LA Galaxy 2, Chicago Fire 1
Saturday, July 9, 2011
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.
Scoring Summary:
LA – Landon Donovan 9 (David Beckham 8) 58’
CHI – Cristian Nazarit 2 (Patrick Nyarko 4) 62’
LA – David Beckham 2 (Unassisted) 65’
Misconduct Summary:
CHI – Daniel Paladini (Yellow Card) 64’
CHI – Diego Chaves (Yellow Card) 91+
LA – Chris Birchall (Yellow Card) 92+
CHI – Josip Mikulic (Red Card) 96+
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Josh Saunders; Bryan Jordan, Omar Gonzalez, Gregg Berhalter, Todd Dunivant; Chris Birchall (Michael Stephens 94+), David Beckham, Juninho, Paolo Cardozo (Miguel Lopez 66’); Landon Donovan©, Juan Pablo Angel (Adam Cristman 77’).
Subs Not Used:Brian Perk, Kyle Davies, Jovan Kirovski, Hector Jimenez.
Chicago Fire: Sean Johnson; Jalil Anibaba (Diego Chaves 78’), Yamith Cuesta, Cory Gibbs; Logan Pause©, Daniel Paladini, Patrick Nyarko (Bratislav Ristic 95+), Marco Pappa (Orr Barrouch 82’); Dominic Oduro, Cristian Nazarit.
Subs Not Used: Jon Conway, Josip Mikulic (Sent Off 93+), Michael Videira, Baggio Husidic.
Referee: David Gantar
Referee’s Assistants Anthony Vasoli and Philippe Briere
4th Official: Tyler Ploeger
Notes:
- With the win, the Galaxy are now 10-2-9 on the season, leaving them with a league-best 39 points. LA remain in first place in the Western Conference and are now five points ahead of second place FC Dallas, who lost 2-0 at Real Salt Lake earlier tonight. The Galaxy are seven points ahead of third place Seattle, who play in Portland on Sunday.
- The Galaxy are now unbeaten in their last 12 games, going 6-0-6 in those contests for 24 of a possible 36 points.
- The 12-game unbeaten streak is tied for the third longest unbeaten streak in Galaxy history. They are the only club in MLS history with six unbeaten streaks of 10 games or more.
- The win snapped LA’s two-game winless streak. They had drawn 0-0 at San Jose on June 25 and a 0-0 draw at home with Seattle on July 4.
- Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made five changes to the team that drew 0-0 with Seattle at The Home Depot Center on Monday. Bryan Jordan made his first start of the season while Josh Saunders, Gregg Berhalter, David Beckham and Paolo Cardozo all returned to the starting lineup replacing Brian Perk, A.J. DeLaGarza, Sean Franklin, Mike Magee and Chad Barrett. Perk started the game on the bench after Saunders returned from suspension, while Barrett, DeLaGarza, Franklin and Magee all missed the game through injury.
- In addition to those four, the Galaxy were also without Donovan Ricketts who is recovering from surgery to repair a fractured left ulna, Sean Alvarado and Leonardo who are each recovering from knee surgery as well as Frankie Hejduk, who has inflammation in his right ankle.
- Barrett missed the game with a right knee sprain, Franklin has a left hamstring strain and DeLaGarza suffered a facial contusion in the 0-0 draw with Seattle on July 4. None of those players trained during the week, while Mike Magee was pulled out of training midway through Friday’s session.
- Prior to the game it was announced that defender A.J. DeLaGarza did not suffer a concussion in Monday’s game against the Sounders. DeLaGarza underwent testing throughout the week with the club’s medical staff and did not train.
- Bryan Jordan made his first start in an MLS game since May 15, 2010 in a 0-0 draw with Toronto FC. All three of his starts since the start of the 2010 season have come at right back. He started six games in 2008 and 2009 with all coming in midfield or up front.
- Paolo Cardozo was making just his second start of the season. Both have come against the Fire and both have ended as 2-1 wins for the Galaxy.The game was tied 0-0 at halftime. This was the third consecutive game that the Galaxy were tied 0-0 at the half.
- Landon Donovan’s goal in the 58th minute gave the Galaxy a 1-0 lead, heading home a David Beckham corner kick. That goal snapped a 248 minute scoreless streak for the club.
- That was Donovan’s ninth goal of the season, moving him into a tie with Thierry Henry for the MLS lead.
- Donovan’s last goal for the Galaxy came on May 25 in a 1-0 home win over Houston when he scored a first half penalty kick. In the six games following that goal, four of which Donovan missed while on international duty, the Galaxy went 2-0-4 and scored just six times.
- David Beckham collected his eighth assist of the season on Donovan’s goal. That was his first assist since May 28 when he set up Miguel Lopez for the only goal in LA’s 1-0 win at New England.
- Beckham is now alone in second place in MLS in assists, just one behind Houston’s Brad Davis.
