LA Galaxy 0, New York Red Bulls 2
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Red Bull Arena – Harrison, N.J.
Scoring Summary:
NY – Luke Rodgers 9 (unassisted) 32’
NY – Thierry Henry 14 (Rafael Marquez 5) 60’
Misconduct Summary:
LA – Frankie Hejduk (Yellow Card) 13’
NY – Joel Lindpere (Yellow Card) 34’
LA – A.J. DeLaGarza (Yellow Card) 47+
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Donovan Ricketts; Frankie Hejduk (Bryan Jordan 45’), A.J. DeLaGarza, Omar Gonzalez, Todd Dunivant; Michael Stephens, Juninho (Adam Cristman 71’), David Beckham©, Paolo Cardozo; Chad Barrett, Miguel Lopez (Hector Jimenez 65’).
Subs Not Used: Josh Saunders, Dasan Robinson, Dan Keat, Jovan Kirovski.
New York Red Bulls: Frank Rost; Jan Gunnar Solli, Stephen Keel, Tim Ream, Roy Miller; Dane Richards (Mehdi Ballouchy 93’+), Rafael Marquez (Dax McCarty 82’), Teemu Tainio, Joel Lindpere; Luke Rodgers, Thierry Henry©.
Subs Not Used: Alex Horwath, Carlos Mendes, Stephen Auvray, Juan Agudelo.
Referee: Jair Marrufo
Referee’s Assistants: Corey Rockwell and Frank Anderson
4th Official: Jose Carlos Rivero
Notes:
- With the loss, the Galaxy are now 18-4-10 on the season, keeping them with a league-best 64 points. They remain in first place in the Western Conference, seven points ahead of Seattle.
- The Galaxy can still clinch the Supporters’ Shield with a win in either of their final two games of the season.
- The Galaxy’s busy September/early October schedule has come to an end. From September 5 until today, the Galaxy played nine games in 30 days in the league and the CONCACAF Champions League. In those nine games, the Galaxy went 5-3-1 with wins over Colorado, Vancouver, Columbus and Salt Lake in the league, as well as a win over Morelia in the Champions League.
- The two of the three losses came in the Champions League, losing on the road to Morelia and Alajuelense while the third came on the road tonight against the Red Bulls. The lone road draw was against Sporting Kansas City to begin the hectic portion of the schedule.
- Following tonight’s game, the team will return to Southern California and will not play another game until their regular season home finale against Chivas USA on October 16.
- Overall, the Galaxy fell to 7-4-5 on the road this season with just one more road game remaining, at Houston in the season finale.
- The Galaxy also suffered their first loss against the Eastern Conference team this season. They are now 8-1-8 against the East this season, including 3-1-4 on the road.
- With the loss, the Galaxy finish the season series with New York with an 0-1-1 record. They played to a 1-1 draw at The Home Depot Center on May 7.
- Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made four changes to the team that beat Real Salt Lake 2-1 in their last game on October 1 at The Home Depot Center. Donovan Ricketts, Frankie Hejduk, Michael Stephens and Miguel Lopez all returned to the starting lineup. They replaced Robbie Keane, Landon Donovan, Bryan Jordan and Josh Saunders. Of those four, two were available off the bench with only Donovan not in the lineup because of a mild right quad strain.
- In addition to Donovan, the Galaxy were once again without Sean Alvarado, Gregg Berhalter, Sean Franklin, Leonardo and Mike Magee who each missed the game through injury.
- The Galaxy were also without Chris Birchall and Robbie Keane due to national team duty with Trinidad & Tobago and Ireland, respectively. Trinidad & Tobago will play two World Cup qualifiers, against Bermuda and Barbados, in the next week while Ireland plays their final games of qualifying for the 2012 European Championships against Andorra and Armenia.
- The Galaxy fell behind 1-0 just before halftime in the 32nd minute when Luke Rodgers scored off a rebound from a Jan Gunnar Solli header off a Joel Lindpere corner kick.
