LA Galaxy 2, Colorado Rapids 3
April 4, 2009
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.
Scoring Summary:
COL – Conor Casey 1 (Omar Cummings 1, Ugo Ihemelu 1) 1’
LA – Omar Gonzalez 1 (Landon Donovan 1) 37’
LA – Alan Gordon 1 (Landon Donovan 2, Sean Franklin 1) 48’
COL – Conor Casey 2 (Omar Cummings 2) 49’
COL – Conor Casey 3 (Colin Clark 2) 84’
Misconduct Summary:
COL – Cory Gibbs (Yellow Card) 46+
LA – Dema Kovalenko (Red Card) 59’
COL – Conor Casey (Yellow Card) 63’
COL – Mehdi Ballouchy (Yellow Card) 66’
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Josh Saunders, Eddie Lewis (A.J. DeLaGarza 77’), Tony Sanneh, Omar Gonzalez, Sean Franklin, Josh Tudela, Dema Kovalenko (Sent Off 59’), Kyle Patterson (Stefani Miglioranzi 62’), Chris Klein, Alan Gordon (Bryan Jordan 82’), Landon Donovan©.
Subs Not Used: Miguel Benetiz, Yohance Marshall, Gregg Berhalter, Jovan Kirovski.
Colorado Rapids: Preston Burpo, Kosuke Kimura, Cory Gibbs (Ty Harden 88’), Ugo Ihemelu, Jordan Harvey, Pablo Mastroeni© (Terry Cooke 68’), Nick LaBrocca, Mehdi Ballouchy (Jacob Peterson 80’), Colin Clark, Conor Casey, Omar Cummings.
Subs Not Used: Steward Ceus, Greg Dalby, Ivan Guerrero, Ross Schunk.
Notes:
· With the loss, the Galaxy are now 0-1-1 on the season, leaving them with one point. They are remain tied for sixth place in the Western Conference with Houston, eight points behind the leaders Seattle, who have nine points from three games this year.
· Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made three changes to his lineup from the season opener on March 22. Eddie Lewis returned from injury to play left back in place of A.J. DeLaGarza, Kyle Patterson started on the left side of midfield, replacing Mike Magee and Alan Gordon started up front in place of Jovan Kirovski. Both DeLaGarza and Kirovski were on the bench, while Magee missed the game through injury.
· Joining Magee in missing the game through injury were Edson Buddle, Todd Dunivant and Donovan Ricketts.
· Conor Casey’s goal came after just 16 seconds, making it the fastest goal ever allowed by the Galaxy. Prior to tonight, the fastest goal allowed by LA came on June 7, 1998 when New England’s Johnny Torres scored just 32 seconds into a 5-1 Galaxy win at the Rose Bowl.
· Omar Gonzalez’s goal in the 37th minute was the first of his MLS career.
· Gonzlaez is the third different Galaxy rookie to score his first career goal against the Rapids in the last three games between the two clubs. Ely Allen scored his first goal as a pro in a 3-2 win over Colorado on June 7, 2008 and Brandon McDonald scored his first goal as a pro for the Galaxy against Colorado on October 12, 2008.
· Alan Gordon scored his first goal of the season in the 48th minute.
· Sean Franklin assisted on Gordon’s goal for his first assist of the season and the second of his MLS career. Both assists have come at home against the Rapids.
· Landon Donovan assisted on both Galaxy goals for his first multi-assist game since May 18, 2008 in a 5-1 win over FC Dallas.
· The Galaxy now have four goals on the season, with Donovan involved in all four. He scored both goals in the season opener against D.C. United and assisted on both goals today.
· Conor Casey’s hat trick was the first allowed by the Galaxy since September 4, 2004 when Ross Paule scored three times in a 3-1 Columbus win over LA. Casey, Paul and Mamadou Diallo are the only three players in MLS history to have registered a hat trick against the Galaxy, with Diallo twice scoring four goals in a game against LA.
· Dema Kovalenko became the first Galaxy player to be sent off this season when he was shown a red card in the 59th minute. The red card, the sixth of his MLS career, forced LA to play with 10 men for the final 31 minutes of the game and means Kovalenko is suspended for the Galaxy’s game against Chivas USA on April 11. Kovalenko is also suspended for Tuesday’s Open Cup Play-In Game against Colorado after being shown a red card in his last Open Cup game, a loss to Columbus last year when he played for Real Salt Lake.
