LA Galaxy 3, D.C. United 1
Sunday, March 18, 2012
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.
Scoring Summary:
LA – Robbie Keane 1 (Todd Dunivant 1, Mike Magee 1) 45’
LA – Robbie Keane 2 (Landon Donovan 1) 69’
LA – Marcelo Sarvas 1 (David Beckham 2) 86’
DC – Nick DeLeon 1 (Marcelo Saragosa 1) 87’
Misconduct Summary:
LA – Landon Donovan (Yellow Card) 38’
DC – Maicon Santos (Yellow Card) 39’
LA – Juninho (Yellow Card) 73’
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Josh Saunders; Sean Franklin, Andrew Boyens, A.J. DeLaGarza, Todd Dunivant; Landon Donovan©, Juninho (Pat Noonan 86’), David Beckham, Mike Magee (Marcelo Sarvas 76’); Robbie Keane, Chad Barrett (Edson Buddle 68’).
Subs Not Used: Brian Perk, Tommy Meyer, Dan Keat, Paolo Cardozo.
D.C. United: Joe Willis; Robbie Russell, Brandon McDonald, Dejan Jakovic (Emiliano Dudar 46’), Chris Korb; Marcelo Saragosa, Stephen King (Branko Boskovic 61’), Andy Najar, Chris Pontius (Nick DeLeon 74’); Dwayne DeRosario, Maicon Santos.
Subs Not Used: Andrew Dykstra, Lance Rozenboom, Danny Cruz, Hamdi Salihi.
Referee: Baldomero Toledo
Referee’s Assistants: Fabio Tovar and Ian Anderson
4th Official: Juan Guzman
Notes:
- With the win, the Galaxy are now 1-1-0 on the season for three points. The Galaxy now find themselves tied with Seattle and San Jose for sixth place in the Western Conference standings.
- This was the Galaxy’s first win of the season and their first win in all competitions in 2012. LA have only ever opened the season with consecutive losses once, with that happening in 2001.
- Prior to the game, the Galaxy received their MLS Cup 2011 Championship rings.
- Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made two changes to the team that lost 2-1 to Toronto FC on Wednesday night in the CONCACAF Champions League. Chad Barrett and Andrew Boyens each came into the starting lineup in place of Edson Buddle and Tommy Meyer respectively, each of who started on the bench.
- Barrett was making his first start of the season in all competitions and his first start since being injured in training in the days leading up to MLS Cup 2011.
- The only other change between tonight’s lineup and the lineup that LA used in the 3-1 home opening loss to Real Salt Lake was that Juninho started in place of Marcelo Sarvas, just as he did in Wednesday’s loss.
- The Galaxy were once again forced to play without Adam Cristman, Omar Gonzalez, Bryan Jordan, Leonardo, Kyle Nakazawa and Jose Villarreal, who all missed out because of injury.
- Robbie Keane scored from close range just before halftime, giving LA a 1-0 lead. That was his first goal of the season, while Todd Dunivant and Mike Magee each collected their first assist of the season on the goal. WATCH
- Keane doubled LA’s lead in the 69th minute, scoring off a pass for Landon Donovan. WATCH
- This was the first multi-goal game of Keane’s MLS career and the first for a Galaxy player since Mike Magee had two goals in the 3-0 home win over Vancouver on September 17, 2011. That was also the last time the Galaxy scored three goals in a regular season home game.
- Keane is the 29th different Galaxy player to score more than one goal in a game.
- Donovan collected his first assist of the season on the goal.
- Landon Donovan and Juninho were each booked for the Galaxy. They were the first players to be booked for LA this season.
- Marcelo Sarvas scored LA’s third and final goal of the game, heading home a David Beckham cross to make the score 3-0 in favor of the Galaxy. WATCH
- That was Sarvas’ first-ever goal in MLS and the first that he’d scored in his career with his head.
- Beckham now has an assist in each of the Galaxy’s MLS games this season.
- Nick DeLeon cut the Galaxy lead to 3-1 in the 89th minute with the first goal of his MLS career.
- The Galaxy have now gone unbeaten against D.C. United in their last eight meetings and have a 3-1-4 mark against them at The Home Depot Center.
- LA outshot United 21-13 and had eight shots on target compared to just two for D.C.
- The attendance for tonight’s game was 18,466 at The Home Depot Center.
- The Galaxy will now be off for 13 days before they return to action on Saturday, March 31 against the New England Revolution. New England are currently 0-2-0 on the season, conceding four goals while they are yet to score one. The two teams met twice during the preseason with the Galaxy losing the first encounter 3-2 before winning the Desert Diamond Cup on penalties following a 0-0 draw over 90 minutes.
- The game against New England will be shown live, starting at 8 p.m. on the NBC Sports Network. This will be the Galaxy’s first-ever telecast on the station.
LA Galaxy Head Coach Bruce Arena
On tonight’s game:
“As a team we had an improved performance today. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been a little bit incomplete in our performance, both as a team and individually. We were a little bit cleaner in the penalty areas today on both sides of the ball and that was the key to the win.”
On going into a two-week break in the schedule:
“I think we’ve played well this year. We’ve just missed a couple of key plays. Like I said, it’s a fine line but we generated a lot of chances in the four official games we have played this year. We’ve had a few slip ups defensively that have cost us dearly. There a lot of positive things (about the break), we have not trained as a team on any serious note to date. I think having the two weeks to get some players rested, some players fitness improved and get the team sharper tactically it will be an important two weeks for us to prepare for our next game which I think is against New England.”
