), Robinson, Gardner, Joey O'Brien, Cohen, Muamba, Kevin Davies (Danny Ward 63), Blake (Lainton 85)