LA Galaxy 1, Columbus Crew 0
Saturday, September 25, 2011
Columbus Crew Stadium – Columbus, Ohio
Scoring Summary:
LA – Chad Barrett (Unassisted) 93+
Misconduct Summary:
CLB – Emmanuel Ekpo (Yellow Card) 32’
CLB – Julius James (Yellow Card) 57’
CLB – Robbie Rogers (Yellow Card) 83’
LA – Frankie Hejduk (Yellow Card) 90’
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Josh Saunders; Frankie Hejduk©, A.J. DeLaGarza, Omar Gonzalez, Bryan Jordan; Chris Birchall (Landon Donovan 62’), Juninho, Michael Stephens, Paolo Cardozo; Miguel Lopez (Mike Magee 68’), Adam Cristman (Chad Barrett 84’)
Subs Not Used: Brian Perk, Todd Dunivant, Hector Jimenez, Jovan Kirovski.
Columbus Crew:
William Hesmer; Sebastian Miranda, Chad Marshall©, Julius James, Shaun Francis; Danny O’Rourke, Dilly Duka (Cole Grossman 89’), Josh Gardner (Emilio Renteria 65’), Robbie Rogers; Emmanuel Ekpo, Andres Mendoza.
Subs Not Used: Andy Gruenebaum, Kevin Burns, Eric Gehrig, Jeff Cunningham, Tommy Heinemann.
Referee: Silviu Petrescu
Referee’s Assistants: Daniel Belleau and Eric Proctor
4th Official: Sorin Stoica
Notes:
- With the win, the Galaxy are now 17-3-10 on the season, giving them a league-best 61 points. They remain in first place in the Western Conference, seven points ahead of Seattle who beat Vancouver tonight. They are now 10 points clear of Real Salt Lake, who lost 4-1 to D.C. United tonight.
- As a result of the victory, the Galaxy have been assured of a top three finish in the Western Conference, meaning that they will not need to play in one of the wild card playoff games.
- The Galaxy remain unbeaten against the Eastern Conference with an 8-0-8 record, including 3-0-4 on the road.
- For the season, the Galaxy are now 7-3-5 for 26 of their 61 points.
- The Galaxy’s 26 points on the road this season are tied for the most in MLS this season. Seattle Sounders FC also have 26 road points this season.
- With tonight’s win, the Galaxy have swept the season series against Columbus. They beat Columbus 1-0 at The Home Depot Center on July 20. Sean Franklin scored his first career goal in MLS that night in the 70th minute.
- This is the second straight season in which the Galaxy defeated the Crew at Crew Stadium, also doing so on May 29 in 2010, 2-0, with goals from Michael Stephens and Tristan Bowen. Prior to those two wins, the Galaxy had won just once at Crew Stadium.
- The Galaxy have now swept four teams this season, having also beaten Chicago, Colorado and Vancouver twice this year.
- Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made five changes to the team that beat Vancouver 3-0 in the league on September 17. Frankie Hejduk, Juninho, Michael Stephens, Adam Cristman and Miguel Lopez all returned to the starting lineup, replacing Todd Dunivant, David Beckham, Landon Donovan, Chad Barrett and Robbie Keane. Barrett, Donovan and Dunivant each started the game on the bench while Beckham and Keane did not dress for the game.
- This was the first time that Dunivant did not start or play in a regular season game. Prior to tonight Dunivant had played the full 90 minutes at left back in all 29 regular season games that the club had played. Dunivant remains the only Galaxy player to be in the 18-man squad for all of his team’s games this year and has played in 34 of the club’s 36 games. The only other game that he missed was LA’s win over the L.A. Blues in the Third Round of the U.S. Open Cup.
- Of the 11 players that started tonight, only five— A.J. DeLaGarza, Omar Gonzalez, Juninho, Bryan Jordan and Josh Saunders – started in Wednesday night’s game in Costa Rica against LD Alajuelense in the CONCACAF Champions League.
- In addition to Beckham and Keane, the Galaxy were once again without Sean Alvarado, Gregg Berhalter, Sean Franklin, Leonardo and Donovan Ricketts who each missed the game through injury.
- Chad Barrett scored the game’s lone goal in the third minute of second half stoppage time, finishing the rebound of a Landon Donovan shot.
- The goal was Barrett’s fifth of the season and sixth in all competitions. He is now tied with Mike Magee for second place on the team in goals in the league and in all competitions.
- Barrett’s goal was the second that the Galaxy have scored this season in second half stoppage time. The first was scored by Juan Pablo Angel against Toronto FC on June 11.
- Josh Saunders made four saves to keep his seventh clean sheet in the league this season and his ninth in all competition.
- The nine shutouts for Saunders are the most on the team this year, two more than Donovan Ricketts who has seven, all of which have come in the league.
- The shutout was the Galaxy’s 16th of the season, furthering their club record for shutouts in a season. They now just need one shutout in their final four 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.