· Kyle Patterson made the first start of his MLS career, playing on the left side of midfield.
· Stefani Miglioranzi made his 2009 debut, coming on in the 62nd minute for Patterson.
· Neither goalkeeper made a save in the match, making this just the second time in MLS history that neither team recorded a save. The only other time it happened was on May 18, 2005 when Real Salt Lake beat Chivas USA 2-0.
· The attendance for today’s game was 16,709.
· The Galaxy are back in action on Tuesday night in a U.S. Open Cup Play-In Game against the Rapids. They then return to MLS action on Saturday night in the first Honda SuperClasico of the year against Chivas USA in a game that will be shown live on ESPN2 at 7:30 p.m.
· For more about this afternoon’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Conor Casey Hat Trick Sinks the Galaxy to 3-2 Defeat
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
Gosh this team SUCKS!!!! I pray Donovan gets an offer overseas along with Becks because this team is seriously beneath them. Where the heck was the team defense that Bruce has been preaching about? As for Klein, can someone get him a new pair of legs for the old man. Seriously instead of picking up more old legs like Berhalter, why can't we find some young experienced talent like Montero out of Seattle or Hurtado, or the Cuban guy they got from USL Charlotte!!! I'm sooo losing my patience with this team!!! I've supported you for so long, but I think that if this crap you produce on the field continues, I'll just have to hang my supporter scarf and wait till next year!!! Get it together already!!! Seriously!!!
Let's say some things that need to be said...
The changes that Arena has brought to this team, are largely failures. It might seem harsh to say this after two games, but I think there are some real conclusions that can be reached:
For example:
Sanneh -Omar is not a good enough central defense tandom. There both a step slow. Sanneh cause he's old, Omar cause he's just slow. If he's going to thrive as a pro he's going to need to become a better positonal player.
i'm not convinced that Franklin is a good right back. Yes, nice assist, but he's made more positional and defensive errors in two games at right back then all last season at central defender.
Klein is useless. Two straight horrible empty uniform performances from him. It was wrong that Klein was not removed from this game particularly when jordan came on. Miglorazi is not a player that will improve our midfield.
Dema is a reckless player and he lost this game for us. That was 100% a legit red card and was so uncessary. I like having Dema on the field but tonight it killed us.
Our starting midfield would lose to most USL teams.
Donovan is our only exciting player. Stop Donovan, beat the Galaxy every time. Even sadder, Donovan can get 2 goals or 2 assists against you and you can still beat the Galaxy.
Saunders was awful.
The stadium looked empty. You reap what you sow AEG.
We are by far the worst team in MLS. It's not that surprising when you consider what we have on the field.
This is a league where you can rapidly improve if you have a brain and spend some money. We have not been smart with what we've done.
What a BS red card. It happened right in front of us, it did not look that bad. Which leads me to my point that the officials sucked tonight. One linesman did not know when to call offside, and the other did all the time. The ref was awful, I don't know what game he was watching. A 10 year old girl sitting near me said she could not believe how bad he was!
I forgot, our midfield was horrible. I hope the rumors of the kid from Costa Rica are true. I'll take him on a loan.
I wouldn't be so negative... I was sitting in the 110 section with a better view. Omar did fine, de la garza is a bust. 80% of Lewis is better than 100% of AJ.
Benitez should have replaced Saunders. He looked hurt or slow to react.
I think playing down a man cost us the game.
Robdog
By the way, the audio for Galaxy Deportivo is horrible but I guess that is a problem more directed towards channel 22. It's a great show to watch A.J. and Omar shine in front of the camera. I don't know how Elmer Polanco and Alejandro Navarro can keep a straight face week after week seeing how we consistently keep dropping points.
We have made several bad decisions over the past years by letting some of our most promising player go. The worst part is when they come back to the HDC and score against us. We let go Herculez Gomez, Robbie Findley, Brandon McDonald, Ugo Ihemelu, Ty Harden, and for what? Tired old legs. These players were going to be our building block towards becoming a competitive team. Hopefully we don't repeat the same mistakes. It is no wonder why Sean Franklin was hoping it would be Chivas USA that drafted him.
Galaxy are taking "lame" and "expensive" to a whole new level.
