LA Galaxy 0, Seattle Sounders FC 2
Wednesday, May 2 2012
CenturyLink Field – Seattle, Wash.
Scoring Summary:
SEA – Eddie Johnson 2 (Mauro Rosales 1) 40’
SEA – Fredy Montero 1 (Osvaldo Alonso 1) 48’
Misconduct Summary:
LA – Marcelo Sarvas (Yellow Card) 34’
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Bill Gaudette; Bryan Jordan (Pat Noonan 71’), A.J. DeLaGarza, David Junior Lopes, Bryan Gaul; Sean Franklin, Marcelo Sarvas, Juninho, Landon Donovan©; Chad Barrett (Mike Magee 58’), Adam Cristman (Edson Buddle 53’).
Subs Not Used: Brian Rowe, Tommy Meyer, Michael Stephens, Kyle Nakazawa.
Seattle Sounders FC: Michael Gspurning (Bryan Meredith 46’); Zach Scott, Jeff Parke, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Leo Gonzalez; Osvaldo Alonso, Mauro Rosales© (March Burch 74’), Brad Evans, David Estrada; Fredy Montero, Eddie Johnson (Alex Caskey 81’).
Subs Not Used: Adam Johansson, Andy Rose, Christian Sivebaek, Sammy Ochoa.
Referee: Hilario Grajeda
Referee’s Assistants: Paul Scott and Peter Balciunas
4th Official: Tyler Ploeger
NOTES:
- With the loss, the Galaxy are now 3-4-1 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.
- The loss snapped LA’s three-game unbeaten streak and was their first loss since a 1-0 defeat at Sporting Kansas City on April 7.
- LA are now 1-2-0 on the road this season and this was their first-ever regular season loss at Seattle.
- The Galaxy had been 2-0-1 in their first three road meetings with the Sounders
- Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made five changes to the team that draw 1-1 with FC Dallas at The Home Depot Center on Saturday night. Adam Cristman, Bryan Gaul and Bryan Jordan each made their first start of the season while Chad Barrett and Marcelo Sarvas each returned to the starting lineup. They replaced David Beckham, Edson Buddle, Todd Dunivant, Robbie Keane and Mike Magee. Beckham, Dunivant and Keane all remained in Southern California to rest ahead of Saturday’s game against the Red Bulls while Buddle and Magee each began the game on the bench before coming on as second half substitutes.
- They were joined on the bench by MLS League Pool Goalkeeper Brian Rowe, who was called up due to the unavailability of Josh Saunders and the injury to Brian Perk.
- In addition to Perk, the Galaxy were once against without Omar Gonzalez and Leonardo who are each on the club’s Disabled List.
- Bryan Gaul made his MLS debut in the game while Bryan Jordan made his first appearance of the season and Adam Cristman made his first start of the year.
- Eddie Johnson gave Seattle a 1-0 lead in the 40th minute with his second goal in as many games for Seattle. The goal came on Seattle’s eighth and final shot of the first half and was their fourth on goal. LA have five shots, but with just one on goal.
- That goal was the first conceded by LA on the road against Seattle since the 22nd minute of their 1-1 draw in May 2009, snapping a streak of 288 minutes without allowing a goal here. In that time, the Galaxy had scored six times.
- Fredy Montero doubled the Sounders’ lead early in the first half with his first goal of the season.
- Bill Gaudette finished the game with three saves as he was making his second start of the year for the club.
- Prior to tonight’s game, the Galaxy had conceded just one goal in each of their previous four games.
- This was the second time LA has been shutout this season.
- For the fifth time in their eight 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 eight regular season games this year. Last year they had four clean sheets in their first eight games of the year.
- The Galaxy finished the game with just one shot on goal. They now have one shot on goal or less in two of their three road games this year.
- With Dunivant and Keane each missing the game, Sean Franklin is now the only player to have started all eight regular season games that the club has played this season as well as the only player to start all 10 games that the club has played in all competitions.