On Robbie Keane’s performance:
“I think the first half for a while looked like a mirror image of our previous game where we controlled the game, had the run of play, created the chances and had nothing to show for it. Therefore Robbie’s goal right at the end of the half was important for us and for Robbie. You saw in the second half he was a player playing with a lot of confidence. He played quite well. I think today the most important team was the team’s performance was better. The effort, the coordination of the team and the desire to play with each other was much improved today and that is certainly something to build on.”
LA Galaxy Forward Robbie Keane
On his first two-goal performance in MLS:
“Very happy, obviously. I don’t mind missing chances, I mind when I’m not in a position to score them. As long as I keep getting in position, I know eventually I’ll score. I try not to let it play in your mind too much, but as you know football sometimes it can take you over. I knew as long as I keep getting into position I would score.”
Thoughts on the first goal:
“It was a great ball by Todd and I just happened to hit the target. As a striker, you’re judge on scoring goals and I thought it was important, especially to start the season, to get that first one out of the way. And then to get that second one, obviously, it was important to get that second goal to kill them off.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder David Beckham
On what led to the win:
“I think we played more as a team, we worked hard for each other and I think we put away the chances we had. As simple as that. Today is a good day. We can still play better, but it was important we get our first win.”
On Robbie’s goal right before halftime:
“For any goalscorer it’s always important to get off the mark, and especially get off the mark for the preseason. I think it’s great for Robbie, great for us and it came at good time right before the break.”
On the ring ceremony:
“To receive a ring, it’s special. Last season was a special time. I’ve spoken about it before, we’d come very close the last three years so to do it the way we did it, in our home stadium was special. So to get the rings today was even more so. It’s a big ring, so it will go probably in a place in the house with the rest of my trophies and medals I’ve won over the years.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder Landon Donovan
On the importance of the result:
“It’s important given what’s gone on the last week-and-half. I think we’re all disappointed with how we started the season… I actually don’t think our performance was too different from the last few days, but we cleaned up a few things and we were sharper in front of the goal and it made all the difference.”
On Robbie’s performance:
“He’s always going to score goals, he doesn’t go too long without scoring. I know he felt bad the other night, missing that chance we had against Toronto. I think, if I were betting man, I would have bet that he was scoring two score two goals.”
On what the team will do in the two weeks between tonight’s game and their next game:
“First and foremost is to rest, and second is to get on the field and work on things. You underestimate that part of it. I know we are all pros and there is a lot of experience here, but there’s few guys that haven’t played together and we need that chance to start jelling.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder Marcelo Sarvas
On tonight’s win:
“I think when you are going through a bad streak, when the team is not winning, it’s very hard to come out. This was a good moment to break out of that streak, caused by losing to Toronto and Salt Lake, and get a win and keep moving forward.”
Scoring his first goal with the Galaxy:
“I’m always very happy to score and contribute to the team.”
LA Galaxy Defender Todd Dunivant
On the team’s defensive performance:
“I think it was good for our confidence. I think it’s good to know that we can do it. Obviously we’re frustrated that we gave up that goal late, but we defended well. And, we feel like we have been. We’ve broken down in a few critical moments and today we didn’t do that. At the end of the game, when it’s three-zero, we can concentrate a little bit better and close it out and get that shutout. But, on the whole, I think everyone felt really good about and as a team we felt we defended really well and as a backline we kept things in front of us and didn’t give Josh much to deal with today.”
D.C. United Head Coach Ben Olsen
On the team’s performance:
“I think there was some improvement in some aspect on a positive note I thought [Emiliano] Dubar and played very well and Nick DeLeon showed us that he is ready to be a professional and Joe Willis was unbelievable. On the negative side I am disappointed in the group because they are a reflection of me and the organization at the minimum the fight has to be there every game in this league. I thought we gave them too much respect early. We didn’t get that this was going to be one hell of a tough game and that physically you better go out to fight and scrap until the game settles down. That wasn’t there and that is really disappointing.”
On giving up a goal going into the half:
“It was a killer right before the half it always is. We were hanging in there. We can talk all we want but they are a damn good team. They are the champs and I think they played like the champs today. They played very well. Their passing was good, their movement was good, they were dangerous on set pieces and they were everything a good team should be in this league. They are obviously coached very well by Bruce [Arena] but we had some good looks. We had a lot of good looks and if we had a little bit more fortune in front of the goal I think it could have been one of those 3-3 or 4-4 games if we got a little bit of luck.”
On the team’s mentality:
“I wasn’t happy with the initial fight and spirit that we had, that’s the easy part it always should be the hardest part is playing good soccer and finish chances and gel together which we have ways to go in that. You have to have that other stuff from the start. I thought we gave them too much respect I think some of our guys were a little hesitant in a lot of areas and they capitalized on it. But saying that we hung in there, we had some good looks, we should done better with those but overall they were obviously a better team they have a lot of weapon and they are coached by a hell of a coach.”
D.C. United Defender Robbie Russell
On tonight’s game:
“I think we talked about how LA had come off playing three games in a week. We wanted to get them on their heels and I don’t think we came ready to play and that is on me personally. The players in general know we didn’t come ready to play when we needed to.”
On going down 1-0:
“When you get a situation like that, and you get a goal scored against you, it puts you behind the eight ball and you are working to fight back. Your taking chances you don’t need to take and the game is opening up. I think that is something LA prides on. They love those open-sided ended games.”
On the team’s performance:
“I think mentally that was a bad call on our part. It was one of those situation that when you get a second goal scored against you and a third goal scored against you it is demoralizing and we have to be better at fighting back and that start with me I have to be better at fighting back and it’s something we are going to have to work on.”
