LA Galaxy 1, Houston Dynamo 2
Saturday, May 26, 2012
BBVA Compass Stadium – Houston, Texas
Scoring Summary:
LA – Edson Buddle 2 (Chad Barrett 3, David Beckham 4) 10’
HOU – Own Goal (Mike Magee) 38’
HOU – Andre Hainault 2 (Brad Davis 2) 58’
Misconduct Summary:
LA – Michael Stephens (Yellow Card) 47’
LA – Bryan Gaul (Yellow Card) 59’
HOU – Je-Vaughn Watson (Yellow Card) 86’
LA – Mike Magee (Yellow Card) 92+
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Brian Perk; Sean Franklin, A.J. DeLaGarza, Bryan Gaul (David Junior Lopes 84’), Todd Dunivant; Bryan Jordan, Kenney Walker (Michael Stephens 46’), David Beckham©, Mike Magee; Chad Barrett (Pat Noonan 72’), Edson Buddle.
Subs Not Used: Bill Gaudette, Leonardo, Kyle Nakazawa, Marcelo Sarvas.
Houston Dynamo: Tally Hall; Andre Hainault, Bobby Boswell, Jermaine Taylor, Corey Ashe; Adam Moffat, Calen Carr (Colin Clark 75’), Je-Vaughn Watson, Brad Davis (Luiz Camargo 84’); Will Bruin, Brian Ching© (Macoumba Kandji 72’).
Subs Not Used: Tyler Deric, Warren Creavalle, Nathan Sturgis, Alex Dixon.
Referee: Silviu Petrescu
Referee’s Assistants: George Gansner and Adam Garner
4th Official: Jasen Anno
Notes:
- With the loss, the Galaxy are now 3-8-2 on the season for 11 points. They remain in last place in the Western Conference, one point behind Portland and two points behind FC Dallas.
- The Galaxy are now winless in their last seven games, going 0-5-2 in that time while being outscored 11-5. This is LA’s longest winless streak since a club record 12 game winless streak during the 2008 season.
- Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made two changes to the team that lost 3-2 at home to San Jose on Wednesday night. Bryan Jordan returned to the starting lineup in place of the suspended Hector Jimenez while Kenney Walker made his first start of the season, replacing the injured Juninho.
- For Walker, this was his MLS debut while Juninho missed his first game of the season.
- In addition to Juninho, the Galaxy were also without Andrew Boyens, Adam Cristman, Omar Gonzalez and Dan Keat because of injury. Boyens, Cristman and Gonzalez are all on the Disabled List.
- With the changes, the Galaxy have now made at least one change to their starting lineup in every game that they have played this season. In only one of those games did LA make fewer than two changes.
- Josh Saunders missed his seventh straight game while completing the MLS Substance Abuse and Behavioral Health program, though he did rejoin the club in training earlier this week.
- Edson Buddle scored his second goal of the season in the 10th minute, beating Tally Hall from eight yards out to make the score 1-0 in favor of the Galaxy.
- This was Buddle’s first goal since he scored LA’s first goal of the season in the season opening 3-1 loss to Real Salt Lake.
- Buddle had not scored in his previous 10 games before today. That was his longest stretch of games without a goal in his career with the Galaxy.
- Chad Barrett and David Beckham were each credited with an assist on the goal. Beckham now has a team-best four assists while Barrett is second with three.
- Beckham now has 35 assists in the regular season since joining the Galaxy in 2007.
- Bryan Jordan, who was making his first start of the season in midfield, appeared to give the Galaxy a 2-0 lead in the 29th minute but he was ruled offside.
- The Dynamo equalized in the 38th minute from a Mike Magee own goal. Brian Ching’s shot hit the crossbar, only for the rebound to deflect off Magee and into the net, tying the score at 1-1.
- Magee’s own goal was his first since joining the Galaxy and the club’s second this season.
- Both own goals scored by LA have cancelled out Edson Buddle goals and led to a Galaxy loss. On March 10, Buddle gave his team a 1-0 lead at home against Real Salt Lake only for Sean Franklin to score an own goal two minutes later and RSL went on to win 3-1.
- The Dynamo took a 2-1 lead in the 57th minute when Andre Hainault headed home a Brad Davis corner kick.
- This was the second straight game in which the Galaxy had conceded a second half goal directly from a corner.
- This was the third time this season and the second time this week that the Galaxy have lost despite scoring the game’s first goal. They are now 2-3-0 on the season when scoring first. In 2011, LA were 16-0-4 when scoring first.
- This was the first time in their last three games that the Galaxy did not concede a penalty kick or have a player sent off.
- Michael Stephens, who came on at halftime in place of Kenney Walker, was shown his first yellow card of the season in the 47th minute while Bryan Gaul was shown his second yellow card in as many games in the 59th minute and Mike Magee was given one in second half stoppage time.
- Playing at BBVA Compass Stadium for the first time ever, the Galaxy are now 16-16-7 in their first-ever game at a stadium, including 1-2-0 their first time playing at stadiums in Houston.
- The Galaxy have now given up at least one goal in each of their 13 regular season games this year.
- In 13 games, the Galaxy have allowed 21 goals, just seven fewer than they allowed all last season.
- Sean Franklin once again played the full 90 minutes for the Galaxy. He has started all 15 games that the Galaxy have played this season in all competitions and has played every minute of the club’s 13 regular season games. He is the only player on the club’s roster to do both.
- Mike Magee also started the game and he has appeared in every game that the Galaxy have played this season in all competitions.
