LA Galaxy 1, FC Dallas 0
Saturday, July 28, 2012
FC Dallas Stadium – Frisco, Texas
Scoring Summary:
LA – Mike Magee 4 (Robbie Keane 6) 62’
Misconduct Summary:
LA – A.J. DeLaGarza (Yellow Card) 65’
LA – Marcelo Sarvas (Yellow Card) 68’
FCD – George John (Yellow Card) 89’
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Josh Saunders; A.J. DeLaGarza, Omar Gonzalez, David Junior Lopes, Bryan Gaul; Sean Franklin, Juninho, Marcelo Sarvas, Hector Jimenez (Michael Stephens 78’); Mike Magee (Jose Villarreal 69’), Robbie Keane©.
Subs Not Used: Brian Perk, Tommy Meyer, Bryan Jordan, Kenney Walker, Pat Noonan.
FC Dallas: Kevin Hartman; Zach Loyd, Hernan Petruz, Matt Hedges (George John 46’), Jair Benitez; Daniel Hernandez© (Julian De Guzman 79’), Andrew Jacobson, Jackson, David Ferreira, Carlos Rodriguez (Fabian Castillo 46’); Scott Sealy.
Subs Not Used: Chris Seitz, James Marcelin, Victor Ulloa, Ruben Luna.
Referee: Hilario Grajeda
Referee’s Assistants: Peter Manikowski and Eric Proctor
4th Official: Armando Villarreal
Notes:
- With the win, the Galaxy are now 10-10-3 on the season for 33 points. They remain in fifth place in the Western Conference, one point behind Seattle who also won tonight, beating Colorado 2-1, and Vancouver who are tied for third with 34 points each.
- The Galaxy are the seventh team in MLS this season to reach 10 wins with Houston accomplishing the feat a few hours earlier.
- LA now have as many wins as losses on the season for the first time since April 28 when they were 3-3-1 for 10 points.
- The Galaxy are now unbeaten in their last five games, going 4-0-1 in that time for their longest unbeaten streak of the season.
- LA finished July with a 4-1-1 record for 13 points, making it their best month of the season.
- Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made two changes to the side that beat Chivas USA in their last league game on July 21 with Omar Gonzalez and Mike Magee each returning to the starting lineup. They replaced David Beckham, who missed the game in order to fulfill Olympic commitments in London, and Landon Donovan who was suspended for yellow card accumulation.
- This was the first start since July 4 for both Gonzalez and Magee, though each played in Tuesday’s friendly with Tottenham Hotspur.
- Donovan was missing a game through suspension for the first time in his Galaxy career.
- In addition to Beckham and Donovan, the Galaxy were once again without Andrew Boyens, Edson Buddle, Todd Dunivant, Dan Keat, Leonardo and Kyle Nakazawa who all missed the game because of injuries.
- Pat Noonan started the game on the bench after missing each of the last nine games with a right quad strain.
- The game was scoreless at halftime. It was the first time that the Galaxy entered halftime of a game tied 0-0 since June 17 when they beat Portland 1-0.
- This was just the fifth time this season that LA have been tied 0-0 at the half. They went on to score first in three of those and are now 1-2-1 in those games.
- Mike Magee gave the Galaxy a 1-0 lead in the 62nd minute with his fourth goal of the season and fifth in all competitions
- Of his five goals, four have been scored on the road while all four goals in the league have come against Western Conference opponents.
- In four career games for LA at FC Dallas Stadium, Magee has two goals, each of which were game-winners in 1-0 victories.
- Robbie Keane was credited with the lone assist on the goal. He now has six assists on the season.
- Keane finished the month of July with five goals and four assists while playing in all six of LA’s games in the month.
- Keane now has a goal or an assist in all three games that he has started this season as the club’s captain and in six of the eight games that he has played since returning from the European Championships, including five of six this month.
- Josh Saunders finished the game with one save for his fourth shutout of the season and his 10th victory.
- Saunders joins Jorge Campos, Kevin Hartman and Donovan Ricketts as the only goalkeepers to win 10 or more games for the club in consecutive seasons.
- Saunders and the Galaxy now have four shutouts on the season, two of which have come on the road. Those two games are also the only two road games that both David Beckham and Landon Donovan did not start.
- Omar Gonzalez played the full 90 minutes in central defense for LA. This was the first time since MLS Cup 2011 in November that he played a full 90 minutes.
- David Junior Lopes was not shown a yellow card in the game, meaning that if he is not booked in his next game, he will have one yellow card cleared from his record.