- The Galaxy have now kept three straight clean sheets in the league, extending their shutout streak to 270 minutes. They last allowed a goal in second half stoppage time of their 2-2 draw with Sporting Kansas City on September 5.
- Frankie Hejduk wore the captain’s armband for the Galaxy, becoming the sixth different player to start a game as the club’s captain this season, joining David Beckham, Gregg Berhalter, Landon Donovan, Todd Dunivant and Donovan Ricketts.
- He he was booked in the second half of the game for a foul on Andres Mendoza. He now has four yellow cards in four regular season games this year, leaving him one yellow card away from a suspension.
- While he was booked, Landon Donovan was not after coming on for Chris Birchall in the 62nd minute. As a result, he has had one card removed from his record, leaving him two cards away from a one-game suspension.
- Donovan made his second appearance of the year as a substitute after not making any in 2010. Prior to this season he had made just five substitute appearances for the Galaxy.
- The attendance for tonight’s game was a sellout of 21,203 at Crew Stadium.
- The Galaxy are back in action on Wednesday, September 28 when they host Monarcas Morelia at The Home Depot Center in their final home game in group play of the CONCACAF Champions League. That game will kick off at 7 p.m. (PT) and be shown live on FOX Soccer.
- LA lost the first meeting between the two sides in Mexico on September 13 at Estadio Morelos by the score of 2-1. Robbie Keane scored the game’s first goal, but Morelia countered with goals from Adrian Aldrete and Miguel Sabah in the final seven minutes of the match to earn the win.
- The Galaxy return to MLS action on Saturday, October 1, Fan Appreciation Day at The Home Depot Center, against Real Salt Lake. That game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. (PT) and will be shown on live on FOX Sports West, with a 30-minute postgame to follow.
Quotes:
LA coach Bruce Arena:
On the match…
“We were fortunate to get that goal at the end, and I give Landon [Donovan] and [Chad] Barrett a lot of credit for teaming up on that. That last 10 minutes got crazy. We hit the wall physically and the Crew created some chances, making Saunders come up big, but I think on the night we played well. We got a real good effort out of a bunch of players.”
On what he wasn’t happy with…
“Between the eightieth and ninetieth minutes we could have been a little bit cleaner. But on the night, a lot of great performances.”
LA forward Chad Barrett:
On the finish…
“Just being opportunistic is pretty much what it comes down to. It was a header back in, I was running back from the previous attacking play and Julius [James] had a little mix up, Landon[Donovan] hit a great shot on goal and Hesmer made a great save and it fell right to me at the back post.”
On the last ten minutes…
“They were really starting to pile it on at the end and coming into that game was really tough, really fast tempo. Columbus really went for it, they made a lot of attacking substitutions. They were really starting to get exposed at the back since they were going forward so much. Josh Saunders made two unbelievable saves, the team played amazing tonight.”
On playing with Frankie in Crew Stadium…
“It was great to see the captain’s armband on Frankie, it’s great to win one for him. He’s having a great time right now, and this is a really good way to send ourselves back home.”
LA defender Frankie Hejduk:
On the match…
“Obviously it was an emotional day for me, an emotional game. Whenever you spend eight years of your life somewhere and won some championships and three Supporters Shields', and come back and play against them it’s a little bit weird.”
On the result…
“This is not an easy place to win, I know that for sure. To battle back with the week we had, and get the goal at the end there says a lot about the heart and the character of this LA Galaxy team. This is what championship teams are made of and we’re right on the path to getting there.”
On captaining the team…
“It’s special. I’m really thankful to Bruce for doing that for me and like I said it was a really emotional day. To step on with the captain’s armband brought back some great memories.”
Crew coach Robert Warzycha:
On the match…
“I think we played against a very good team and in the first half I think they kept possession very well. The last fifteen minutes of the first half I think we figured out how to play. In the second half, when Emilio [Renteria] came in, I think the game came alive. We created a couple chances that were difficult for Saunders to save, then we let the ball bounce at the end of the game and it cost us a goal.”
On not possessing in the first half, with a five man midfield…
“It’s up to the players to get up and play. Tactically we can only do so much.”
On Renteria’s impact on the game…
“He didn’t have a free role, he was the one attacker but he still created chances. Obviously, he’s not fit for ninety minutes, but for the thirty minutes he was on the field I think he gave us a lot.”
Crew defender Julius James:
On the match…
“They played how we expected them to play. That’s the game of soccer though; you create a lot of chances and there’s one chance at the other end and they convert. We just need to convert our chances.”
On LA not starting normal starters…
“That did not change anything. We wanted to win this game.”
On what needs to change…
“We need to score goals.”
Crew forward Emilio Renteria:
On coming back from injury and creating chances…
“I always try to go in and help my teammates and give my all.”
On if he felt a goal was coming for the Crew…
“We were trying, we were creating chances. At one point, we took a breath, and that’s when they scored. Unfortunately, when you’re trying to score that’s when you get scored on sometimes, and that’s what happened tonight.”
