LA Galaxy 2, Real Salt Lake 1
Saturday, October 1, 2011
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.
Scoring Summary:
RSL – Fabian Espindola 10 (Javier Morales 3) 45’
LA – Chad Barrett 6 (David Beckham 15) 59’
LA – Own Goal (Nat Borchers) 72’
Misconduct Summary:
RSL – Fabian Espindola (Yellow Card) 38’
LA – Omar Gonzalez (Yellow Card) 40’
LA – Paolo Cardozo (Yellow Card) 43’
RSL – Ned Grabavoy (Yellow Card) 49+
RSL – Javier Morales (Yellow Card) 48’
RSL – Yordany Alvarez (Yellow Card) 57’
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Josh Saunders; Bryan Jordan, A.J. DeLaGarza, Omar Gonzalez, Todd Dunivant; Paolo Cardozo, Juninho, David Beckham, Landon Donovan© (Michael Stephens 89’); Robbie Keane (Jovan Kirovski 91+), Chad Barrett (Adam Cristman 73’).
Subs Not Used: Brian Perk, Frankie Hejduk, Hector Jimenez, Miguel Lopez.
Real Salt Lake: Nick Rimando; Chris Wingert, Jamison Olave, Nat Borchers, Chris Schuler; Yordany Alvarez (Andy Williams 74’), Ned Grabavoy, Will Johnson, Javier Morales (Collen Warner 80’); Fabian Espindola (Paulo Araujo Jr. 65’), Alvaro Saborio.
Subs Not Used: Tim Melia, Rauwshan McKenzine, Arturo Alvarez, Luis Gil.
Referee: Kevin Stott
Referee’s Assistants: Adam Wienckowski and Brian Poeschel
4th Official: Ramon Hernandez
Notes:
- With the win, the Galaxy are now 18-3-10 on the season, giving them a league-best 64 points. They remain in first place in the Western Conference, seven points ahead of Seattle who beat New England 2-1 on the road earlier today.
- With 64 points, the Galaxy have now tied the 2005 San Jose Earthquakes for the second most points in MLS history.
- Real Salt Lake are now 13 points behind the Galaxy with three games left, meaning that they have been eliminated from contention for the Supporters’ Shield.
- The Galaxy can now clinch the Supporters’ Shield with a win in any of their final three games of the season.
- The Galaxy remain the only MLS team that is unbeaten at home this season. They are 11-0-5 at home this season. If they get a win or a draw in their final home regular season game, against Chivas USA on October 16, LA will become just the third team in MLS history to go undefeated at home over the course of an entire season.
- Dating back to the end of the 2010 season, the Galaxy have now gone unbeaten in 17 consecutive regular season games at home, tying a club record.
- In all competitions this season, the Galaxy are 15-0-5 at home.
- With the victory, the Galaxy split the season series with RSL, having lost to them on March 26 at Rio Tinto Stadium.
- Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made five changes to the team that beat Columbus 1-0 in their last league game on September 24 at Crew Stadium. David Beckham, Chad Barrett, Landon Donovan, Todd Dunivant, Bryan Jordan and Robbie Keane all returned to the starting lineup. They replaced Chris Birchall, Adam Cristman, Frankie Hejduk, Miguel Lopez and Michael Stephens. Of those five, four were available off the bench with only Birchall not in the lineup because of a right hamstring strain.
- Of the 11 players that started tonight, seven started in Wednesday night’s 2-1 win over Morelia in the CONCACAF Champions League. Only David Beckham, Bryan Jordan and Robbie Keane started tonight after not starting in that one. They replaced Adam Cristman, Frankie Hejduk, Mike Magee and Michael Stephens.
- In addition to Birchall, the Galaxy were once again without Sean Alvarado, Gregg Berhalter, Sean Franklin, Leonardo, Mike Magee and Donovan Ricketts who each missed the game through injury.
- The Galaxy fell behind 1-0 just before halftime when Fabian Espindola scored from a Javier Morales corner kick. That was the first goal that the Galaxy had allowed in a home MLS game since August 6, snapping a string of 396 minutes at home without surrendering a goal.
- The goal also snapped the club’s 315 minute stretch of not allowing a goal in the league.
- The Galaxy trailed at the half for just the third time this season and the first at home. They are now 1-2-0 in those three games.
- Chad Barrett scored his second goal in as many games in the league, tying the score at 1-1 in the 59th minute. That was his sixth goal of the season, moving him into second place on the team.
