LA Galaxy 1, Real Salt Lake 4
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Rio Tinto Stadium – Sandy, Utah
Scoring Summary:
RSL – Andy Williams 1 (Paolo Araujo Jr. 1, Javier Morales 2) 2’
RSL – Javier Morales 1 (Penalty Kick) 10’
RSL – Javier Morales 2 (Chris Wingert 1) 41’
RSL – Paulo Araujo Jr. 1 (Fabian Espindola 1) 68’
LA – Juan Pablo Angel 1 (David Beckham 1) 79
Misconduct Summary:
LA – Josh Saunders (Yellow Card) 9’
LA – David Beckham (Yellow Card) 53’
LA – Miguel Lopez (Yellow Card) 54’
LA – Leonardo (Yellow Card) 74’
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Josh Saunders; Sean Franklin, A.J. DeLaGarza, Leonardo, Todd Dunivant; Chris Birchall, David Beckham© (Bryan Jordan 88’), Juninho, Michael Stephens (Paolo Cardozo 58’); Chad Barrett (Miguel Lopez 46’), Juan Pablo Angel.
Subs Not Used: Brian Perk, Frankie Hejduk, Jovan Kirovski, Mike Magee.
Real Salt Lake: Nick Rimando; Robbie Russell (Tony Beltran 63’), Jamison Olave, Nat Borchers, Chris Wingert; Kyle Beckerman©, Andy Williams (Collen Warner 69’), Ned Grabavoy, Javier Morales; Paulo Araujo Jr. (Luis Gil 77’), Fabian Espindola.
Subs Not Used: Kyle Reynish, Chris Schuler, Jean Alexandre, Conor Chinn.
Notes:
- With the loss, the Galaxy are now 1-1-1 on the season, leaving them with four points. After leading the Western Conference throughout the 2010 season en route to winning the Supporters’ Shield, the Galaxy are now in second place, two points behind RSL and one point ahead of both Vancouver and Colorado, who plays Chivas USA later tonight at The Home Depot Center.
- The Galaxy played without captain Landon Donovan, who was in action with the U.S. National Team earlier in the day in a friendly against Argentina. That game finished 1-1 at New Meadowlands Stadium in New Jersey. A Donovan freekick in the second half helped to set up the equalizing tally for the U.S.
- In Donovan’s absence, David Beckham wore the captain’s armband for the Galaxy. This was his first time serving as the club’s captain since the final game of the 2008 campaign.
- The Galaxy were once again without Gregg Berhalter, Adam Cristman, Omar Gonzalez, Dan Keat and Donovan Ricketts, who all missed the game through injury and did not travel to Utah.
- After using the same starting XI for the first two games of the season, Bruce Arena made two changes to his team for tonight’s game. Juan Pablo Angel and Michael Stephens each made their first start of the season for LA, replacing Landon Donovan and Mike Magee, who started the game on the bench.
- Additionally, Miguel Lopez returned to the 18-man squad meaning that only 19 different players have dressed for the club’s three games this season.
- Josh Saunders made his third consecutive start of the season in place of the injured Ricketts. This was the second time in Saunders’ MLS career that he had started three consecutive games, with the first coming in 2008 when he made his first three appearances for the club while still on loan from Miami FC of the USL First Division.
- For the second straight game, the Galaxy were behind 1-0 inside the opening five minutes with Andy Williams scoring in the 2nd minute to give Real a 1-0 lead.
- Javier Morales doubled that lead in the 10th minute with his first goal of the year from the penalty spot. That goal was set up by a foul in the box by Josh Saunders on Paulo Araujo Jr. Saunders was booked on the play.
- Saunders became the first Galaxy goalkeeper to be booked in an MLS regular season game since Donovan Ricketts was on August 19, 2009 in a 2-0 win at Chicago.
- Prior to tonight’s game, the last time that the Galaxy had given up two goals in the opening 10 minutes was on August 1, 2010 in a 3-2 loss at home to the Chicago Fire.
- That was also the last time that the Galaxy allowed three goals in the first half before tonight.
- Morales gave RSL a 3-0 lead in the 41st minute with his second goal of the game. That goal was the first one allowed by the Galaxy from outside the box this season.
- Morales also became the first player to score two goals in a regular season game against the Galaxy since Jeff Cunningham did so for FC Dallas on September 12, 2009.
- Miguel Lopez entered the game at halftime, replacing Chad Barrett up front, to make his MLS debut. He was booked nine minutes after entering the game.
- The Galaxy fell behind 4-0 in the 68th minute when Paolo Araujo Jr. scored his first goal of the season. The last time the Galaxy gave up four goals or more in an MLS game was September 12, 2009 in a 6-3 loss to FC Dallas, though they did give up four in the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League Preliminary Round series against the Puerto Rico Islanders at The Home Depot Center on July 27, 2010, a game that finished 4-1 in favor of the visitors.
- This was also the Galaxy’s first loss by three goals or more since those two dates.
- The Galaxy cut the RSL lead to 4-1 in the 79th minute when Juan Pablo Angel scored his first goal for the club, redirecting home a David Beckham freekick. Beckham was credited with an assist on the goal.
- Beckham exited the game in the 88th minute and was replaced by Bryan Jordan. He gave the captain’s armband to Juan Pablo Angel.
- Juninho did not score in the game for LA, snapping his streak of three consecutive regular season games with a goal dating back to the final game of the 2010 regular season.
- A season-high four players were booked for LA while nobody was booked by referee Jair Marrufo for RSL.
- The Galaxy are now 6-7-5 all-time against Real Salt Lake, including 1-4-4 on the road and 0-2-1 at Rio Tinto Stadium.
- The attendance for today’s game, which was Real’s home opener, was a sellout crowd of 20,507. This was a new record home crowd for RSL at Rio Tinto Stadium.
- The Galaxy are back in action next Saturday, April 2 when they host the 2-0-0 Philadelphia Union at The Home Depot Center. The game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and can be seen live on FOX Sports West starting with the Galaxy Live pregame show at 7 p.m.
