LA Galaxy Forward Landon Donovan
On the play of Edson Buddle:
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen
anything like it. I mean, the goals are going in but there are other chances in
the game where he is just missing. He’s getting pulled around like people
wouldn’t believe. He’s getting fouled and hammered and with a little more luck
tonight he would have scored three or four.”
On the battle between Buddle and Real Salt Lake defender Nat Borchers:
“At one point he got tangled up
with Nat pretty good in the second half and he was pretty riled up. I said,
look, man, just put it in the net. And he did. Nat didn’t have much to say
after that.”
On the Galaxy’s depth:
"We pride ourselves on our depth. By contrast, Salt Lake had a couple of injuries and it really affected them. We’ve had a lot of injuries - a lot of injuries to veteran players. So, we don’t have a lot of leadership on the field right now and guys are stepping in, kind of learning on the run, and doing a great job.”
Galaxy Forward Edson Buddle
On the win:
“It’s a good win overall. It was a tough game, we let them back in five minutes before the half and you never want to do that in any game. You want to maintain the lead going into half, whether it’s a mental lapse or a lucky bounce. Bottom line is we won and we want to find ourselves in those games coming out on top.”
On his hot start:
“It’s good. I’ve always stayed levelheaded because, like I said, there are always ups and downs. I’m just enjoying it right now and I hope that I keep scoring.”
Galaxy Midfielder Michael Stephens
On making his first MLS start:
"It was an exciting day, I was a little bit nervous going into it, but once I got going I felt real comfortable and it was a great game to get my fist start in. It was a real big win for us.”
On the team’s ability to recover the lead in the second
half:
“It was the first time we had given up a goal all year so it put our backs up against the wall a little. It questioned our team and forced us to show what kind of team we are and we responded well.”
On the team’s effort throughout the game:
“It was a battle. They’re a physical team and a real good team and we weren’t happy to give up the goal, but we responded well, worked hard as we had all night and we were able to get the win.”
Galaxy Midfielder Chris Birchall
On the win:
“The guys were brilliant tonight. That is one of the games where we played good soccer, passed the ball around and Edson took another two chances – he’s on fire at the moment – and it’s another three points and we’re full of confidence.”
On playing with a forward who is as hot as Edson:
“It’s great. Everything he’s touching at the moment is going in the back of the net. We just need to capitalize on that while he’s scoring and we need to collect three points as well, which we are doing. We’ve only conceded one goal so Donovan and the defense need to get a lot of credit, but Edson’s scored seven goals in four games and he’s full of confidence so we’re feeding off that and want to keep doing so next weekend in Kansas City.”
Galaxy Forward Bryan Jordan
On playing right back:
“I’ve been playing a little bit of everything at practice, a just-in-case player so to speak and given the players that we had out there tonight – Gregg is just coming back from an injury – once Sean got injured, which is going to hurt us, I was ready to step right in.”
On being nervous playing a new position:
“I’m an attacking player so just playing in defense I was a little nervous to start, but once I got out there I just played my game.”
On the team’s current form:
“The team’s been playing great. Edson’s been getting our goals, the defense has been playing great, we’ve only given up the one goal tonight and the rest we’ve been shutting them out. Now we just have to keep it up.”
Real Salt Lake Head Coach Jason Kries
On the team’s performance:
"They plated outstanding we all knew the circumstance coming into this game having played 120 minutes Wednesday night difficult situation for us, our guys handled it really well. For me the details of the game are still some of the hardest to put together when you don’t have a hundred percent fitness when you are not a hundred percent ready for these matches and regenerated for the match that is where sometimes the difference can be. You can see tonight Edson [Buddle] makes two fantastic individual plays and that is the difference in the game."
On Edson Buddle:
"I cannot remember ever seeing a
guy that is this on fire everything he is touching is quality the goals he is
scoring is uncanny."
On Nick Rimando:
"I think Nick [Rimando] is playing
very well right now and we need him to. We need individual guys to step forward
and have great performances and he has done that in every match."
Real Salt Lake
Midfielder Andy Williams
On his yellow card:
"I thought that it was a soft one, the referee probably saw it from a different angle but that is how it goes sometimes they seem to different ones from us but a yellow card is a yellow card."
On today’s game:
"We got a very important goal right before the end of the half. We tried to keep possession of the ball in the second half I thought we did well probably up till the 75th -76th minute I don’t know if the guys got tired from our Wednesday game but Edson is in fantastic form right now you give him an inch and you take him out. He had some great shots tonight and he finished two."
Thoughts after going down a goal:
"We weren’t panicking at all. This team has fought a lot of doubters from last year and we are doing it again this year. It is a long season and that is why the Galaxy were the Western Conference champs last year and they are one of the top teams in the league right now we tried to measure up to them tonight we were missing a couple of players here tonight but I think we did well."