- Despite neither David Beckham nor Landon Donovan playing in tonight’s game, the Galaxy’s three Designated Players finished the month with 11 goals and 11 assists.
- Jose Villarreal made the longest appearance of his MLS career, replacing Mike Magee in the 69th minute and playing the final 21 minutes.
- This was just the fifth time this season that a Galaxy game ended 1-0. They are 2-3-0 in those matches, though they have won each of the last two.
- The attendance for today’s game was a sellout crowd of 22,565. The Galaxy have now played in front of a sellout crowd for all 12 of their away games this season, while also seeing capacity crowds in their road games at Toronto FC in the CONCACAF Champions League and against the Carolina RailHawks in the Third Round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
- The Galaxy will be back at The Home Depot Center on Thursday, August 2 when they host Real Madrid in a friendly at The Home Depot Center as part of the Herbalife World Football Challenge. That game will kick off at 7:30 p.m. and can be seen live on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes as well as online at ESPN3.com.
- The club returns to MLS action on Sunday, August 5 when they travel north to face Seattle Sounders FC at CenturyLink Field. That game will kick off at 6 p.m. and will be shown live on ESPN2 and SPN Deportes.
Quotes:
LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena
General thoughts on the game...
It was a good result for our team tonight, you know. We’ve played awfully well over the last month, so we’re getting ourselves in good shape, making good progress.
On playing without Beckham and Donovan:
That’s all part of it. Issues we deal with all the time, so it’s not an excuse. [FC Dallas] played the LA Galaxy tonight, so that’s whatever 11 shirts are on the field. It’s the Galaxy and you always miss players, so that’s all part of the challenge.
On the play of Robbie Keane and Mike Magee...
It was okay. Obviously, the goal was big. In the first half they were pretty dangerous. You know they did a good job. No question about it.
On the return of Omar Gonzalez and his play...
Remarkable. We thought he wouldn’t quite make it to 90 minutes, so it was a good week for him. From 65 minutes from him Tuesday against Tottenham [Hotspur] and 90 minutes tonight, so he’s well on the road to recovery.
On the team’s defensive effort...
The guys did well. We just did well. They hit a lot of crosses. And you know when we have two big centerbacks and big goalkeeper in there.. It’s a little bit easier for us when we haven’t had that situation this year. In a lot of ways those are balls that, you know that fall in our favor. It’s a good effort. [Bryan] Gaul had another good game and A.J. DeLaGarza continues to play well in midfield. [Sean] Franklin played well at right midfield and [Robbie] Keane’s leadership was critically important for us tonight.
LA Galaxy forward Mike Magee
General thoughts on the game...
It’s huge. Obviously missing [David] Beckham and Landon [Donovan] always makes it difficult and then coming into this heat on the road. You know it shows a lot and speaks volumes about the kind of team we’ve turned into the last few weeks.
On his goal...
Robbie [Keane] and I were looking to do a one-two or he was looking to do a one-two with me and the defender kind of backed off of me and I took my look.
On scoring in Dallas...
My Under-17 National Team head coach, John Ellinger, is the assistant coach here. Sometimes, when I play here I get up for the game a little bit more than I’m used to. Being that he kind of kick-started my career. Yeah, but I like scoring big goals, always.
LA Galaxy forward Robbie Keane
On playing with Mike Magee...
It was good. Mikey is a clever player. He picks up good positions and he’s easy to play with because he’s got good feet. It was a great finish on his goal.
On other missed chances...
Yeah. We had quite a few chances, unlucky a few times. We got one cleared off the line. But when you’re away from home it’s important to get the win. It’s ways nice to get the three points. I think we deserved it because we were certainly the better team.
LA Galaxy defender Omar Gonzalez
On playing the full 90 minutes...
I didn’t think I’d come back after the first half because it was so hot and I had cotton mouth the whole time, but I’m happy I did get through it. I know I was fit enough to get through it and we’d already made two subs. I knew that I was going to have to push through it and I’m happy to get through it for the team, I’m happy to get the three points and happy to get the shutout.
On playing in his home state...
I really wanted to play well here. Especially because I had so many friends and family here. They were behind me throughout the whole surgery and all the rehab. I’m happy I got to play here and do well. It was a good step and a good step in the right direction.
On the play of the defense...
We had good shape the whole game. We didn’t really sit back. We actually put a lot of pressure on them. We actually got around [David] Ferreira and we got around [Andrew] Jacobson and didn’t really allow them to do much of anything. We brought the game to them and played really good soccer.
