LA Galaxy 3, Vancouver Whitecaps FC 0
Saturday, September 17, 2011
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.
Scoring Summary:
LA – Mike Magee 4 (Robbie Keane 1, David Beckham 13) 40’
LA – Robbie Keane 2 (Bryan Jordan 1) 64’
LA – Mike Magee 5 (Bryan Jordan 2, David Beckham 14) 75’
Misconduct Summary:
VAN – Alain Rochat (Yellow Card) 17’
VAN – Gershon Koffie (Yellow Card) 28’
VAN – Eric Hassli (Yellow Card) 62’
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Josh Saunders; Bryan Jordan, A.J. DeLaGarza, Omar Gonzalez, Todd Dunivant; Mike Magee, David Beckham (Dan Keat 78’), Chris Birchall, Landon Donovan© (Michael Stephens 78’); Paolo Cardozo, Robbie Keane (Miguel Lopez 84’).
Subs Not Used:Brian Perk, Frankie Hejduk, Chad Barrett, Adam Cristman.
Vancouver Whitecaps FC: Joe Cannon; Jonathan Leathers, Jay DeMerit©, Alain Rochat, Jordan Harvey; Gershon Koffie (Jeb Brovsky 76’), Peter Vagenas, Shea Salinas, Camilo; Eric Hassli (Mustapha Jarju 73’), Davide Chiumiento (Long Tan 64’).
Subs Not Used: Jay Nolly, Michael Boxall, Nizar Khalfan, Alexandre Morfaw.
Referee: Michael Kennedy
Referee’s Assistants: George Gansner and Corey Parker
4th Official: Baldomero Toledo
Notes:
- With the win, the Galaxy are now 16-3-10 on the season, giving them a league-best 58 points. They remain in first place in the Western Conference and are still seven points ahead of second place Seattle, who beat D.C. United 3-0 earlier today. Real Salt Lake moved into third place in the West, beating Sporting Kansas City 1-0 to move to 48 points, 10 behind the Galaxy.
- The Galaxy remain undefeated at home with an 10-0-5 record. They are the only team without a loss at home this season in MLS.
- The Galaxy’s 35 points at home this season are more than seven MLS teams have for their entire season.
- With tonight’s win, the Galaxy have swept the season series against Vancouver. They won 4-0 at Empire Field on July 30 for their biggest win of the season. Landon Donovan scored twice in that game while Sean Franklin and Adam Cristman each added goals.
- This was the second straight season in which the Galaxy scored a total of seven goals against a team, doing so against Seattle in 2010, winning 4-0 on the road and 3-1 at home. LA last scored eight goals against a team in a season in 2008 when they did so against Chivas USA, though they needed three matchups that year to do so.
- The Galaxy have now swept four three this season, having also beaten Chicago, and Colorado twice this year.
- This was the Galaxy’s first-ever home game against Whitecaps FC. LA is now 13-5-1 in their first-ever home game against a club in MLS and 11-2-4 in their first-ever game at The Home Depot Center against a club in the league.
- David Beckham and Chris Birchall were each suspended for that game, but they started in central midfield tonight.
- Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made four changes to the team that beat Colorado 1-0 in the league on September 9. Josh Saunders replaced Donovan Ricketts, who experienced tightness in his right quad in training on Friday, in goal. Birchall started in central midfield in place of Juninho, who missed the game because of a left hamstring strain, Mike Magee started in midfield in place of Sean Franklin, who has inflammation in his right knee and Robbie Keane, who started in place of Chad Barrett.
- Of the 11 players that started tonight, eight started on Tuesday night against Morelia in the CONCACAF Champions League. Only Bryan Jordan, David Beckham and Paolo Cardozo did not start that game. They were replaced by Frankie Hejduk, Michael Stephens and Adam Cristman.
- In addition to Ricketts, Franklin and Juninho, the Galaxy were once again without Sean Alvarado, Gregg Berhalter and Leonardo who each missed the game through injury.