The Galaxy attack changed completely when Donovan was put into the midfield. He is the Galaxy's best player and putting him as a striker up top is a bad decision because it limits his touches. Putting him on the left was great because he added some stability to a weak midfield while still having those explosive runs forward that are hard for defenses to deal with. Miglioranzi is junk, and did not impress me at all. As for Sanneh, i get scared every time he touches the ball. His reactions are really slow, and a get an ache in my stomach(similar to what used to happen with Xavier) when attackers, or even just the ball approaches him. I am a big fan of Franklin, and I think he has potential to be a great right back(we saw a flash on that run he made leading to the second goal) however until his ball control is better he should not be playing so high up. While in attack he had very clumsy ball control and lost the ball numerous times, leading to many odd man rushes, and at least one goal. He is a great CB, however the verdict is still out on RB.
I think Klein is a class act, and plays with a lot of heart, however at his age, i think he looks much more comfortable at right back then he does at right mid. He drifted out of the game for long periods of time, and was almost completely ineffective, and nonthreatening on that flank, which then allowed the rapids to shrink the field.
Now onto the stiker problem. Alan Gordon is not a good player. Yes he did score last night, however it was a tap in that was set up by two great plays. His control is not where it should be, his passing is sloppy, and his ability to play with his back towards goal is not good. It is because of this that I am very confused as to why he keeps getting substantial minutes. When watching the panpacific championship games this offseason i was very hopeful of the changes the galaxy made, because their movement was great, defense was much better than last year, and their attack was good. I think a big part of that attack is Jovan Kirovski. He would receive the ball up the field, and hold it, allowing his team to press forward, then would pass it off and become involved in the attack. He would wait for players and not just try and press forward losing the ball immediately. I can't understand why he wasn't playing tonight. Finally, i don't think Tudela is that good. He is small, and gets bumped off the ball quite easily, and he was not making very good decisions. Each time i've seen him play i haven't been impressed. I think he would be a good second half sub, to change tempo and add fresh legs, but he too makes careless mistakes. I am , and have been a long time galaxy fan, and it pains me to see them go down this road again. The team I saw last night was very similar to the team i watched struggle last year, and it was hard to watch. The galaxy need stability in the center of the field, from striker all the way back to CB, and without that they will continue to get these poor results. As much as it hurts me to say this, it looks like every team in the MLS improved in quality except for the Galaxy.
Here's the line-up and system I would have used against Colorado yesterday:
1) Play them as a 4-4-1-1.
2) Up front should be Alan Gordon, and Landon just behind him.
3) I would never use Eddie Lewis as left-back, not that he can't; but, it's an absolute waste of his talents & what he brings in attacking. Eddie is smart and crosses good balls. He should be playing left-mid!
4) AJ Delagarza should ahve started at left-back.
5) Kyle Patterson is not ready for a starting role yet. He can be; but, he needs more time as subbing in under hi-pressure games before he is ready to take on 1st half for us.
6) If we're planning to play Tony Sanneh and Omar Gonzales center-back tandem. Then, it's Tony that needs to stay up high close to the keeper. Unfortunately, Josh Saunders seemed very scared/lost yesterday. Those stops/saves should have been text-book!
7) Sean Franklin, AJ Delagarza, Leonard Griffin, and Todd Dunnivant all - must- practice on crosses and passes. These wingbacks are critical to the breadth and success of the game. They have to improve - no exceptions!!!
8) Unfortunately, I knew full well that Chris Klein would not be match fit, yet... It takes Chris at least 5 - 6 regular MLS games before he can keep up and last the pace of today's games.
9) Having Dema stay in this game for us was of utmost importance - he did so much covering and dirty work that thwarted Colin Clarke, Nick La Broca, and Mehdi Ballouchy. Josh Tudela and Dema must keep developing, playing, and helping each other. We need them! That's the only way to help the back-line of ours be effective and adjust their line, coordination, and shape.
10) We have got to stop depending on long balls always. Doesn't the coaches get it - these plays are now easily read by every other team. Other MLS teams have already adapted adn adjusted. All of our team players need to learn, and extremely work on short-passing and diagonal passing by keeping the ball on the floor!!! In today's game, the successful teams are teams that can hold onto the ball and shift and move as an entire unit of ten - pushing and maintaining deeper and deeper - so that the forwards naturally find themselves close to opponent's nets.
