Saturday, June 7, 2008

Galaxy Move Back Into First Place; Defeat Rapids 3-2

LA Galaxy 3, Colorado Rapids 2
June 7, 2008
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.

Scoring Summary:
LA – Alvaro Pires 1 (Unassisted) 4’
LA – Edson Buddle 5 (Abel Xavier 1) 32’
LA – Ely Allen 1 (Peter Vagenas 1, Edson Buddle 1) 50’
COL – Colin Clark 2 (Omar Cummings 2) 73’
COL – Herculez Gomez 1 (Unassisted) 82’

Misconduct Summary:
COL – Christian Gomez (Yellow Card) 33’
LA – Alan Gordon (Red Card) 44’
COL – Facundo Erpen (Red Card) 44’
COL – Preston Burpo (Yellow Card) 56’

Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Steve Cronin, Mike Randolph, Sean Franklin, Abel Xavier, Chris Klein, Alvaro Pires, Peter Vagenas (Ante Jazic 68’), Ely Allen (Joe Franchino 65’), David Beckham©, Alan Gordon (Sent Off 44’), Edson Buddle (Carlos Ruiz 59’).

Subs Not Used: Josh Wicks, Troy Roberts, Greg Vanney, Brandon McDonald.

Colorado Rapids: Preston Burpo, Ugo Ihemelu, Facundo Erpen© (Sent Off 44’), Rafael Gomes (Herculez Gomez 77’), Jordan Harvey, Nick LaBrocca, Colin Clark, Jacob Peterson (Mehdi Ballouchy 46’), Christian Gomez, Conor Casey (Omar Cummings 60’), Tom McManus
.
Subs Not Used: Chris Sharpe, Kosuke Kimura, Stephen Keel, Terry Cooke.
Notes:
· With the win, the Galaxy improve to 5-4-2 on the season for 17 points, moving them to first place in the Western Conference, two points ahead of second place Colorado who entered the night in first place with 15 points.
· Tonight’s game was played on the five-year anniversary of the first-ever game at The Home Depot Center. On that day, June 7, 2003, Carlos Ruiz scored twice in a 2-0 Galaxy win over the Rapids.
· By scoring three goals tonight, the Galaxy have now scored two or more goals in six of their seven home games in MLS play this season.
· Alvaro Pires’ goal in the 4th minute was the first of his MLS career. He signed with the Galaxy in March and has appeared in seven regular season games so far this season, starting all seven.
· Pires’ goal is the earliest that the Galaxy have scored this season, breaking the past mark for the earliest goal from David Beckham, who scored in the 9th minute of the 2-0 win over San Jose on April 3. The last time that the Galaxy scored a goal earlier than the 4th minute was on June17, 2007 when Nate Jaqua scored in the 3rd minute of a 3-2 win over Real Salt Lake.
· Edson Buddle’s goal in the 32nd minute was his fifth of the season, with all five coming in the last four league games. Buddle joined the Galaxy in June 2007 and tallied five goals in 16 games for LA last season. His career high for goals in a year is 11, set in 2004 as a member of the Columbus Crew.
· Ely Allen scored the first goal of his MLS career in the 50th minute of the game. He is the seventh different Galaxy player to score this season, with the club also scoring once via an own goal.
· Allen and Pires each scored the first goal of their MLS careers in this game. The last time that two different Galaxy players scored their first career MLS goals in the same game was on April 3, 2004 when Andreas Herzog and Jovan Kirovski each scored in a 3-2 win over New England.
· The Galaxy’s Alan Gordon and Facundo Erpen of Colorado were each sent off just before halftime, forcing both sides to play the entire second half with 10 men.
· Ely Allen, David Beckham, Peter Vagenas and Abel Xavier were all back in the starting lineup after missing the 2-0 loss to Toronto FC last weekend.
· Edson Buddle left the game in the 59th minute with a left thigh contusion and was replaced by Carlos Ruiz.
· Peter Vagenas left the game in 68th minute with a right quad injury. He was replaced by Ante Jazic who was making his first appearance of the 2008 MLS season after undergoing major ankle surgery in December.
· The Galaxy are back in action on Saturday, June 14 when they travel north to San Jose for the first time this season to take on the Earthquakes. The match will be played at McAfee Coliseum in Oakland with kickoff slated for 7 p.m. Fox Soccer Channel will have all of the action live, starting with the MLS Saturday pregame show at 6:30 p.m. The match will also be available live on the radio starting at 7 p.m. on both AM 570 (English) and ESPN Deportes Radio 1330 KWKW (Spanish).