- The Galaxy trailed at the half for just the fourth time this season and the third on the road. They are now 1-3-0 in those four games.
- Thierry Henry doubled New York’s lead in the 59th minute, scoring his 14th goal of the season. That leaves him tied with D.C. United’s Dwayne DeRosario for the league lead in goals.
- Rookie Hector Jimenez made his MLS debut in the 62nd minute, replacing Miguel Lopez. Prior to tonight, Jimenez has made two overall appearances for the club, including one in the CONCACAF Champions League and one the U.S. Open Cup.
- Frankie Hejduk was shown his fifth yellow card of the in the 13th minute. He will now miss the next game against Chivas USA as he serves a mandatory one-game suspension.
- A.J DeLaGarza was shown his third yellow card of the year in first half stoppage time.
- The attendance for tonight’s game was a sellout of 25,186 at Red Bull Arena.
- The Galaxy will fly back to LA tomorrow ahead of an 11-day break before their next game on Sunday, October 16 when they host Chivas USA at The Home Depot Center. That game will kick off at 6 p.m. and will be shown live on ESPN and ESPN Deportes.
Quotes:
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On the match:
It wasn’t our best night, I think we looked like a tired team. Tonight is a culmination of a lot of games over a short period of time, and it showed.
On the team losing just its fourth game of the season:
We didn’t play well. What more can you say? That game was a game that possibly could have gone a little longer even. The goal they got off the corner kick, we made a few mistakes, but we didn’t get a whole lot right tonight. We passed it pretty well tonight at times. We didn’t create enough, I think (Thierry) Henry got an opportunistic goal, a little against the run of play. I thought we were getting at them a little bit and trying to create that goal to get the game even, it didn’t happen and obviously two-zero is difficult. We had to play with a bunch of young payers. No excuses, but we didn’t play particularly well. I think the break is going to be good for us.
On missing some key players in the match:
It is what it is. We had a lot of players that weren’t on the field tonight. But that’s not an excuse. It is what it is.
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER DAVID BECKHAM
On playing in Red Bull Arena:
Obviously it’s a difficult place to come and win and play, but I think overall we can take some positives from the game. I think, first off, we passed the right ball around and I’m sure we had a lot of possession, but we just didn’t capitalize for scoring a goal.
On playing against Thierry Henry:
Of course, it’s always special to play against Thierry [Henry]. He’s a good friend and a great professional and a great player so it’s always good to play against him.
On what LA was expecting coming to New York:
I think every time we come here, we expect a fight because Red Bull is a team that the majority of the time will battle. We knew, obviously the position they were in, they needed to win the game. We knew that they were going to battle tonight, and they did. At the end of the day they out-battled us. I think they sat back a lot, but like I said they have quick players that can hit you on the break and they did that.
LA GALAXY FORWARD CHAD BARRETT
On the match:
I think we came out with a lot of enthusiasm. We’re a tired team. We were missing some key players but the guys on the field could have gotten the job done. I missed a pretty good chance in about the 30th minute, and if I put that away it could be a pretty different game. That’s that. It’s not the worst thing, losing. We have a chance to go home and clinch the Shield at home.
On what was missing in the final third:
Just the finishing touch. That was it. We created some good chances. I think that we definitely missed getting a lot of times where we could have cut the ball back on the left side, and that’s where you miss Mike Magee and Landon Donovan swinging the ball in right-footed and stuff like that. But I thought that everybody that played today played their hearts out.
On if fatigue played a factor in the loss:
Everybody’s tired. CONCACAF (Champions League) has taken its toll on us. We’re missing four players tonight just due to little injuries here and there and the national team. That’s going to happen, we need the other players to step up and do their job, and we’ve been doing that up until now. This team definitely isn’t down, we’re going to enjoy our break. Everybody’s going to get to put up their legs, and that’s going to be really important heading into the playoffs.
