LA Galaxy 2, Houston Dynamo 0
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Robertson
Stadium — Houston, TX.
Scoring Summary:
LA – Edson Buddle 4
27’
LA – Edson Buddle 5 (Sean Franklin 2) 45’
Misconduct
Summary:
HOU – Andrew Hainault (Yellow Card) 24’
LA – Omar
Gonzalez (Yellow Card) 25’
LA – Juninho (Yellow Card) 38’
HOU –
Luis Landin (Red Card) 44’
LA – Edson Buddle (Yellow Card) 52’
HOU
– Brad Davis (Yellow Card) 67’
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Donovan
Ricketts; Todd Dunivant, Leonardo, Omar Gonzalez, A.J. DeLaGarza; Mike
Magee, Chris Birchall (Jovan Kirovski 83’), Juninho (Michael Stephens
80’), Sean Franklin; Landon Donovan©, Edson Buddle (Alan Gordon 67’).
Subs
Not Used: Josh Saunders, Bryan Jordan, Chris Klein, Tristan Bowen.
Houston
Dynamo: Pat Onstad, Andrew Hainault, Bobby Boswell (Corey Ashe 46’),
Eddie Robinson, Mike Chabala, Brian Mullan, Geoff Cameron, Richard
Mulrooney (Lovel Palmer 28’), Brad Davis, Dominic Oduro (Danny Cruz
75’), Luis Landin.
Subs Not Used: Tally Hall, Ryan Cochrane,
Adrian Serioux, Craig Waibel.
QUOTES
LOS ANGELES GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE
ARENA
On the game:
“The positive is coming to Houston
and getting three points, which is rare in this league. Obviously a
great performance by Edson Buddle in the first half. Certainly we were
fortunate with the send-off. We came in at halftime up two goals, and we
were going to be quite content leaving here with a 2-0 victory. So we
went out in the second half, played smart and wanted to make sure we
played with 11 players for 90 minutes.”
On the physical nature of
the contest:
“I don’t think there is any bad blood between the two
teams. I think we both respect each other. They have an outstanding
team, a fabulous coach, and every game is going to be competitive
because it’s two teams that want to win.”
LOS ANGELES GALAXY FORWARD EDSON BUDDLE
On
the game:
“I was able to capitalize on some mistakes and get an
early goal. For the second goal, they had gotten a red card, and Sean
played a great ball into the box.”
On the Dynamo:
“Houston is a
team that is known for complaining to the referee and getting calls,
and they kind of challenged the ref. They also win championships, so
both ways they are a good team. They do what they do, and it’s not easy
to win down here.”
LOS ANGELES
GALAXY DEFENDER OMAR GONZALEZ
On the game:
“They really
fought hard, but they really didn’t have too much offensively. I don’t
think they had a shot on goal. They had some good counterattack
opportunities, but other than that, I thought we played really well and
held them to no shots.”
On Luis Landín’s red card:
“I think he
just got frustrated and clubbed me from behind.”
LOS ANGELES GALAXY FORWARD LANDON DONOVAN
On
the game:
“We knew if we could match their competitiveness and
intensity that we were the better team and we were going to win.”
HOUSTON DYNAMO HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNEAR
On
the game:
“We gave them two chances, they scored two goals, and
that’s the end of it. It’s tough to play with 10 men. I thought the
defending on both goals was poor, and they took advantage of it.”
On
Cam Weaver’s availability:
“We were trying to get him to be
available, but he wasn’t feeling up to it, so that’s why he wasn’t on
the bench tonight. We practice on a terrible field, and he twisted his
knee, which made him reaggravate his injury.”
On physical play:
“I
think anytime you lift your elbows for contact, it’s dangerous.
Sometimes they are used to clear space, and sometimes they are used for
other things, and there were some tonight that were questionable.”
On
playing with 10 men:
“I thought in the end we did look a little
tired, with about 10 minutes to go, which is to be expected. But the
guys showed a lot of heart in the second half.”
HOUSTON DYNAMO GOALKEEPER PAT ONSTAD
On
the first goal:
“I was upset with myself. Ultimately, my job is to
keep the ball out of the net, and that first goal was from a horrendous
angle. I should never get beaten there.”