- Mike Magee gave the Galaxy a 1-0 lead in the 40th minute with his fourth league goal of the season. Robbie Keane and David Beckham were each credited with assists on the goal.
- The assist was the first of Keane’s MLS career while it was Beckham’s 13th.
- This was the fifth straight home game in all competitions that the Galaxy had led at the half.
- Robbie Keane doubled the Galaxy lead in the 64th minute with his second league goal for the club and his third in all competitions.
- Keane has now scored in three of the four games that he has started for the Galaxy since joining the club last month.
- Bryan Jordan assisted on the goal, collecting his first assist of the season and the second of his MLS career. His only previous assist came on September 6, 2008 when he made the first start of his career, scoring a goal and setting one up in a 2-2 home draw with Real Salt Lake.
- Jordan added his second assist of the game 11 minutes later, setting up Mike Magee’s second goal of the game, which gave LA a 3-0 lead in the 75th minute.
- This was the second multi-goal game of Magee’s MLS career and his first since September 17, 2005 when he was a member of the MetroStars, who beat New England 5-4 that night.
- Magee did not score in any of his first 27 regular season home games in a Galaxy uniform but now has four goals in his last four home games for the club.
- David Beckham also assisted on that goal, equaling his MLS-career high for assists in a game with two while giving him 14 on the season. He now leads MLS in assists this season, one more than Houston’s Brad Davis.
- His 14 assists are tied for the fourth-highest single season total in Galaxy history. Mauricio Cienfuegos has 17 assists in 1999 and 16 assists in 1998. Landon Donovan also had 16 assists last season while Martin Machon had 14 in 1998.
- Bryan Jordan appeared to score a goal late in the game, but he was called offside.
- Josh Saunders made four saves to keep his sixth clean sheet in the league and his eighth in all competition.
- The eight shutouts for Saunders are the most on the team this year, one more than Donovan Ricketts who has seven, all of which have come in the league.
- The shutout was the Galaxy’s 15th of the season, furthering their club record for shutouts in a season. They now just need two shutouts in their final five regular season games in order to match the MLS record for shutouts in a season, which was set by the 2000 Kansas City Wizards en route to winning their first MLS Cup.
- 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 29 regular season games while also play the full 90 minutes in each.
- No Galaxy players were booked in the game. That means that David Beckham and Landon Donovan each remain one yellow card away from suspension, with Donovan one clean game away from having a card removed from his record for good behavior.
- The Galaxy have now kept five straight clean sheets at home in all competitions, last allowing a goal at The Home Depot Center on August 6 against FC Dallas. Dallas scored in the 9th minute of that game, meaning that LA has now gone 531 minutes without surrendering a goal at home.
- Since that goal for Dallas on August 6, the Galaxy have scored 13 times at home. For the season, the Galaxy are outscoring opponents 22-7 at home in the league.
- Vancouver goalkeeper Joe Cannon played the 300th regular season game of his MLS career tonight, becoming the second goalkeeper to achieve that feat. Cannon, who played 29 games for the Galaxy in 2007, has now faced LA 28 times, going 8-14-6 in those matches while playing for San Jose, Colorado and Vancouver.
- The attendance for tonight’s game was 22,959 at The Home Depot Center.
- On Monday, the Galaxy will travel to Costa Rica ahead of their CONCACAF Champions League meeting with LD Alajuelense at Estadio Morera Soto on Wednesday, September 21. That game will kick off at 7 p.m. (PT) and be shown live on FOX Soccer. The Galaxy won their first meeting against Alajuelense, beating them 2-0 at The Home Depot Center on August 25 behind goals from Omar Gonzalez and Chad Barrett.
- The Galaxy return to MLS action on Saturday, September 24 when they take on the Columbus Crew at Crew Stadium. That game kicks off at 4:30 p.m. (PT) and will be shown on live on FOX Sports West, starting with the Galaxy Live pregame show at 4 p.m.
