Saturday, July 25, 2009

Winning Streak Snapped, But the Galaxy Earn 1-1 Draw at K.C.

LA Galaxy 1, Kansas City Wizards 1
Saturday, July 25, 2009
CommunityAmerica Ballpark– Kansas City, Kan.

Scoring Summary:
KC – Claudio Lopez 5 (Unassisted) 26’
LA – Landon Donovan 8 (David Beckham 1) 33’

Misconduct Summary:
LA – Omar Gonzalez (Yellow Card) 51’

Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Donovan Ricketts (Josh Saunders 29’), A.J. DeLaGarza, Gregg Berhalter, Omar Gonzalez, Todd Dunivant, Stefani Miglioranzi, Eddie Lewis, Landon Donovan© , David Beckham, Mike Magee (Chris Klein 69’), Alan Gordon (Bryan Jordan 81’).

Subs Not Used: Tony Sanneh, Leonard Griffin, Chris Birchall, Jovan Kirovski.

Kansas City Wizards: Kevin Hartman, Jonathan Leathers, Aaron Hohlbein, Rauwshan McKenzie, Matt Besler, Santiago Hirsig, Jack Jewsbury, Herculez Gomez (Adam Cristman 63’), Roger Espinoza (Abe Thompson 85’), Josh Wolff©, Claudio Lopez.

Subs Not Used: Boris Pardo, Michael Harrington, Kurt Morsink, Graham Zusi, Michael Kraus.

Notes:
• With the draw, the Galaxy are now 6-3-10 on the season, giving them 28 points. LA is now alone in third place in the Western Conference, one point behind second place Seattle, who drew Chicago 0-0 earlier in the day and four points behind first place Houston, who lost at home to New England 1-0.
• Bruce Arena made two changes to the team that defeated the New York Red Bulls 3-1 last week. Edson Buddle and Alecko Eskandarian each missed the game after being injured in Sunday’s friendly against AC Milan. They were replaced in the lineup by Alan Gordon and Mike Magee.
• The Galaxy were also without Sean Franklin, Dema Kovalenko and Julian Valentin who all missed the game through injury.
• Donovan Ricketts had to leave the game in the 29th minute after suffering back spasms from hitting the post while trying to save Claudio Lopez’s goal.
• With Lopez’s goal, the Wizards have now led 1-0 in each of their last four games against the Galaxy. However, the Galaxy are 1-1-2 in those four games.
• This was the first time since the 2-1 loss at San Jose on June 20 that the Galaxy had allowed the first goal of the game.
• Prior to today’s game, the last time the Galaxy had to change goalkeepers in the middle of a game was on August 30, 2008 when Steve Cronin had to leave a 2-2 draw with New England at halftime after suffering a broken hand.
• Landon Donovan tied the score for the Galaxy with his team-leading eighth goal of the season in the 33rd minute.
• Donovan is now tied for third place in MLS, with Colorado’s Conor Casey, in goals scored. Only Guillermo Barros Schelotto (10 goals) and Fredy Montero (nine goals) have more goals this season than Donovan.
• Donovan’s goal was scored from outside the box. They have now scored three goals from outside the box in the last two games after scoring just once from outside the area in the first 17 games of the season.
• David Beckham assisted on the goal for his first assist of the season.
• Omar Gonzalez was shown a yellow card in the 51st minute for a foul on Josh Wolff. It was Gonzalez’s fourth yellow card of the season, meaning that he is now on warning. If Gonzalez gets a yellow card in an of his next three MLS games, he will earn a one game suspension.
• Chris Klein entered the game in the 69th minute, replacing Mike Magee and stretching his MLS record consecutive games played streak to 134.
• The draw was the Galaxy’s 10th of the season, tying a team record that was set in 2004.
• The draw snapped the Galaxy’s four-game winning streak, which was their longest since late in the 2007 season when they won five straight.
• The attendance for today’s game was sell-out of 11,906. It was the biggest home crowd for the Wizards at CommunityAmerica Ballpark. They began playing at the venue last season.
• The Galaxy are back in action on Saturday, August 1 when they host defending Champions League winners FC Barcelona in an international friendly at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. This game can be seen live on Fox Soccer Channel at 8 p.m.
• They return to action in MLS play on Saturday, August 8 when they travel East to take on the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium at 3 p.m. (PT) in a game that can be seen live on Fox Soccer Channel.
• For more about this afternoon’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad the Galaxy got a draw but we really missed Edson and Alecko. Gordon cannot turn a ball and even when he was in front of the goal could not convert. Bruce should have out Jordan in sooner. His hustle might have converted something to the three points, which would have put us in 2nd place.
Hope Donovan Ricketts is okay. That was a hard hit on the post.

charlesj27 said...

Thankfully, Landon stepped it up, hustled, and got a well-deserved equalizing goal for us. Thanks so much, Landon!!! KC Wizards managed to hold back our players very wekll; I believe the shortened field dimensions helped KC with that. Once again, Eddie got out-paced more than a few times tonight. David also looked worn and out-of-breath. And, as the commentor above pointed out - we missed the smart holding & tracking that Alecko & Edson would have given us up top. I believe KC Wizards is one of the few teams that give Chivas USA problems regularly, as well. For one thing, over-all the team age range is about 22 - 27 with the exception of less than a handful of players. Quite the opposite for us! This now translates to MUST-HAVE results when we face New England AWAY and Seattle at home (HDC).
I sincerely hope that Sir Don is going to be okay & fine. This is why I pray that the younger players that are subs are practicing their hearts out and taking full-advantage of training sessions... because, we will need them at some point. We will!
Alan has his uses and strengths; but, put him in the line-up against a more agile, faster team... and, his flaws and inabilities get magnified!

Anonymous said...

Look Ma, No Control!

Worst ping pong game I've seen yet. Yikes.

Mark Villa sec132 said...

Great play from the boys. You gotta give it up to Gomez to realize and take that shot. Brilliant. Donovan Ricketts was an inch maybe two from pushing it over the bar or out of play.
Great to see Saunders come in and be solid. Great goal from Landon.
Hartman made some amazing saves in the first half and was truly THE factor. Both teams played well, we took some great shots, but Hartman was on. Good game!

Mark Villa sec132 said...

Sorry, I meant Lopez. And yeah, after watching it again without a few beers, the second half was a little too bouncy, but we got a point.

Anonymous said...

I'll take a point out of an ugly game anytime.

Random observations:

-worst football game I've seen LA play all year. The small field really amplifies the big short comings of LA. No midfield control. Beckham and Donovan cannot calm a team down. They are open field players and a small field doesn't work to their advantage.

-terrible game by Omar, his first bad outing I thought.

-Beckham did not look happy all game and I actually felt sorry for him for what his fellow country man said to him about his wife with that hand shake. He looked really hurt in the interview afterwards. People should rag on him and not his family. Not fair.
I also don't understand why he keeps responding to fans. he should just walk away. It's going to get worse if he keeps reacting to them. Also the fact he shook this idiots hand tells me he really wanted to shake the Riot Squad member's hand eventhough it was not a friendly gesture. Don't know if that's a prelude to a fight amongst holligans.