LA Galaxy 0, Chivas USA 0
April 11, 2009
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.
Scoring Summary:
None
Misconduct Summary:
LA – Stefani Miglioranzi (Yellow Card) 15’
CHV – Paulo Nagamura (Yellow Card) 25’
LA – Eddie Lewis (Yellow Card) 26’
CHV – Sacha Kljestan (Yellow Card) 33’
CHV – Shavar Thomas (Yellow Card) 36’
CHV – Paulo Nagamura (Red Card/2nd Yellow) 45’
LA – Alan Gordon (Yellow Card) 68’
LA – Alan Gordon (Red Card/2nd Yellow) 71’
LA – Gregg Berhalter (Red Card) 79’
Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Donovan Ricketts, Eddie Lewis, Gregg Berhalter (Sent Off 79’), Omar Gonzalez, A.J. DeLaGarza (Bryan Jordan 61’), Josh Tudela, Stefani Miglioranzi (Jovan Kirovski 58’), Sean Franklin, Chris Klein (Tony Sanneh 81’), Alan Gordon (Sent Off 71’), Landon Donovan©.
Subs Not Used: Josh Saunders, Yohance Marshall, Kyle Patterson, Mike Magee.
Chivas USA: Zach Thornton, Jonathan Bornstein, Carey Talley, Shavar Thomas, Mariano Trujillo (Chukwudi Chijindu 87’), Jesse Marsch©, Paulo Nagamura (Sent Off 45’), Gerson Mayen (Bojan Stepanovic 46’), Sacha Kljestan, Atiba Harris, Eduardo Lillingston (Alecko Eskandarian 46’).
Subs Not Used: Lance Parker, Jim Curtin, Michael Lahoud, Jorge Flores.
Notes:
· With the draw, the Galaxy are now 0-1-2 on the season, leaving them with two points. They remain tied for sixth place in the Western Conference with Houston, eight points behind the leaders Chivas USA, who have 10 points from four games this year.
· Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena made four changes to his lineup from the 3-2 loss to Colorado last weekend. Gregg Berhalter and Donovan Ricketts each made their MLS debuts and first starts in the game while A.J. DeLaGarza was brought back into the starting lineup. They replaced Josh Saunders, Tony Sanneh and Kyle Patterson, all of who were on the bench. Additionally, Stefani Miglioranzi had his first start of the season in place of Dema Kovalenko who was suspended.
· In addition to Kovalenko, the Galaxy were also without Edson Buddle, Todd Dunivant and Leonard Griffin who missed the game through injury.
· This was just the second scoreless draw in the history of the Honda SuperClasico. The first came on July 15, 2006 in the third game of the series, which the Galaxy went on to win.
· The shutout was the Galaxy’s first in an MLS match since June 14, 2008 when they defeated San Jose 3-0 at Oakland Alameda Coliseum. Since then, the Galaxy had allowed at least one goal in 20 straight league matches.
· Ricketts joins Joe Cannon and Kevin Hartman as the only three goalkeepers in Galaxy history to earn a clean sheet in their first ever start for the club. Hartman beat Kansas City on May 25, 1997 while Joe Cannon was in goal for a 0-0 draw with Houston on April 8, 2007.
· Alan Gordon was sent off in the 71st minute after receiving his second yellow card. That card made this the second SuperClasico in the history of the series to see a player sent off from each side, following Paulo Nagamura’s first half red card for Chivas USA.
· Eight minutes later, Gregg Berhalter was sent off, leaving the Galaxy to play with nine men. Berhalter was making his MLS debut in the game and became just the seventh player in league history to be shown a red card in his MLS debut.
· This was the first time in Galaxy history that the club had two players sent off in the same game. Coming into this game the Galaxy had received 40 red cards in the club’s history, but never two in the same game.
· The attendance for today’s game was 23,317.
· The Galaxy are back in action next Saturday night when they play their first road game of 2009, traveling north to play the San Jose Earthquakes. That game will be played at Oakland Alameda Coliseum and will be shown live on FS West beginning at 7:30 p.m.
· For more about this afternoon’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
SuperClasico Ends in Scoreless Draw
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5 comments:
The Sounders are looking good right about now.
Or I should say Chivas.
In my lowly opinion - the LA Galaxy should have walked away from this game 2 - 0. It could have been exactly that. SIX (6) YELLOW CARDS just in the 1st half alone!!! Tragic, Sick, and Disgusting! And, I'm not talking about any of the teams' players or coaches.
Next, I do not know how... just how Alan Gordon continues to call himself a forward? It baffles me to no end. How many chances does this player deserve to be in the starting 11? Why is his shot-on-goal skill so, so, so awful? Are the LA Galaxy contracted to keep starting him? Yes, he loves the LA Galaxy... Yes, he's 6ft-3in, and can post-up very well. But, I have seen him miss so, so many headers - and, fumble adn bumble shots-on-goal.
I was very happy to see how much attention, pressure, and little room we gave Chivas USA tonight. Donovan Ricketts (for me) was simply the man-of-the-match!!! He saved our bacon with some great saves! Thanks so much, sir!!!
I was very happy to see Eddie and Landon back - however, I do not like Eddie in left-back position. Not to argue Bruce's positioning - I just think he serves us better as a left-midfielder. But, I understand we have three players still trying to come back from injuries.
Honestly, folks - we need to score! We have to score! We need to win games... it's getting annoying that we cannot seem to be able to finish in the execution near net! Personally, I thought our team was intense, wanted to push the Chivas USA team back away and make them give up the balls. I was very happy with Omar, AJ, Sean, Landon, Eddie, and Stefani. Gregg, Chris, Josh Tudela, Tony Sanneh definitely needs much more work and improvement. Alan Gordon and Josh Saunders definitely need a lot more work - I mean Bruce and Dave have got to make them work very hard and make them earn their way to starting again.
Charles, Alan wins everything in the air. If we didn't have him, we would have zero size up top. Get real, he's been great for us so far, possibly the best outside of Donovan of course...
Anonymous,
You are mostly right. Yes, with Alan playing the target forward, we do win the majority of the crosses captured or aerial interceptions (by my estimates about 75% of them on average). Your next point - without him, we would have zero size up-top. Okay, also, a fair and valid point. At present, if you were to compare aerial threat and ability of Alan vs. Jovan - you're right... Alan would win most of the time. Now, as this league gets more competitive and keeps expanding... coupled with the fact that more soccer players are training better, smarter, with more capable fitness trainers and regimen - is it enough to be content with having a player (ie: Alan Gordon) win most of our aerial battles, but, have much less capability of finishing passes and shot-on-goals? This was the point I was trying to make.
To give you a better comparison... let's compare Alan Gordon vs. Kei Kamara. Both, very good at winning aerial battles, both target forwards, and both in the 6'-3", athletic build and frame. However, I can honestly say that Kei Kamara would beat Alan Gordon in a foot race most of the time; Kei Kamara would beat Alan on shot-on-goals and assists; and, also, Dominic Kinnear can utilize Kei Kamara out wide (as a flank player)... where as Bruce Arena cannot do that with Alan.
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