On the second goal:
“I’m
not going to point fingers anywhere around this locker room. I think
everyone leaves their heart on the field. You saw that in the second
half, these guys leaving everything out there in what was a losing
cause. The only person I’m concerned with is my performance, and it was
poor, and unfortunately it cost us the points tonight.”
HOUSTON DYNAMO FORWARD LUIS ANGEL LANDIN
On
his red card:
“I don’t know if you saw, but there had been a lot of
elbows and hard tackles that I got. Unfortunately, I reacted wrong and
now you see the consequences.”• With the win, the Galaxy are now 3-0-0 on the season, giving
them nine points. They are now alone in first place in the Western
Conference, five points ahead of Houston, Colorado, Real Salt Lake and
Seattle Sounders FC. The Rapids lost to Kansas City 1-0 while Salt Lake
and Seaatle played to a 2-2 draw on Saturday night as well.
NOTES
• Bruce
Arena made two changes to the team that defeated Chivas USA last week.
Mike Magee started on the left side of midfield in place of the injured
Alex Cazumba and A.J. DeLaGarza replaced Dema Kovalenko, who was a late
scratch to the starting lineup. DeLaGarza started at right back while
Sean Franklin moved up from right back to right midfield.
• In
addition to Cazumba and Kovalenko, the Galaxy were also without Gregg
Berhalter, Eddie Lewis and Clint Mathis because of injury.
• Alan
Gordon and Jovan Kirvoski both made their 2010 debuts. Gordon replaced
Edson Buddle in the 67th minute while Kirovski came on in the 83rd
minute for Chris Birchall. Gordon and Kirvoski missed the first two
games of the season with a left knee bruise and a left knee sprain,
respectively.
• Edson Buddle’s goal in the 45th minute was his 30th
in a Galaxy uniform and moved him into a tie for fifth place on the
club’s all-time scoring list with forward Eduard Hurtado. After Hurtado,
midfielder Mauricio Cienfuegos ranks fourth on the list with 35,
followed by forward Carlos Ruiz with 51 and forward Landon Donovan with
64. Current Assistant Coach and former midfielder Cobi Jones is the
Galaxy’s all-time scoring leader with 70 goals.
• Buddle is first
Galaxy player to score in each of the first three games of the season
since Carlos Ruiz did so in 2004. Ruiz holds the Galaxy record for the
most consecutive games with a goal to open a season with four. He scored
in each of the first four games of 2002 and 2004.
• Buddle is now
the MLS leader in goals scored this season with five, two ahead of Real
Salt Lake’s Javier Morales.
• When Buddle scores, the Galaxy’s record
is 14-5-5.
• Donovan Ricketts did not need to make a save to earn
his third clean sheet of the season.
• Ricketts now has 12 clean
sheets in 29 career regular season games with the Galaxy.
• The
Galaxy kept a clean sheet for the third consecutive game. With their
third consecutive shutout to start the 2010 season, the Galaxy become
just third team in MLS history to start the season with three shutouts.
The other two teams were the Dallas Burn in 1999 and Seattle Sounders FC
in 2009. The 2007 New York Red Bulls, who were coached by Bruce Arena,
hold the record for most consecutive shutouts to start the season with
four.
• Sean Franklin assisted on both of Buddle's goals in the game.
Franklin now has three assists on the season, setting a new career high
for most assists in one season.
• LA is now 3-0-0 for the first time
since the 1998 season, when the club rattled off nine wins to begin the
campaign. The club’s longest winning streak to start a season is 12,
set during the inaugural season of 1996. However, both win streaks
included shootout wins.
• The attendance for today’s game was 16,459.
•
The Galaxy are back in action next Saturday night when they host Real
Salt Lake at The Home Depot Center in a rematch of last year’s MLS Cup.
The game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. (PT) and can be seen live nationally on
FSC. KLAC AM 570 and ESPN Deportes Radio 1330 AM will broadcast the game
live on the radio in English and Spanish, respectively.