Quotes:
LA Galaxy Head Coach Bruce Arena
On tonight’s game:
"I don’t think that was an easy game tonight. I thought that Vancouver played quite hard, really gave us an excellent first half. That’s not a 3-0 game. I think that Vancouver is one of the teams that I have recognized over the past couple of months that has really improved. I’m pleased by our players’ efforts tonight, obviously it’s been a pretty full week that we’ve just experienced and we will be experiencing full weeks for a little bit now. I like the attitude of our players and hopefully we can try to keep a couple of them fresh as we move forward.”
On the play of Bryan Jordan at right back:
"He played well. This is still a relatively new position for him and I think that the last couple of games that we have given him an opportunity in that position he has done well, which is good to see. He is a player with some good physical tools for that position in terms of his speed and quickness and it’s nice to see that he can get forward once in a while. He’s really done a pretty good job. I thought the last game at home, he played really well in that game and it was a important experience for him and this continues to be as well. We are going to look to be using him down the stretch.”
On the play of Robbie Keane:
“He is getting himself back fit, we are learning more about him as a player, he is learning more about us, we haven’t had a whole lot of training together, but I think that you recognize the fact that he is a pretty good fit. He’s done real well and hopefully it will continue.”
On whether or not his team’s defense get’s overlooked in the team’s success:
“I don’t think that they do. Generally that’s the tag that a lot of people place on our team. I don’t think that they don’t get recognition. We had two All-Star defenders this year and how can you argue about the way that A.J. [DeLaGarza] has played . The whole group has been outstanding. Omar [Gonzalez] has really gotten better this season, A.J. continues to grow, Todd [Dunivant] is solid, we’re getting a number of people to contribute at the right back position and hopefully we’ll have Franklin back in the mix as well.”
LA Galaxy Forward Landon Donovan
On the win:
“I don’t think that we were perfect by any means but we made the plays that we needed to make to win the game.”
On integrating Robbie Keane into the team:
“We are starting to figure him out more. The reality is becoming very clear that if you get the ball to him in good spots in front of the goal he is going to make plays. Not only scoring goals, but his cross to Mike was great.”
On Bryan Jordan’s ability to get forward:
“I thought in the first half that he played tentative and a few weeks ago when he played against Colorado he was great because he was aggressive and he went forward. Everything that he did was assertive. In the first, half I thought he was very passive and a few of us let him know that and said “be aggressive, take chances”. It is difficult to defend when you’re aggressive so he did a good job of getting into the attack and then his final pass and decision were great. Two great headers for the goals.”
On importance of the game performance by Saunders:
“Yes, I was really happy for him because he has been great this year. I know that he felt really bad about the other day. I thought that he was really sharp and did a good job coming off his line and he was just very solid.”
LA Galaxy Forward Mike Magee
On putting Vancouver under early pressure:
“They weren’t going to make it easy. We went into their place a couple of months ago and beat them 4-0, so they came out real hard and a little chippy. So, it feels good to win.”
On his first goal:
“It was great. [Keane] gave me a pretty easy goal on the first one and he is doing great. He is dangerous at all times and even when we kind of have our backs up against the wall. He’s posing a threat up there.”
On the second goal:
“BJ [Bryan Jordan] had a good game, he was crossing some amazing balls. That one was lucky, I just tried to head it as hard as I could and it glanced in.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder David Beckham
On breaking down Vancouver:
“It was tough because they sat back, and usually we can break teams down. We had to be a bit patient and once we got that first goal we knew that it was going to set us up for the rest of the game. So, it’s important to get that first goal and be patient and we did that.”
On the play of Robbie Keane:
“I think he’s fit in from the first day. He’s a great player, he’s a goal scorer so when he makes does run you find him. That’s the biggest thing.”
On the play of Bryan Jordan:
“(His crosses) were great. BJ got in great position and he had the movement tonight and put them in the right areas and we capitalize from those.”
