LA Galaxy 0, New York Red Bulls 1
Saturday, May 5, 2012
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.
Scoring Summary:
NY – Joel Lindpere 1 (Jan Gunnar Solli 2) 19’
Misconduct Summary:
NY – Dane Richards (Yellow Card) 31’
LA – David Beckham (Yellow Card) 32’
NY – Dax McCarty (Yellow Card) 80’
LA – Chad Barrett (Yellow Card) 88’
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Bill Gaudette; Sean Franklin, Tommy Meyer (Michael Stephens 75’), A.J. DeLaGarza, Todd Duninvant; Landon Donovan©, Juninho, David Beckham, Mike Magee (Pat Noonan 68’); Robbie Keane, Edson Buddle (Chad Barrett 68’)
Subs Not Used: Brian Rowe, Bryan Gaul, Dan Keat, Marcelo Sarvas.
New York Red Bulls: Ryan Meara; Brandon Barklage, Markus Holgersson©, Tyler Ruthven, Connor Lade; Dax McCarty, Dane Richards, Mehdi Ballouchy (Victor Palsson 77’), Joel Lindpere, Jan Gunnar Solli (Juan Agudelo 82’); Kenny Cooper.
Subs Not Used: Jeremy Vuolo, Jonathan Borrajo, Ryan Maduro, Jhonny Arteaga, Corey Hertzog.
Referee: Kevin Stott
Referee’s Assistants: Adam Wienckowski and Corey Parker
4th Official: Mark Declouet
Notes:
- With the loss, the Galaxy are now 3-5-1 on the season for 10 points. They are remain in seventh place in the Western Conference standings, two points behind FC Dallas and one point ahead of Chivas USA.
- This was the Galaxy’s second straight loss of the season. They did not lose two straight games all season in 2011.
- After going three straight games without a loss from April 14-28, the Galaxy are now winless in their last three games, going 0-2-1 in that time.
- This was LA’s third loss in six regular season home games this season. They have never lost more than four home games in a single season under Bruce Arena.
- Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made six changes to the team that lost 2-0 at Seattle on Wednesday night. David Beckham, Edson Buddle, Todd Dunivant, Robbie Keane, Mike Magee and Tommy Meyer all returned to the starting lineup. They replaced Chad Barrett, Adam Cristman, Bryan Gaul, Bryan Jordan, David Junior Lopes and Marcelo Sarvas. Barrett, Gaul and Sarvas all began the game on the bench while Cristman, Jordan and Lopes did not dress.
- MLS League Pool Goalkeeper Brian Rowe served as LA’s backup goalkeeper for the second straight game. He was called up due to the unavailability of Josh Saunders and the injury to Brian Perk.
- In addition to Perk and Saunders, the Galaxy were once against without Omar Gonzalez and Leonardo who are each on the club’s Disabled List.
- The Galaxy fell behind 1-0 in the 19th minute after a goal by Joel Lindpere. The have now fallen behind 1-0 in five of their last six games and in each of their last four home matches.
- LA finished the game with five shots on goal, with New York goalkeeper Ryan Meara finishing the night
- This was the third time LA has been shutout this season and the first time that they have been shutout in consecutive games since June 25 and July 4 last season, though they drew each of those games 0-0.
- For the sixth time in their nine games, the Galaxy did not score in the opening 45 minutes.
- The Galaxy have now given up at least one goal in each of their nine regular season games this year. Last year they had four clean sheets in their first nine games of the year.
- Bill Gaudette made his third straight start for LA and did not have to make a save as he faced just one shot on goal.
- Sean Franklin once again played the full 90 minutes for the Galaxy. He has started all 11 games that the Galaxy have played this season in all competitions and has played every minute of the club’s nine regular season home games. He is the only player on the club’s roster to do both.
- Chad Barrett and David Beckham were each booked in the game. Beckham now has two yellow cards in each of his last two games played and is tied for the team lead in cautions, along with Landon Donovan and Juninho, with two.
- The attendance for tonight’s game was a sellout crowd of 27,000 at The Home Depot Center. This was the LA’s second home sellout of the season.
- The Galaxy will be back in action on Saturday, May 12 when they head to Olympic Stadium for the first time to take on the Montreal Impact. This will be the only meeting of the season between the Galaxy and the newest expansion team in MLS. The game will kick off at 1 p.m. (PT) and can be seen live on KDOC and KWHY.