- Of Barrett’s six goals, this was just the second to come in a home game. He also scored in the 3-0 win over Portland on April 23. He has scored four times on the road this year, scoring in Chicago, Colorado, Columbus and Chivas USA.
- He now has 40 regular season goals in his MLS career.
- David Beckham collected his MLS-best 15th assist of the season on that goal. He is now just two assists away from tying Mauricio Cienfuegos’ club record of 17 assists, which he set in 1999.
- Beckham is one assist shy of matching Landon Donovan’s MLS-best 16 assists from last year, which is tied for the second most in club history.
- The Galaxy got the game-winning goal in the 72nd minute from a Nat Borchers own goal.
- That was the second own goal scored for the Galaxy this year and the first since June 18 when Drew Moor’s own goal gave the Galaxy a 1-0 lead in Chicago.
- The Galaxy have now won each of their last four game’s in which an own goal was scored in their favor.
- Each of the last seven own goals scored for the Galaxy have come against Western Conference teams.
- Josh Saunders finished the game with three saves and allowed just the one goal, keeping his goals against average below 1.00 at 0.99. That is the second best in MLS behind only Donovan Ricketts, who is on pace to record the lowest GAA in MLS history at 0.49.
- Todd Dunivant played his 30th regular season game of the year, doing so for the second time as a member of the Galaxy and the third time in his career.
- The Galaxy have now allowed the first goal at home five times this year, though they are 3-0-2 in those matches.
- Landon Donovan played the 255th game of his MLS career tonight
- Josh Saunders made four saves to keep his seventh clean sheet in the league this season and his ninth in all competition.
- Referee Kevin Stott called a total of 40 fouls in the game, which is the most in a Galaxy game this year.
- Omar Gonzalez, who was playing the 85th game of his MLS career, was shown his fourth yellow card of the season late in the first half of tonight’s game. If he is shown a yellow card in any of his next three games this year he will be forced to serve a one-game suspension, though that only relates to MLS regular season games and does not carry over into the postseason.
- Paolo Cardozo was shown his first yellow card of he year late in the first half. He was playing in his 15th game of the year.
- The attendance for tonight’s game was a sellout of 27,000 at The Home Depot Center. That was the club’s fifth home sellout of the season.
- The Galaxy will fly to New York tomorrow ahead of their return to action on Tuesday, October 4 when they face the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena. That game will kick off at 5 p.m. and will be shown live on ESPN2 and ESPN Deportes.
- For more about tonight’s game, please check out all the news on www.lagalaxy.com.
QUOTES
LA Galaxy Head Coach Bruce Arena
On the result:
“I thought it was a good game by two good teams. It was nice to have our team really challenged to come from behind. They weren't the prettiest of goals. We were aggressive. We kept our composure. It's obviously a really good win for our team.”
On Chad Barrett:
“He had a good 70 minutes. He missed up to two months, I guess. We've been moving him back, but tonight he got better as the game went on. The goal was good for us.”
On the team's start:
“I thought we had a really good start, personally, that is what I thought. It was pretty good. We took control of the game. The last 10 minutes of the half Salt Lake picked it up a little bit. Give them credit for the good goal off the corner kick. They really made the second half challenging for us. I think once we got the first goal I felt confident that somehow we would manage to get a second. We didn't make or create enough chances. I think we were a little hesitant to pull the trigger. We had a few opportunities outside the penalty area to shoot the ball that we didn't do. I thought that we had good energy; I thought we had good rhythm, and we were taking the game to them. Like I said, I think the last 10 minutes of the half, Salt Lake played well, put us under a little pressure. Our biggest problem of the night was giving them too many attacking restarts. That's where their chances came in the first half. We need to be a little bit better. They are a good team physically, so we didn't want to get into too many of those situations, but unfortunately we did towards the end.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder David Beckham
On if the physical nature of the game surprised him:
“I think it was always going to be like that. We are two good teams, two good teams that want to win, and two good teams with a lot of history. There are some good players on their team. It was always going to be a chippy game. Obviously, coming back from a one goal deficit was a good thing for us. We need to continue to fight back when he have a chance.”
On tonight’s win:
“It’s difficult this time of the season because there are a lot of games. You’re tired and you start seeing it and sometimes that can affect teams. We were one-nil down at the end of the first half and that was disappointing. We came in here we knew that we were passing the ball around well and we knew that we would get chances, it was just about putting them away. There were a few in the first half that we obviously didn’t put away and they did. But today was a tough game. They are a tough team, they are well organized, and they have good players throughout their team. It was a difficult game but our character showed and it was an important win.”