- Marcelo Sarvas was shown his first yellow card of the season in the 34th minute.
- The attendance for tonight’s game was a sellout crowd of 39,002 at CenturyLink Field, making it Seattle’s second biggest crowd of the season.
- The Galaxy will be back in action on Saturday, May 5 when they host the New York Red Bulls at The Home Depot Center. That game will kick off at 5 p.m. (PT) and can be seen live on ESPN and ESPN Deportes.
- The team will return to Southern California on Thursday and train at The Home Depot Center on Friday ahead of the game against New York.
QUOTES:
Bruce Arena - LA Galaxy Head Coach
On the result...
“Give Seattle credit. In a span of about eight minutes we lost the game. We would have liked to go into halftime even and put a little pressure on them after the half but we weren’t able to do it. I think we struggled technically in the final third with getting some crosses in front of the goal. We weren’t able to get enough shots in. Seattle played very well tonight.”
On not using the whole roster...
“I think it’s a difficult week with the travel and playing on this surface. We wanted to keep some players fresh for the game on Saturday. That’s the decision I made. We didn’t think we were going to be able to play eleven players in three games and we had to rotate some players. It made sense to me to have those players available on Saturday.”
On the performance of Goalkeeper Bill Gaudette...
“I thought he did well. The second goal was a tremendous goal and we didn’t do a good job marking on the first goal, give them credit for getting it.”
On the rest of the season...
“There are a lot of games left and a lot of things are going to happen. We have to position ourselves to win some games.”
Pat Noonan - LA Galaxy Forward
On being back...
“It wasn’t too strange, it was good to be back. The crowd was entertaining as always. Unfortunately for us, it didn’t end how we would have liked.”
On seeing former teammates...
“A quick ‘Hello’ and ‘How are you doing?’, then kick them around a little bit but unfortunately they kicked us around a little more than we did them and they got the result.”
Bill Gaudette - LA Galaxy Goalkeeper
On the result...
“We didn’t get the result we were looking for so obviously that’s a negative. They’re a tough team and this is tough place to play. There were some bright spots for us and we’re going to work on what need to for Saturday. We will get back to work tomorrow.”
On Fredy Montero’s goal...
“He is a good player. Anytime you give goal scorers the opportunity to strike the ball... he did it well. As a keeper I feel like I can get everything, I’d like to have it back just so I could try again. Heck of a goal: good spot and good placement... same with (Eddie Johnson’s goal) anytime you give someone time in the box they’re going to score goals. It was unfortunate that we weren’t able to put one or two on the board but the boys played well. Like I said, we are going to move on to Saturday night right away.”
On positives to take away from the game...
“The ability to keep the ball in certain aspects of the game. If we were just able to keep it a little more we could have struck them out. Final third we did better, defensively we’ll get back to work and watch the video. We obviously want to get the result in every game but this is a tough place to play. We’re excited to get back to work on Saturday night.”
Landon Donovan - LA Galaxy Midfielder
On the result...
“I thought overall we were OK. We did enough to put them under pressure to score goals. The goal before the half took some momentum away then the goal after the half really saps you so... disappointing night but we have to move on.”
On not using the whole roster...
“Historically we’ve done well here with a mix of lineups and personnel. We had a chance at the beginning of halftime to get something out of the game. That being said, this is a long season with a number of older players who have played a lot of games. When you combine the turf and traveling home it becomes pretty difficult. Those are the decisions that were made. We had enough guys here to get the job done, we just couldn’t do it.”
On the rest of season...
“We can’t keep saying it’s early. We’ve gotten better, there’s no question, but we have to keep improving. While we’re improving we have to start getting points. Saturday is a game that’s very important now and we have to get points out of it. Everybody knows that the West is a lot stronger than the East and it will get very difficult as the year goes on so we’ve got to start making our move or else we will find ourselves in a bad place.
