CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy will complete their season-long three-game road trip this week with a pair of games against Toronto FC (5 p.m. PT, DirectKick, MatchDay Live) and the Chicago Fire (1 p.m. PT, Telefutura, FOX Sports West - delayed, 3 p.m.). LA claimed a point in the first game of the trip with a 1-1 draw at RFK Stadium against D.C. United on Saturday night. Mike Magee scored early for the Galaxy to give them a 1-0 lead that they nearly held until the end, only for United to score a late goal courtesy of a penalty kick to take a share of the points.
Earlier today the team traveled to Toronto, Canada for Wednesday night’s game against Toronto FC. The Galaxy are unbeaten in their last two trips to BMO Field, winning there 2-1 in 2009 and playing to a 0-0 draw in 2010. Wednesday night’s game will be available only through the MLS DirectKick television package and MatchDay Live on MLSSoccer.com. In the LA area, the game will be available on the radio in Spanish on ESPN Deportes Radio 1330 AM and in English online at lagalaxy.com.
Following Wednesday’s game in Toronto, the team will travel to Chicago to complete the three-game trip against the Fire at TOYOTA Park. The Galaxy have not lost there since 2008, winning 2-0 in 2009 and earning a 1-1 draw last season on Omar Gonzalez’s equalizer in second half stoppage time. This game, which kicks off at 1 p.m. (PT), will be shown live nationally on Telefutura and locally on tape delay, starting with Galaxy Live at 2:30 p.m. on FOX Sports West. ESPN Deportes Radio and KTLK 1150 AM will also carry the game live on the radio in Spanish and English respectively.
INJURY REPORT
OUT – Gregg Berhalter (Left MCL – Sprain), Adam Cristman (Left Knee – Surgery)
DOUBTFUL – None
QUESTIONABLE – Landon Donovan (Right Knee – Inflammation), Hector Jimenez (Right Wrist – Surgery)
PROBABLE – None
TEAM NOTES
FIRST FOR MAGEE: Making his first start of the season in midfield, Mike Magee scored his first goal of the season in the 12th minute of the 1-1 draw at D.C. United on Saturday. Magee headed home a David Beckham corner kick, giving LA a 1-0 lead, for his first goal in the league since May 2010.
Since joining the Galaxy prior to the start of the 2009 season, Magee has scored four regular season goals for LA, with all of them coming on the road. In 2009, Magee scored in a draw at Real Salt Lake and in a win at Chicago before tallying the game’s only goal in a 1-0 win at FC Dallas for his only goal of the season. The 26-year-old also added two postseason goals in 2009, scoring in the first leg of the Western Conference Semifinal Series against Chivas USA, a game in which LA were the road team, and then again in MLS Cup against Real Salt Lake.
FIVE STRAIGHT: For the fifth straight game to open the season, the Galaxy scored exactly one goal. The last time the club scored the same amount of goals in five consecutive games was May 6, 2006 through May 31, 2006 when they were shutout in five straight games, going 0-5-0 in those matches. Prior to the start of this season, the last time the club scored exactly one goal on five straight games was at the end of the 2002 season and into the start of the 2003 campaign. LA won their last two games of 2002, beating San Jose 1-0 in each before opening the 2003 season with three consecutive 1-1 draws.
In their five games, the Galaxy are outshooting their opponents 52-43 and have 20 shots on goal while allowing 18. They have recorded at least 10 shots in each of the first five games of the year and are 1-0-2 in the three games (vs. New England, vs. Philadelphia and at D.C. United) that they have outshot their opponent compared to 1-1-0 in the games in which they have been outshot.
FROM THE SPOT: Charlie Davies’ 90th minute penalty kick for D.C. United was the second penalty conceded by the Galaxy this season, having also been called for one early in the 4-1 loss at Real Salt Lake on March 26. With Davies’ penalty, the Galaxy have already conceded more penalty kicks this season than they did in all of 2010. In 30 regular season games last year, LA allowed just one penalty, which came in New York’s 2-0 win at The Home Depot Center on September 24, with Juan Pablo Angel beating Donovan Ricketts from the spot for his team’s second goal of the game.