His role on the team:
"I have been through a lot my skill is to possess the ball and try to get the team as calm as possible whenever the team starts panicking and keeping the ball away and kind of control things in midfield and I thought we did well for the most part of the game until the end."
Real Salt Lake
Midfielder Kyle
Beckerman:
On his goal:
"I guess we whipped it in it came off of I think [Michael] Stephen’s head, he tried to clear it and it came to me I took a touch and tried to get a hard shot on goal."
On tonight’s loss:
"It is early in the season we definitely would have liked to come away with a point or a win but Edson Buddle is on fire right now. He is something else he is playing at a different level and he is really carrying LA right now."
Real Salt Lake Defender Nat
Borchers
On tonight’s game:
"We obviously didn’t want them to get behind us we wanted them to play in front of us. To be fair they didn’t have a lot of chances in the game a few step pieces and obviously they made the first one in the eleventh minute and they were dangerous in a couple of others. They really had one or two chances in the run of play and they scored the second one in the second half and that is was what good teams do."
On his exchange of words with Edson Buddle:
"That is between me and him. I know him pretty well we both played in the U-23’s and after the game there are now hard feelings. When we are on the field we like to battle and that is what happens."
NOTES:
• With the win, the Galaxy are now a perfect 4-0-0 on the season, giving them
12 points. They remain alone in first place in the Western Conference, five
points ahead of the second place Houston Dynamo and Seattle Sounders FC, who
each won earlier in the day.
• Bruce Arena made one change to the team that defeated Houston on Saturday at Robertson Stadium.
Michael Stephens was brought into the starting lineup, replacing Leonardo, who
missed the game with a right quad strain. Stephens started the game on the
right side of midfield, while Sean Franklin moved to right back and A.J.
DeLaGarza moved to central defense.
• In addition to Leonardo, the Galaxy were also without Dema Kovalenko, Eddie
Lewis and Clint Mathis who all missed the game because of injury.
• Stephens was making the first start of his MLS career after playing each of
the first three games of the season as a second half substitute.
• Gregg Berhalter made his season debut in the Galaxy’s 18-man squad after
missing each of the first three games with a knee injury. He did not enter the
game.
• Bryan Jordan made his 2010 debut in the game, coming on late in the first
half in place of the injured Sean Franklin.
• Franklin, who had played the full 90 minutes in each of the Galaxy’s first
three games of the season, was forced to leave the game in the 43rd minute with
a left heel sprain.
• Edson Buddle gave the Galaxy a 1-0 lead in the 12th minute, heading home a
Landon Donovan corner kick. Buddle’s goal was his league-leading sixth of the
season while Donovan’s assist was his league-leading fourth of the season.
• With his first half goal tonight, Edson Buddle tied Carlos Ruiz’s MLS record
for the most consecutive goals by one player to open a season. Ruiz scored the
Galaxy’s first six goals of 2002 en route to a club record 24 goals on the
season. Buddle then set a new MLS record with his game-winning goal in the
second half, becoming the first player in MLS history to score each of his
club’s first seven goals.
• Buddle has now scored in the first half of all four of the Galaxy’s games
this season.
• Buddle has scored multiple goals in each of the Galaxy’s last three games.
Prior to this, the last Galaxy player to score two or more goals in three
straight games was Landon Donovan, who scored seven goals in three games from
April 13-April 19 during the 2008 season, scoring twice in a 3-2 home loss to
Toronto FC, twice more in a 2-2 home draw with Houston and finally three times
in a 5-2 home win over Chivas USA.
• His seven goals on the season are two more than he scored in all of 2009.
• Juninho assisted on Buddle’s game-winning goal in the 76th minute for the
first assist of his MLS career.
• For the first time this season, the Galaxy did not lead the game at halftime
with the score tied 1-1.
• Kyle Beckerman tied the game at 1-1 in the 41st minute with his first goal of
the season for Real
Salt Lake.
That was the first goal allowed by the Galaxy this season, snapping the club’s
311 minute streak without allowing a goal.
• Dating back to 2009, the Galaxy had not allowed a goal in 612 consecutive
minutes of regulation, dating back to a 2-0 loss at Columbus on September 26. That was the
Galaxy’s last regular season loss.
• A.J. DeLaGarza and Omar Gonzalez played the full 90 minutes together in
central defense. This was the first time since the final game of their college
careers at the University
of Maryland that they had
played alongside one another in central defense.
• The attendance for today’s game was 20,344.
• The Galaxy are back in action next Saturday night when they travel to Kansas City to face the
Wizards at Community America Ballpark. The game kicks off at 5:30 p.m. (PT) and
can be seen live on FOX Sports West starting with the “Galaxy Live” pregame
show at 5 p.m. AM 570 and ESPN Deportes Radio 1330 AM will broadcast the game
live on the radio in English and Spanish respectively, starting with their
pregame shows at 5 p.m.