- Cristian Nazarit equalized for the Fire just four minutes later, heading home a Patrick Nyarko cross.
- Nazarit’s goal snapped a 268 minute shutout streak for the Galaxy dating back to the 3-1 win at Colorado on June 18. That is the 10th longest shutout streak in MLS this season.
- That goal was the first scored against the Galaxy by a player born outside of the United States since Danny Mwanga scored for the Philadelphia Union in a 1-1 draw with the Galaxy at PPL Park on May 11.
- David Beckham scored his second goal of the season in the 65th minute, beating Fire goalkeeper Sean Johnson directly from a corner kick.
- Both of Beckham’s goals this season have come from set pieces with the first coming in the 4-1 win over Sporting Kansas City on May 14.
- His two goals equal his tally from both 2009 and 2010. Only in 2008 when he played an MLS-career-high 25 games did he score more, tallying five goals.
- Josh Saunders made five saves on the night for the Galaxy. That was his most saves in a game since tallying six in the season opening win over Seattle on March 15.
- The Fire’s Josip Mikulic was sent off late in second half stoppage time for dissent. Mikulic was on the bench and had not entered the game before being sent off.
- In addition to Mikulic’s red card, Daniel Paladini and Diego Chaves were booked for the Fire while Chris Birchall was booked for the Galaxy. All of the cards came in the second half of the game.
- Todd Dunivant once again played the full 90 minutes at left back for the Galaxy. He is the only player on the club to start all 21 regular season games while also play the full 90 minutes in each.
- Chad Barrett and Sean Franklin had each played in all of the first 20 games of the year for the Galaxy, but neither was available for selection against the Fire, ending those streaks.
- Adam Cristman made his second appearance of the season, coming on as a second half substitute in place of Juan Pablo Angel.
- Kyle Davies and Hector Jimenez were each in the 18-man squad for the first time this season, though neither entered the game.
- The Galaxy swept the season series with the Fire after also winning 2-1 at Toyota Park on April 17.
- The attendance for tonight’s game was 21,762.
- The Galaxy are back in action on Wednesday, July 13 when they take on Seattle Sounders FC in a Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Quarterfinal at the Starfire Sports Stadium in Tukwila, Wash. That game kicks off at 7 p.m. (PT) and can be seen live online at lagalaxy.com.
- The Galaxy will play back in Southern California on Saturday, July 16 when they host Real Madrid as part of the Herbalife World Football Challenge. That game, which will be played at the L.A. Coliseum, kicks off at 7 p.m. and can be seen live on ESPN, ESPN Deportes, ESPN3.com and in 3D on ESPN3D.
- On Wednesday, July 20, the Galaxy will host the Columbus Crew in their return to MLS action. That game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. at The Home Depot Center and can be seen live on Prime Ticket starting with the Galaxy Live pregame show at 7 p.m.
Quotes:
LA Galaxy Head Coach Bruce Arena
On the game
“Tough game nothing came easy tonight but we’re certainly happy to get the three points. Chicago played real hard, pretty organized and gave us a battle for 90 minutes.”
On getting Paolo Cardozo into the game
“We want to get our young guys ready to help us in the last half of the season. This is the time, there are a lot of games, we’re dealing with a lot of injuries right now and we need to use other players, and we need to count on other players. We’ve had enough time with everyone, with the new group of players, I think the reserve games have helped us and we’re certainly going to start playing a couple other players over the next month.”
On David Beckham’s performance
“Real good, I noticed his second half was pretty good. He’s really determined. He’s a top athlete and he really wants to win but there was a point at about 65 minutes into the game where I thought we were going to have to take him out he looked really fatigued but he hung in there. He wanted to play and he wanted to win. I think he was a tremendous presence tonight. Obviously the first goal he served, the second goal I don’t know if it touched anyone or went in directly. I don’t know how that one went in. That’s what we pay him the big money for.”
On Gregg Berhalter’s fitness
“I think he had a good game. He’s working his way back in. If I’m not mistaken the San Jose game was his first full game this year and he put in a good performance.”
On Landon Donovan’s goal
“I told Landon to play hard and goals are always good. The second half he played very well. I thought his second half was real good and once he scored he really lifted his game. We need the leadership out of Landon and David to be successful and we certainly got it in the second half, the whole night really. The goal really helped Landon. I thought it was good performance in the second half in particular.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder Landon Donovan
On tonight’s result:
“It feels good to win. We haven’t been playing well lately. We were a lot better, our energy was better, our commitment was better, we passed the ball better. We made the plays we needed to win.”
On the goals coming off set pieces:
“You put the ball in good spots and those things happen. It was a great ball and guys made really good efforts to put them under pressure.”
On the play of David Beckham:
“From what I hear, playing with the injury that he is playing with is really painful. He is a warrior. Since he has been here he has played through a lot of tough injuries. He has spent a lot of time off the field so I think he wants to do everything he can do this year to play as much as possible so he is playing through a lot of pain.”