LA is now nearly halfway to tying the single season club record for penalties allowed in a season with six, a mark that was last equaled in 2009.
ONE BACK, ONE OUT: After being suspended for the game against United, Chris Birchall will be available for selection on Wednesday night in Toronto. Birchall started each of the first four games of the season before being sent off in the 53rd minute of the 1-0 win over Philadelphia on April 2. However, the Galaxy will be without Jovan Kirovski against Toronto, with the veteran midfielder being sent off shortly after the final whistle against D.C. on Saturday night. Kirovski, who has made three appearances for the Galaxy this season had never been sent off in MLS before Saturday’s game.
With the red cards for Birchall and Kirovski, the Galaxy have already eclipsed their number of red cards from 2010 when they had just one player sent off.
ON WARNING: While Kirovski is suspended for Wednesday night’s game against Toronto FC, David Beckham is eligible to play, though he is on official warning with MLS after collecting his league-high fourth yellow card of the season on Saturday night. Beckham, who has never been booked more than six times in a season with the Galaxy, will earn a mandatory one-game ban if he is booked in any of the club’s next three games. If Beckham, who was booked against Seattle, Real Salt Lake, Philadelphia and D.C. United so far this season, does not get a yellow card in any of these next three games, he will have one card expunged from his record, leaving him with three cautions and two away from a suspension.
In 2010, only two Galaxy players were suspended for yellow card accumulation with Omar Gonzalez forced to sit out two different games during the season and Chris Birchall missing one. In those three games, the Galaxy had an 0-2-1 record with the team losing at New England and at home against New York when Gonzalez was suspended and drawing 1-1 in Chicago without Birchall.
WITHOUT THE CAPTAIN: For the first time since the Galaxy’s trip to Toronto in 2008, Landon Donovan missed a game through injury, missing the 1-1 draw with D.C. United as a precautionary measure after taking a knock on his right knee in the 1-0 win over Philadelphia on April 2. As a result of the injury, Donovan did not accompany the team to Washington D.C. Since the start of the 2009 season, Donovan has missed 12 regular season games for the Galaxy, with each of the first 11 coming as a result of international duty or scheduled rest following time with the National Team. In those 12 games, the Galaxy have a 6-4-2 record, including a 3-3-2 mark on the road.
LA GALAXY YOUTH ACADEMY
GALAXY ACADEMY TEAMS FALL IN FIRST HOME GAMES OF 2011: Playing their first home games of the year, the LA Galaxy U-16 and U-18 teams each dropped 2-1 decisions to Arsenal FC at The Home Depot Center on Sunday afternoon.
Forward Alan Rovira scored the lone goal for the U-18’s while Justin Dhillon was the one to put the ball in the back of the net for the U-16’s.
The U-18 are now 10-5-1 this season, including a 3-2-1 mark in SoCal Division games while the U-16’s are 13-2-1 in all competitions this season, including a 4-2-0 record in SoCal Division games.
Both teams are back in action on at The Home Depot Center this Sunday, April 17 against Real So Cal, another SoCal Division rival. The U-18’s game kicks off at 1 p.m., while the U-16’s will play at 3:30 p.m. Both games will be played on Field #5 at The Home Depot Center and admission to the games is free.
SIX BROUGHT IN TO TRAINING: With the most of the first team on the road as part in the middle of a three-game, 10-day road trip, six players from the Academy have been brought in to train with the players who remained behind at The Home Depot Center. Goalkeepers Adam Zepeda, Vince Paladino; defenders Buddy Rodriguez, and Matthew Tilley and midfielders Alan Rovira, Riley Wolfe and Juan Mendoza have been training along with the rest of the squad that did not travel under the direction of Gregg Berhalter and will continue to do so through the end of the week.
NEED TO KNOW
LOOKING FOR MORE UPDATES?: If you are looking for continuous updates from the Galaxy all week long, be sure to visit the club’s official websites www.lagalaxy.com and www.lagalaxyfutbol.com. The Galaxy can also be followed on Twitter at www.twitter.com/lagalaxy and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/lagalaxy.
