Sunday, October 26, 2008

Season Ends With 2-2 Draw; Landon Wins Golden Boot

LA Galaxy 2, FC Dallas 2
October 26, 2008
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.

Scoring Summary:
LA – Edson Buddle 15 (David Beckham 10, Eddie Lewis 2) 21’
FCD – Drew Moor 2 (Adrian Serioux 4) 34’
FCD – Victor Sikora 1 (Duilio Davino 1) 39’
LA – Landon Donovan 20 (Penalty Kick) 79’

Misconduct Summary:
LA – Edson Buddle (Yellow Card) 4’
FCD – Aaron Pitchkolan (Yellow Card) 28’
LA – Alvaro Pires (Red Card) 40’
LA – David Beckham (Yellow Card) 42’
FCD – Adrian Serioux (Yellow Card) 42’
FCD – Aaron Pitchkolan (Red Card, Second Yellow) 49’
FCD – Dario Sala (Yellow Card) 92+

Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Josh Wicks, Mike Randolph, Sean Franklin, Julian Valentin (Bryan Jordan 54’), Chris Klein, Alvaro Pires, Eddie Lewis, David Beckham©, Landon Donovan, Alan Gordon (Brandon McDonald 46’, Greg Vanney 93+), Edson Buddle.

Subs Not Used: Steve Cronin, Ante Jazic, Troy Roberts, Josh Tudela

FC Dallas: Dario Sala, Drew Moor, Duilio Davino, Aaron Pitchkolan, Blake Wagner, Adrian Serioux (Michael Dello-Russo 67’), Bobby Rhine© (Chase Wileman 58’), Bruno Guarda, Victor Sikora (Andre Rocha 64’), Kenny Cooper, Jeff Cunningham.

Subs Not Used: Ray Burse, Eric Avila, Jamie Watson, Dominic Oduro.

Notes:
· With the draw, the Galaxy finish the season 8-13-9 leaving them in sixth place in the Western Conference with 33 points. The Galaxy finish ahead of San Jose, who were also 8-13-9, on a tiebreaker as a result of their better record in head-to-head matches.
· Bruce Arena made six changes to the starting XI from last weekend’s 3-0 loss at Houston. Josh Wicks, Julian Valentin, Mike Randolph, Alvaro Pires, David Beckham and Alan Gordon were brought into the lineup, replacing Josh Saunders, Troy Roberts, Greg Vanney, Brandon McDonald, Bryan Jordan and Joe Franchino.
· With his 79th minute penalty kick, Landon Donovan became just the third 20-goal scorer in Galaxy history, joining Eduardo Hurtado (21 goals in 1996) and Carlos Ruiz (24 goals in 2002).
· Donovan’s goal also insured him the 2008 Budweiser Golden Boot as the top goalscorer in MLS. He entered the game one goal ahead of FC Dallas forward Kenny Cooper, who did not score on the day. Donovan joins Carlos Ruiz as the only MLS top goalscorer in Galaxy history. Ruiz had an MLS best 24 goals in 2002 and was then the joint-top-scorer in 2003 with 15 goals.
· Edson Buddle’s goal in the 21st minute was his career-best 15th of the season, with four of those goals coming against FC Dallas. Buddle and Landon Donovan became the first teammates in MLS history since 2001 to each score 15+ goals in a season. Back then it was Diego Serna and Alex Pineda Chacon of the Miami Fusion who accomplished the feat. Prior to today, Cobi Jones and Welton were the only Galaxy players to each score 15 goals in a season, tallying 19 and 17 respectively in 1998.
· David Beckham’s assist on Edson Buddle’s goal was his 10th of the season. He is now the sixth different player in club history to record 10 or more assists in a season, joining Mauricio Cienfuegos (1996-1999) Landon Donovan (2005 and 2007), Simon Elliott (2001-02), Cobi Jones (1998, 2001-02) and Martin Machon (1998).
· The game marked the final game in the MLS career of defender Greg Vanney, who announced prior to the game that he will retire at the end of this season. Vanney finishes his 10-year MLS career with 270 career regular season games played, with 193 of those games coming as a member of the Galaxy. This season in played in 25 games, making 24 starts.
· Alvaro Pires was sent off in the 40th minute of the game for a foul on Victor Sikora. It was the first red card to a Galaxy player since Alan Gordon was sent off in the 3-2 home win over Colorado on June 7.
· FC Dallas defender Aaron Pitchkolan was also sent off in the game. It was the first time since that June 7 game against Colorado that both the Galaxy and their opposition had a player sent off. On that day, it was Alan Gordon and Facundo Erpen who were each sent off just before halftime.
· Mike Randolph played his 20th game of the season, setting a new career-high for games played. It was also his 15th start of the year, tying a career-high that was set in 2007.
· The Galaxy finished the season 6-0-5 when scoring the first goal of the year compared to 2-13-4 when allowing the first goal of the game.
· The Galaxy will enter the season with the No. 3 pick in the 2009 MLS SuperDraft. The only other time that the Galaxy picked third or better in a SuperDraft (or College Draft as it was formerly called) was in 2004 when the club selected forward Joseph Ngwenya.
· The attendance for tonight’s game was a sellout of 27,000. The Galaxy finished the season with eight consecutive sellouts and 11 in 15 regular season home games in 2008.
· The Galaxy finished the season with an average crowd of 26,009, which is their highest since 1996 when the club played at the Rose Bowl. The 26,009 average attendance marked a 96.3% capacity for Galaxy home games this season.
· For more about tonight’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Okay this nightmare of a season is over. FInally! Come on Bruce & Dave! Don't winp out! Don't be puppets! Start handing out verdicts & pink-slips to the slow, the lethargic, the lazy, the mediocre, and the unresponsive. LA Galaxy has to pluck, pry, and rake out the team members who only talk the big talk; but, can't put it all out there during practices, scrimmages, MLS games, and reserve games. Start clearing space NOW!!! I hope to high heaven that Paul Bravo has been getting and penning in several candidates for trials and training. Don't sit back and wait. Act NOW!!! We need more quality! We need more depth and passion!!!

Anonymous said...

What player could have possibly done better than Sean Franklin for rookie of the year. You got it in my book Sean......!

Anonymous said...

You know there may be a reason, but as I read through the breakdown of the game I notice that Greg Vanney played in 25 games this year, starting 24. Why didn't he start this last game of his career? He was put in for a minute and a half.....