On his goal:
“Some games Bruce puts me in a spot where I am not in the box getting after the ball and in other games I am. Tonight was the night where I was going to be one of the guys in the box attacking. I try to vary my positions, very my runs. That one I kind of just drifted to the far post. I kind of like to see the ball like that and attack it. There are not many guys I am going to jump over but I put myself in the right position and David [Beckham] hit a great ball and made a play.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder David Beckham
On his team’s win:
“Obviously it’s an important win tonight. I think we needed to get the three points because, obviously, we haven’t lost in the last 12 games but we also haven’t won as many as we’d like so it was important we got a good win tonight.”
On if he’d ever score off a corner kick before:
“I did, when I was on loan at Preston (North End), I scored on a corner. Not sure if I’d scored another one since I was playing Sunday league football as a kid.
On his goal:
“I saw the goalkeeper cheating a little bit, going towards out of the goal, and I saw a little bit of a gap and I knew if I put in an area it was going to a get a touch off somebody or it was going to go straight it. Luckily it went straight in.”
On playing the full 90 minutes:
“It was great. I felt on Thursday, you know, I had a lot of pain in my back. And then Friday I woke up and it got 90 percent better. And then this morning I woke, first morning I woke with hardly any pain. Getting through the game, I didn’t expect to play 90 minutes, but with 25 minutes, 20 minutes to go Bruce said I’m going to give you five minutes and I seemed to get a second wind and I told him that. And he left me in and thankfully he did because obviously I got the goal. I felt good tonight.”
LA Galaxy Goalkeeper Josh Saunders
On the win:
“It feels good. The guys did well in front of me, I didn’t have too much to do so that’s always a good night and getting the [win] was a plus.”
On the play of Bryan Jordan at right back:
“I think he did well. He showed the guy the line and played him defensively very well. It’s tough for him to come in as a midfielder and play a defensive spot so I thought he did well.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder Chris Birchall
On the win:
“It’s great. Sometimes when you are tying a lot of games, sometimes it’s better to win games and lose a few, you end up with more points, but on the confidence level, it’s unbeaten in 12 and we have a lot of ties, but we’re not losing games, we’re doing well and we’re at the top of the league. It was vital that we got the win tonight, especially with Dallas losing.”
On his yellow card:
“I think that the referee saw that it was a mis-timed tackle but it wasn’t meant to be vicious, there were no studs showing and it was only one leg. I think probably I came out of it the worse. I think it was a deserved yellow, but I don’t think it was a red.”
Chicago Fire Head Coach Frank Klopas
On his team’s performance:
“I am very happy with the guys. We didn’t deserve to lose this game. I thought we out played them and out shot them. But we hurt ourselves with the set pieces. I think we gave way too many fouls through out the game and those were there dangerous moments. In the run of play they didn’t create anything. We out shot them 5-1 in saves so we definitely created clear opportunities in the run of play. We didn’t put the game away and when you give opportunities from set pieces to probably the player that is the best in the world at that we put ourselves in risk but we should have done better with the marking. I am happy and very proud of the guys. We came, we played away, we played a very good game and we pushed the game to win and in the end it is just one game it’s not the end of the season.”
On the giving up two goals on set pieces:
“You can see in the first one that our marking was not good. We lost the guys. [Landon] Donovan is not the biggest guy but the movement was good but we just lost the marking. In the second one I have to look at it more but I feel that is it is a mistake from us.”
Chicago Fire Forward Cristian Nazarit
(Translated from Spanish)
On scoring:
“I am happy to have scored a goal but sad on the loss tonight. I thought we played well and didn’t deserve to lose. Unfortunately they scored two goals on set plays. We have to keep working and fighting for what is still to come.”
On tonight’s game:
“This was one of the best games we have had. Everybody was fighting, running and concentrated and unfortunately in two dead balls they beat us. They didn’t have any other scoring chances but that is how soccer is. We have to continue working because on Tuesday we have an important game so we have to pick our heads up and concentrate on what is ahead.”
On the team’s performance:
“Like I said before this was one of the best games we have played. I thought we kept to our game plan but the game slipped away because of two set plays but that is how soccer is. We have to continue working because on Tuesday we have an important match.”
Chicago Fire Midfielder Marco Pappa
(Translated from Spanish)
On tonight’s game:
“We didn’t get the result which we came here to do. They were able to get the result by taking advantage of their chances. I had a couple of chances but we go on knowing that we still have a chance and that we have to continue working. This game may not have been our game but we have to continue working because it’s a long season.”
On the fighting back to tie the game:
“It’s one positive thing that can be taken from this game but we didn’t get the win. We have been playing well but we haven’t been able to get the win. We’ve showed good characteristics but we haven’t been able to win. We’ll have to wait to get the win that we have been searching for but for now we just have to keep working game to game.”