8 comments:

charlesj27 said...

Our LA Galaxy team did such an amazing job in winning balls, tunr-overs, maintaining such awesome posession. Then you may be asking, how come the socre is 3 - 2. And, not 3 - 0. Yes, that's the question that I'm sure Ruud will have to keep harping on and breaking into the guys.
It's so good to have David Beckham back with us - YES!!! YES!!! David is such a talented, hard-working professional!!! He played his "darn behind" off today - and, fans - this coming back from National Team Duty!!! My hats off to him and hands and feet both are trying to clap!!! David, Chris, Alvaro, Sean, Abel, and Mikey worked very hard for us today. Hey, does anybody know if Mikey was injured or may have pulled something during training sessions this week... Mikey was too tired in the second half. This was one reason why Colorado was able to come back & score. The main reason was that Fernando Clavijo brought in Omar Cummings and Hercules Gomez is the 2nd Half... and, then the tides were starting to turn in the favor of Colorado. Their tenacity, their speed, their weaving around our slower midfielders and defenders... came back to bite our rumps!!! Plus, Steve seemed to have an off-night... Sorry, Steve like I said earlier - it takes at least... at least a full year-and-a-half before a STARTING GOAL-KEEPER gets his instincts, prowess, and timing down correctly.
Sorry to hear and see that Alan got a Red-Card tonight... but, we can thank our lucky stars that one of Colorado's got a Red-Card also!!! So, when it became a 10-on-10 game for us... guess what happened when Fernado Clavijo put in two very fast forwards. YEP - they began to find spaces, and get break-outs... plus Colorado did very well in applying some SERIOUS PRESSURE & HEAT in the second half after it became 10-v-10!
Once again, members of our team got caught up in the craziness and LOST FOCUS, SHARPNESS, DETERMINATION, DRIVE, & QUICKNESS! This is why we still keep getting dooped and scored on... Think about it - would our team stand a chance against much faster, speedier, grittier teams like New England and Chicago. Is it any reason why they're the leaders in the Conference?

charlesj27 said...

David Beckham tried so hard for our team - to drive our team - to spark our team players to dig in and score some more... to walk away from tonight with a score line of 4 - 0 or 5 - 1. But alas, there are members on our Galaxy team team that just don't get it! They don't have the same GRIT, HUNGER, EMOTION, COMPETITIVE FEVER like David or Alvaro, or Chris, or Joey... and, this is something that Head Coach Ruud, Alexi Lalas, and Tim Liweke must, must see, take notes, and be prepared to address, demand, and change. Because without making some necessary changes we (our LA Galaxy) is NOT... I repeat NOT going to get to MLS Cup 2008. So do what needs to be done... what has to be done... some players are just not cut out to be competitve, hungry, driven MLS Champions. Our LA Galaxy needs to be driven, hungry, tough, controlled, attacking, with every intention of winning and to keep it there!!!
Love this sport - GO GALAXY!!!

Anonymous said...

Vote for David Beckham!
David Beckham has again been named as one of 10 players nominated for the annual Golden Foot award. The award is presented to footballers over the age of 29 who have excelled on the pitch and who have earned the esteem of fans and football experts alike. The final decision as to the winner is made by fans. To support Becks please on Golden Foot.com . You don't need to register to vote just select the second option to vote free and give Becks your support

Anonymous said...

I didn't get to see the game, but Colorado had to wear the shorts of Chivas? Oh, man!

Game against San Jose at McAfee Coliseum next week? What are they expecting up there in terms of attendance? Anyone know? Should be a nice turnout.

Anonymous said...

Allen needs to work on his goal celebration. His "for the ladies at the pubs" dance was weak. Funny, but needs work.

Anonymous said...

At first, Ely's dance was kinda weird, but then after seeing it over and over again during replays, it became quite sexy. hehehehe. :)

KQ949 said...

As a member of the female persuasion, that was FAR from sexy! I bet he's a lonely guy!

Anonymous said...

mckenzie.-

I read somewhere that more than 20,000 tickets had been sold for the LA-SJ game.

Jorge