LA Galaxy Midfielder Landon Donovan
On coming back from a one goal deficit:
“I think that’s important and that’s good. It was a good team we did it against, a good defensive team we did it against. I think when you continue to put that kind of pressure on a team, on the backline, you would hope that eventually you are going to break them down and a couple of them did and our guys made different plays to help score goals.”
On Chad Barrett stepping up:
“Credit to him for just sticking out there, he was being shielded by a big guy and somehow he got a toe to it and made a play. When you’ve got a number of guys on your team that can make plays it makes a difference. We were missing Mike [Magee] tonight. Robbie [Keane] and myself didn’t really make any big plays to make a difference, but when you have other guys that can do that it really helps your team.”
LA Galaxy Forward Chad Barrett
On his goal:
“I talked to Beckham and told him that if he would send it up the field that I would start running and it worked out that way. He played a really nice ball into me. I kind of let it run and kind of surprised Jamison [Olave] just a little bit, but he did well to put his body in front of me. I found some space between him and [Nick] Rimando and I saw the opportunity and put my toe in there and his hands were down so I just tried to put it through. I actually didn’t know that it came back out. I saw it go in and I started celebrating and they were like, ‘You know it came back out right?’ and I said it doesn’t matter.”
On his performance:
"Personally, I just want to get back to the basics of what I was doing. I think that I was trying too hard. I felt I had to finesse stuff and get back to my grind— work hard, hit people, just stuff I like to do. I know if I put in the energy I know I am contagious and hope that the team feeds off me."
LA Galaxy Defender Todd Dunivant
On getting closer to winning the Supporters’ Shield:
“Seattle won tonight, but we keep winning and they are not catching us. So, that’s good. And that’s probably a little discouraging from their standpoint, they are playing great. Between Seattle, Dallas and Salt Lake, these are all good teams and anything can happen come playoff time.”
On getting to 64 points:
“It’s good. It’s been a good season. But our eyes are kind of focused on the postseason. We obviously want to close out the Supporters’ Shield and advance in CONCACAF, but once we do that, we know that the big prize in where you make your living in this league is in the playoffs.”
On the rivalry with Salt Lake:
“I think the rivalry is as good as ever. I think they took it to us in the first matchup of the season, I think it was the third game, and they crushed it at their place and they were playing at the top of their game at that time. We had an off night and they had a big result, as you saw. So, yeah, this is a rivalry. They beat us in the Cup in penalties and it’s been a good rivalry. We’ve probably been the best two teams over the last couple of years. We like the way they play and I think they respect us. So, it’s been a good rivalry.”
Real Salt Lake Head Coach Jason Kreis
On the team’s performance:
“Obviously we didn’t lose by 3 or 4 goals. I wanted improvement, I wanted a collective team effort and I wanted a team that showed a little bit more discipline, more difficult to break down than we have been in the last two games and we got all that. We didn’t get the result that I had hoped for but we got a lot of hard work from the guys and we got a lot of sense of improvement.”
On tonight’s game:
“Tonight we stretched LA to their wits end. They are the best team in the league. They have the most points for a reason and I think we gave them a pretty difficult challenge tonight so I am pleased.”
Real Salt Lake Nick Rimando
On tonight’s game:
“We expected a good game. We came in here and I thought we played well in the first half and even the second half. I think we did some stupid fouls we weren’t supposed to. We got an own goal from [Nat] Borchers and a goal that if [Chad] Barrett would have hit a hundred times he is not going to hit it again. One that I think we are there to make the play and we just don’t and he gets a foot on it and goes in. All in all it was a great atmosphere I thought we played well and it was a good reaction from the last game we played. We just have to keep our heads up and keep dragging along.”
Real Salt Lake Defender Nat Borchers
On tonight’s game:
“We are disappointed obviously. We wanted come here and get a shutout and at least come away with a point. I thought in the first half we did pretty well we controlled the ball and capitalized on the one chance we had. In the second half two lapses in concentration cost us the game.”
On the own goal:
“The ball just came in very quickly and I wish I would have dealt with it better. I think that [Todd] Dunivant did really well to hit across the goal and I just saw it late and couldn’t do anything about it.”
Real Salt Lake Forward Fabian Espindola
[Translated from Spanish]
On his goal:
“First there was a missed opportunity by [Alvaro] Saborio off a corner that went through the whole penalty area but it got blocked and we were awarded another corner kick. In the second corner [Javier] Morales hits it well, the ball started to dip at the near post and I headed it toward the far post.”