- The Galaxy Reserves will play their third game of the season on Tuesday, May 8 when they host the San Jose Earthquakes. That game will be played on University Field #1 at The Home Depot Center and kick off is scheduled for 11 a.m.
QUOTES:
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
On the outcome:
“It is a bit of a broken record. Even giving up a goal, we had enough chances to create a couple goals in the game. It’s the same case in the Dallas game last week. Obviously New York was prepared to sit back and defend with their team and did and created a good goal—caught us sleeping. But despite that, we had good chances. Before that may have been the [Robbie] Keane chance. But throughout 90 minutes there were certainly enough chances to get ourselves back in that game. At least get a point or perhaps win the game. It’s no ones fault. We have the ball at the feet of our best players. Someone has to make the plays when they’re there. We didn’t make the plays.”
On the energy of the team:
“I thought our guys did a good job. Some of our guys who played Wednesday were obviously a little fatigued. I thought Juninho a little bit, and Franklin and Landon, but I thought they had decent energy tonight. You know, there are goals out there for us to score and we’re not getting the ball in the back of the net.”
On the team’s recent run:
“At this point we’re 3-5-1, I wouldn’t say we took a step back tonight. We could have won this game. We should have won the last two games at home. We have to put the ball in the back of the net. It comes down to finishing. Having said that, we’ve done a better job defensively. I think at home we’re more than capable of getting a goal or two and we have no one to blame but ourselves.”
On the teams’ problem of teams finishing of chances:
“The goalkeeper made a couple of good saves. I think our crossing was not as good as it needs to be. I think Beckham got in some great crosses when we shifted them over there. I think from the left side of the field we need to get in some better crosses. We haven’t found a player that can consistently get us goals. There have been plays there where the ball has to end up in the back of the net and it isn’t and it’s costing us dearly.”
On struggling to break down the New York defense:
“You need to give Red Bull credit. They did a good job defending set pieces. David probably hit in a half-a-dozen quality crosses in the game. We gave up the goal, but in these two games at home there were enough chances for us to score goals and win these games. To me that’s the story of the game. Give up a goal; you have to get a goal. The chances are there and the balls not in the back of net. But we had enough good chances to get ourselves back in this game and to win this game. That would be the same in my opinion last week against Dallas, it took us 90 some odd minutes to get the goal in the Dallas game.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder Landon Donovan
On New York’s goal:
“It was pretty much their only chance. We sort of let them off the hook by falling asleep on that play. And that’ frustrating, but that’s how this game goes sometimes. That’s what you can’t have when teams play that way. You can’t allow them to get a goal and even when its 0-0 it’s in their favor the longer it goes and if they get up a goal it’s that much more difficult. So, we were at fault for not finishing our chances and falling asleep on a play.”
On what the team must do to turn the season around:
“There’s no magical answer. Obviously if we knew we would do it. The only way I know, the only way this team knows, is to keep going. It seemed like pretty much everything went against us today.”
On if the team is playing the right way:
“I don’t think we’re playing poorly. I don’t think anyone could watch that game today and say we didn’t give good effort, we didn’t play hard, we didn’t play with endeavor and try to do things the right way. It just didn’t come off today and we’ve had a few of those this year. It’s frustrating.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder David Beckham
On the loss:
“It’s getting even more frustrating week after week. New York came here they worked hard, they came here to get us on the break, and then defend with all of their players. It was successful for them tonight. Sometimes it’s not the prettiest way of playing but it can be effective. We tried to break them down, we had our chances, we didn’t finish the chances we had and we got sloppy in defense with a couple of plays.”
On not losing at home last year compared to four times already this year:
“I think that went the first time we lost (in the home opener). It’s something we were proud of last year having our home ground and somewhere where it was tough to come and play against us and also our fans. It’s something we have to change (losing at home) because we want to make it hard for teams to come and play here. Right now teams and individuals are coming here and enjoying it. The mentality has to change.”
LA Galaxy Defender Todd Dunivant
Overall thoughts on the game:
“They didn’t come (here) to attack much today and they didn’t, but they got an opportunity and they capitalized on it. That’s a tailor-made way to play on the road for them and it couldn’t have gone any better for them. Give them credit. But, one chance one goal that’s not good.”
On being shutout:
“We’re just a step off. That last little sharpness in the final third isn’t quite there on all ends of the play. Its little thing, little adjustments and we need to keep working on it. By no means (have we) given up. And by we’re going to hang our heads. We have a big game in Montreal next week and that’s what we are going to focus on. We have to keep battling through, we have to stay positive and to keep getting the opportunities— and that’s a positive that we are getting them. If we keep doing that we’ll be OK.”