- With Kenney Walker starting the game, only Rafael Garcia, Omar Gonzalez, Leonardo, Jack McBean and Jose Villarreal have not started or appeared in a game during the regular season.
- The Galaxy wore their blue secondary uniforms for the first time this season.
- LA are now 1-3-1 on the season in games that start before 6 p.m.
- The attendance for today’s game was a sellout of 22,039 at BBVA Compass Stadium.
- The Galaxy are back in action on Tuesday night when they travel to Cary, N.C. to face the NASL’s Carolina RailHawks at WakeMed Soccer Park in the Third Round of the U.S. Open Cup. That game kicks off at 4 p.m. (PT) and can be heard live right here on LAGalaxy.com.
- After today’s game, the Galaxy do not have another MLS regular season game until Sunday, June 17 when they host the Portland Timbers.
Quotes:
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH BRUCE ARENA
Thoughts on the match
“We weren’t stepping up the field too much. We were trying to conserve our energy. We knew they would be a dangerous team on set pieces.”
Thoughts on the goals
“Today, the two goals were a result of a set piece. It happened the other night against San Jose. Given the circumstances of the heat and travel and the two games in a short period of time, our guys gave a good effort. It was a little demanding on them and certainly the heat was a factor. It was a slow game and a sloppy game and it’s difficult to play under these conditions.”
Thoughts on the heat
“The pace of the game changed because of the conditions. The players are not able to play at a high pace under these conditions for a long time. No one is made to play in this heat for 90 minutes.”
LA GALAXY MIDFIELDER MIKE MAGEE
Thoughts on the match
“It’s definitely not easy but we had a good effort tonight. They kept their heads in it and we made a few mistakes that cost us the game.”
Thoughts on it being a rematch of last year’s MLS Cup
“This is a rematch of last year’s MLS Cup so I’m sure that weighed heavily on their minds. They obviously played like they had a chip on their shoulder.”
Thoughts on missing Landon Donovan
“We are not worried about missing guys. In the past we have had a lot of success in games when we have missed players. We need to get in that mindset that no matter who steps on the field, they will step up and do their role.”
LA GALAXY DEFENDER AJ DELAGARZA
Thoughts on the match
“I think they only had two real chances and they scored off set pieces. We did a nice job on their dangerous crosses.”
Thoughts on the past few matches
“When you look at the own goal, balls are just dropping against us. We are doing things right but just not getting results.”
DYNAMO HEAD COACH DOMINIC KINNEAR
Thoughts on the match
“It’s hot out there. I give credit to the guys for plugging away and it was a great goal by Andre [Hainault]. We were a little bit lucky to get back in the game but we had some good chances after they scored their first goal and deserved to not be down going into halftime. It was a great ball by Brad [Davis] and Andre attacked it well.”
On getting through this busy stretch of games
“I told the guys to take this busy period one game at a time. Three points is what we came here for and three points is what we got. There were some teams from the Eastern Conference that won Wednesday and put some pressure on us. We can’t sit around, we have to try and move forward and three points is something that’ll make guys happy and help us out a ton.”
Thoughts on the heat
“I think we got a little weary as well. We started turning the ball over a little easier. In the first half, the ball movement was very good. We were running in behind and Je-Vaughn [Watson] was very active. It’s hard to have possession if there’s no movement off the ball.”
“This is a game where three subs probably wasn’t enough. Guys were getting tired and sometimes when they’re playing tired their mind gets tired and they stop moving. Without sharp movement off the ball, it’ll hurt us more than help us. I was trying to get guys to keep playing forward. Sometimes you’re asking them to do something that, physically, is impossible.”
DYNAMO GOALKEEPER TALLY HALL
Thoughts on the goal
“It’s a good run by Chad Barrett. If you watch video on him he makes smart plays and Edson Buddle got on the end of it. Maybe I could have come out but other than that I don’t think we were broken down much. We worked harder than the other team and we deserved three points.”
Thoughts on missing Geoff Cameron
“The team is deep enough that we can move players in and out. Geoff is a big player for us but he is out and we have to fill the gaps. I think we did an awesome job with the guys on the field. There was no different mentality going out there. We just needed to go out and get three points.”
DYNAMO MIDFIELDER BRAD DAVIS
Thoughts on the match
“We have a young team. Last year, we didn’t move the ball as well as we are this year. I think the maturity of this group shows. There are a lot of young guys here, but we are starting to understand each other and get into a groove. Once we got the lead, we were composed. We settled down, moved the ball and made them chase the game. I think that showed a lot of maturity.”
DYNAMO DEFENDER BOBBY BOSWELL
Thoughts on missing Geoff Cameron
“Geoff is definitely a talented guy. He makes some big plays for us in the back and it’s hard to replace him, but we have a deep team with guys waiting to prove what they can do. I thought Jermaine [Taylor] did awesome today.“
Thoughts on the defensive performance
“There were a couple plays early on where we were disjointed and gave up the early goal. I thought we settled in nicely and defended well. Jermaine came up with big plays, everyone else did their job and at the end of the day all you look at is wins and losses and we won.”
Thoughts on the heat
“Everyone knew before the game it was going to be hot. We heard [the Galaxy] grumbling in warmups and you could see it as the game went on that they were dying. There is no way to get used to it; nothing you can do to prepare, unless you train in a sauna everyday. We were a little more used to it and I think it showed down the stretch.”
“We always say, at home it’s a 90-minute game and over those 90 minutes in that heat, we are the only team still working that hard at the end. That is what you are seeing in those last three home games and hopefully we can keep that going.”