11) Alan Gordon definitely needs to work hard on his ball movement and his direction to play and assist Donovan. When he flicks the ball, or heads the ball, or holds the ball - he's gotta make sure there at least two to three of his team-mates close-by to be able to get to it! I really wish we had someone like Cam Weaver or Chris Pontius or Adam Cristman. Target forwards need to have very good Soccer-IQ and be able to hold, hoveer, and only release at the right times!
wow, this team blows.
We had an off night! Let's chill out.
The red card through out the game plan alone with the early goal.
We have a new squad that needs to mesh.
Saunders looked lost along with the linesmen. I don't know what happened he is usually a good keeper, subbing him for Benetiz would have been a good idea.
But not all should be on the back line. Most the goals were due to the mid making costly mistakes.
Franklin actually looked good with the exception of one or two plays. A.J. however is not panning out.
Gonzalez is looking better as his confidence rises.
I would like to see more of Gordo in the starting lineup. He adds some strength to winning balls up top.
Keep your heads up!
Pete from Irvine.
Dema... is a hot head that cost us a game. Cool down or sit down.
Hey Anonymous,you must have some chitty seats,or you have to much time on your hands, go get a hobby,cause a soccer critic your not.The centerbacks are to slow,Lewis is to old.Franklin plays erattic,and our keeper suxxxxx... Omar cost us 2goals genious,but I will not take away the great header goal he scored. A.J is learning a new position,he has played centerback,,but due to his size for some reason,he was switched. How many national titles does he have at centerback? 2-3 youth? 2-College Cups? All as a starter? Bruce should try Omar & A.J as CB's,what could it hurt. Franklin plays like a sad rookie,but our biggest problem that needs addressing is our Keeper position. Donovan camps up top,and dives when he gets nicked,man up and play soccer,your days on the national team are numbered.Dema should take up another sport,something where you can be a thug,he's terrible,his red card cost the galaxy. 2 games in the season,we should have 6 points in the standings . Dosen't do any good if we lead the league in goals, and goals against.
everyone who is hating the galaxy on this page should get off! u are not a true fan! everyone knows what happened last night it was all the refs fault they made horrible calls so do not start saying crap about this team! u either support them no matter how bad they are or leave and find a new team to support! either way show support its better if u do or just leave this board alone all you guys do is post negative stuff on here what bout the good that happened? there is never anything good on these comments only on what the admins post!
I had been going to an awful lot of games, and it was Ugo Ihemelu's play in 2005, than convinced me to get season tix for 2006. A season later, we trade him and Herculez for Joe Cannon? What was wrong with Hartman? We get rid of Robbie Findley, Nathan Sturgis, Nate Jaqua . . . Did anyone else notice all the former Galaxy draft picks that made big impacts for their new teams this week-end? Ty Harden was a muppet, no loss there.
What is up with Arena? Is he afraid to nurture young talent? Possibly afraid that his lack of motivational and coaching abilities will show through? Instead, he insists on filling the roster with guys who had a good game for him TEN YEARS AGO!
I agree, Gordo needs some practice with the ball in close quarters, but really, watch some clips from last year; I know Priests that have a softer first-touch than Edson Buddle. Why did arena pull him out for Jordan last night? (Jordan should have started instead of Tudela) Why not keep Gordo's height, sub Jordan for Tudela, at that point (although He should have come on instead of Miserablezani). I'm getting angry now.
THE BIG QUESTION:
Everyone knew that Sigi's contract was up at the end of last year, right? Why didn't we let Cobi finish out the year, and pursue Sigi with a vengeance? Instead, we hire a guy that's been fired from his last three gigs?
I rewatched the red card play by Dema. Which was total crap! Should of been a yellow. His cleats were down, just cause Medhi took a little knock to the shin but was magically fine two minutes later. Landon played great! He was about the only player! The ref sucked that night!
I dont see why people like Franklin are starting when they continuously are making huge mistakes that cause them to lose the game. And why they dont start Bryan Jordan, that boy will run to death and work his butt off and not make stupid mistakes that cost the game. True, you win as a team and lost as a team but some players do more harm than good. And like Jackie said if your going to keep hating go away! A true fan is there whether they are winning or losing. All those complaining just leave, you wont be missed.
Post a Comment