NEW YORK RED BULLS HEAD COACH HANS BACKE
On the game:
We played well. I would say we had an even start, but we were just getting better and better throughout the 90 minutes. The first 15 to 20 minutes were tight, but I think after that we got better and better with rhythm and with our passing game. We had some unfortunate errors in the beginning, perhaps we were a little bit nervous but after fifteen to twenty minutes, we looked much, much better.“
On the balance of possession and passing:
Over 90 minutes, this has probably been the best, well-balanced game from us. I can’t really remember our first seven games where we played really well before the Gold Cup. I think we only conceded two goals since seven games and picked up a number of wins. But from the Gold Cup and now, this was definitely the most balanced game.
On possibly being a threat in the playoffs:
It’s still very, very tight. But this win today, it has definitely set us up with great possibility to play head-to-head with Kansas City and Philadelphia. But if we lose these games, we can be out of the playoffs. With the way we performed today, it reminds me a little bit of the beginning of the season. Not giving away anything and the willingness to defend with hard work. If we are in the playoffs, I think we would definitely be a threat.
Thoughts on the team’s chemistry:
These kinds of games take care of themselves. Every time you play the big guns, you don’t need any right way to motivate the players in any different or special style. It takes care of itself. We will see when we go on the road to Kansas City, if we can stay on the same level. Normally, I would analyze after our 34 games or after the playoffs. I am quite sure on what has gone wrong after the first seven games. But it seems that we are back now.
NEW YORK RED BULLS FORWARD THIERRY HENRY
On the offense today and the partnership with Luke Rodgers:
I don’t like to single out players. I thought the team played well and that was the most important thing. We worked hard and sometimes we are at the end of some movement and we try to score goals, but I’d rather talk about the way we all played as a team today.
On the balance of the team’s offense and defense performance:
I thought we had that at the beginning of the season. Somehow it went away. Hopefully it’s not too late that it’s coming back. It survived three points for us. That’s allowing us to maybe see a better place if we go to the playoffs and we’re still not in. We still have two games to go, and especially against Kansas City and at home against Philadelphia. It can go down to the wire against Philly so we’ll see, but it was vital to win the game here and that’s done.
On if playing against Los Angeles gave the team more adrenaline:
No, we needed to win. I said it before the game for some of the guys that were at the training ground. I said, it happens to be against LA. We just wanted to win the game like we were trying to do recently, or even before it didn’t happen, but we wanted to win the game. Not because it was against LA, as we all know the best team in the league, and against Becks (David Beckham) we just wanted to win the game.
NEW YORK RED BULLS FORWARD LUKE RODGERS
On his goal:
Yeah, it felt really good. Getting that score there against the top in the league, that’s really good. This is a massive confidence boost for us; I think this is the best we have played for a long time, you know probably from the start of the season. It’s just a massive confidence boost, everyone looks so happy in the dressing room and that’s what we should be doing. We know we can beat any team in the league; obviously proving it is a different thing. I think tonight we worked together as a team and we were the best team.
On the importance of this game:
We all knew it was a must win game. It’s funny because when we must win, we win, so I think every game is a must win game and now we have the last two of the season. There is no reason why we can’t win them both and finish on top of the (East).
On the atmosphere of the game:
It was quality, it was really good. It was nice, everyone just boosted the team. It was nice to play and hopefully the last game of the season against Philly will sell out.
NEW YORK RED BULLS DEFENDER TIM REAM
On how his performance tonight compared to others:
I felt pretty comfortable the last couple of starts. I think it’s a better feeling for the guy next to you and communication has been good, I think it’s just been the heart and the fight that everybody has shown has definitely rubbed off on everybody. I think (I should) be able to feel more comfortable playing that style and playing with more effort and more passion.
On shutting out the Los Angeles Galaxy:
Obviously you want a clean sheet no matter who you play. During the game you don’t really think about it, it’s not really more significant than getting a clean sheet with Dallas or getting any clean sheet this year. Obviously they have great players and they could do some good things and they have a powerful offense. Even if we were playing Toronto, you got to shut out who you play and we would be happy, especially at this point in the season.