LA Galaxy Goalkeeper Bill Gaudette
Overall thoughts on the game:
“It was a tough night for us. Anytime you don’t get points at home it’s not a good night. We have to get to work on Monday and correct some things. It’s a disappointing night and we’ll get back to work, but tonight is a bit of a disappointment.”
On the team’s struggles in the offense:
“That’s part of the game, it’s a crazy game. Sometimes everything goes in and sometimes nothing goes in. We’re just in one of those periods where we are not scoring the goals that we could, but my biggest thought is defensively to help them our by keeping a zero on the board and we’ll get back to work and sort that out. But, goals change games, they scored a goal tonight and they sat back and did well. They fought hard. So we’ll get back to work.”
On Joel Lindpere’s goal:
“He’s a good player. He’s crafty. European guy, so he’s a little bit about him. He did well. He kind of had a stumbled touch and he hit it quick and over my shoulder, so you have to give credit where it’s due. He was able to squeeze one by.”
LA Galaxy Forward Edson Buddle
Overall thoughts on the game:
“I think we need to score goals, you know, I’m a striker. On normal plays that we would convert, we have the talent, normally they go in our favor but that’s not what it is right now. We just have to dig deeper in ourselves and make those plays happen. Life is like this sometimes, in my career we’ve been through this, and we just need to stay behind ourselves and come together to make it work.”
On team’s current position in the standings:
“I hope, in the future, we can look back and say it was crazy how we were in that position and we come out on top at the end of this. It would be a great story to tell. Right now we just have to figure it out to get on top.”
New York Red Bulls Head Coach Hans Backe
On the win:
“Yes, it is phenomenal, they way they worked today. Also against New England, and when you go into playing Saturday, Wednesday, then Sunday next week, you need some fresh legs because you can’t just defend like this.”
On the club’s defensive performance:
“It’s such an un-experienced back four, I think they have 20 games together, and it is their second clean sheet. The whole team just worked their ass off. Normally when you have so many starters out you are forced to defend and they did in phenomenally. It was a definite team effort. They were under pressure but didn’t allow them a real opportunity, a lot of crosses and half chances, and Ryan once again was phenomenal.”
On the club’s attack play without Thierry Henry:
“It will be tougher for us of course with him out for 3-4 weeks, we are going to miss his goals and assists. But I still think Agudelo can be good for 20-25 minutes every game and we will get him in until Thierry is back.”
New York Red Bulls Goalkeeper Ryan Meara
On the win:
“We got a goal early and did what we had to do to keep the clean sheet and win the game. It was a full team effort again, and I think it is good to play these tight games, sometimes when our back is up against the wall we learn how to grind out these victories, it was another great win.”
On the Galaxy’s pressure throughout the game:
“You can’t take one play off with those guys because they will punish you. Coming into the game we knew that one of the ways they score a lot of their goals is a lot of crosses, set pieces, and corner kicks, so we knew anytime the ball went out of play for a freekick, corner, or even a throw in, we had to raise our energy level. It really comes down to communication, when we are all on the same page and are tight, we are tough to break down.”
On his 82nd minute save from Juninho:
“Yes, he really hit that one pretty good. It was moving and I was lucky to get a big enough piece of it to put it over. The whole team really put in a great performance today, it wasn’t always pretty, I am sure when we watch the tape we maybe could have kept it at times a little bit more, but when you are in the game you got to do what you got to do to win and I think we really grinded it out today.
New York Red Bulls Midfielder Joel Lindpere
On his goal:
“I actually don’t really remember, I think I passed it to Solli and he has some space, I ran with him and he passed it back to me. I took the first touch and a little bit unlucky second touch, I had to make it quick because I saw players coming so I tried to chip it in. It was too many touches in a short time but that is what it’s all about, being ready to use these chances against good teams. It was a great attack and a good finish.”
On his team’s play in midfield:
“The second game in a row with zero behind, and a win is a win whether it is 5-0 or 1-0, it is still three points. I think a tough 1-0 win feels better though, it was a great team effort for the second game in a row, definitely a team win.”
On starting in central midfield as opposed to his usual spot on the left:
“I like to play in the middle because you can be more involved with the ball, and I know myself, the more I get the ball the more confidence I get. I will play where I need to play, if we have healthy guys in the middle then I probably need to move back to the left, but the most important part to me is to play. If I feel fit and healthy, I just want to play.”