On the club record 15th shutout of the season:
“It’s about the whole team. The defense has been great in many of the games, but obviously the defending start up front and in the midfield and then the back four. But the back four has been great all season. We have to continue to be like that and shut teams out because we’re always going to have chances to score.”
LA Galaxy Forward Robbie Keane
On the win:
“Most important thing tonight was bouncing back from mid-week and we managed to do that.”
On his goal:
“It was a fantastic goal. I went to the near post and then pulled back outside so luckily I got picked out. It probably was not my best game, to be honest with you, happy with tonight’s score.”
On how’s adjusting to life with the Galaxy:
“Like anything, when you’re winning games and scoring goals it makes thing a lot easier, and that’s been the case since I’ve been here. So far it’s been going well and all-in-all, very happy.”
On his fitness:
“For me it’s a month into the season, really. Each game I feel stronger and stronger, I think I’ve shown that the last few games and I hope to keep that going.”
LA Galaxy Goalkeeper Josh Saunders
On the win:
“It’s always a challenge. Vancouver came out and played extremely well in the first half, they put a lot into it and we were able to absorb the pressure. The defense played well, they didn’t give up chances and kept them at a distance.”
Vancouver Whitecaps FC Head Coach Tom Soehn
On the result:
“It’s unfortunate because I thought we came to play today, but in the end they got the better of us. They are a good team and they punished us. Right now we are focused on getting better. We outshot them in their building but they are ruthless, when they get their chances they put them away and that’s what we are not doing right now and that’s why we are not getting results on the road.”
On Robbie Keane’s goal:
“No one took care of Keane on that play. Someone has to be tight there. We also got caught forward and had no pressure on the service. When you don’t do that, guys can put it where they want.”
On being winless on the road this season:
“It’s something we still have to overcome. You feel like we got close against New York, couldn’t finish it off, and today we established a game plan and I thought we pulled it off but the mistakes we made we punished for.”
On how they approach the remaining games in the season:
“We have a stretch of homes games now, which will be good for us, and hopefully establish a rhythm at home and carry that to our next road game in Dallas. We’re still taking it one game at a time and make sure we are ready for our next home contest. We have some big games against real rivals and we want to be ready for those and continue to push our guys so that we become better and set ourselves to understand what we need moving forward and make sure we know what our mentality is to finish out the year.”
Vancouver Whitecaps FC midfielder Peter Vagenas
On facing his former team:
“Obviously I’ve never hid the fact that this is special to me. I spent a great deal of my career here, I learned to be a professional here, I grew up here, my best friends come from this environment, but, at the same time, I know how difficult it is to win here and I’m disappointed because I think we did some things well. That being said, there’s a reason why this team is in first place.”
On if winless record affected their mentality tonight:
“No. I assure you, and it’s not just saying it, it’s the last thing on our mind, especially when that whistle blows. We try to pick up points, and if they come at home or on the road so be it. But we don’t go in thinking it’s a bigger game for us because it’s on the road or what not. We’re trying to go forward here.”
Vancouver Whitecaps FC Defender Jay DeMerit
On what positives the team takes from tonight’s match:
“Obviously when you lose 3-0 it’s never a positive thing, but you always have to try to take positives away and that’s a fact that we gave four shots on-target and three of them went in. But to give four shots to a good team that creates a lot of chances, that has to be a positive. If we get a penalty in the first half and then we go 1-1 and it’s a different game, but unfortunately that didn’t happen tonight so we live and die by that.”
On what they were doing so well in the first half:
“I think we were keeping guys behind the ball, working hard for each other, defending as an eleven. They like to look for the ball over the top, but we didn’t allow them to do that. Once they got their first goal things got a bite open and a bit spread out and their quality showed through.”
On their winless road record:
“I don’t think we go in thinking about that. Every game away from home is an opportunity to snap that streak, but I think ultimately for us it’s just about consistency and performances and we haven’t done that all season. So, we’re going to have to keep working on that.”
