Saturday, September 26, 2009

Galaxy Fall 2-0 at Crew Stadium

LA Galaxy 0, Columbus Crew 2
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Columbus Crew Stadium — Columbus, Ohio

Scoring Summary:
CLB – Eddie Gaven 6 (Emmanuel Ekpo 6) 33’
CLB – Steven Lenhart 3 (Unassisted) 59’

Misconduct Summary:
CLB – Frankie Hejduck (Yellow Card) 28’
LA – Jovan Kirovski (Yellow Card) 56’
CLB – Eric Brunner (Yellow Card) 61’
CLB – Alejandro Moreno (Yellow Card) 69’
LA – Chris Birchall (Yellow Card) 71’
LA – Gregg Berhalter (Yellow Card) 73’
CLB – Steven Lenhart (Yellow Card) 75’
LA – Alan Gordon (Yellow Card) 93+

Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Donovan Ricketts, A.J. DeLaGarza (Alan Gordon 54’), Gregg Berhalter, Omar Gonzalez, Todd Dunivant (Eddie Lewis 62’), Stefani Miglioranzi (Jovan Kirovski 34’), Chris Birchall, Sean Franklin, Landon Donovan©, Brian Jordan, Edson Buddle.

Subs Not Used: Josh Saunders, Yohance Marshall, Chris Klein, Mike Magee.

Columbus Crew: William Hesmer, Frankie Hejduk, Eric Brunner, Danny O’Rourke, Jed Zayner, Brian Carroll, Eddie Gaven, Jacob Burns (Adam Moffat 55’), Emmanuel Ekpo, Steven Lenhart (Andy Iro 93+), Emilio Renteria (Alejandro Moreno 69’).

Subs Not Used: Kenny Schoeni, Duncan Oughton, Robbie Rogers, Guillermo Barros Schelotto.

Notes:
• With the loss, the Galaxy are now 10-6-11 on the season, leaving them with 41 points. LA remains in second place in the Western Conference, two points behind first place Houston, who do not play this weekend and three points ahead of third place Seattle, lost 2-1 to New England at Gillette Stadium.
• Bruce Arena made two changes to the team that beat Toronto FC 2-0 last weekend at The Home Depot Center. A.J. DeLaGarza and Bryan Jordan return to the starting lineup, replacing David Beckham, who missed the game with inflammation of his right ankle, and Eddie Lewis who was on the bench but did not start after spraining his left ankle last weekend.
• In addition to Beckham, the Galaxy were also without Alecko Eskandarian, Dema Kovalenko and Julian Valentin, who all missed the game through injury.
• DeLaGarza returned to the lineup after missing last weekend’s win over Toronto FC with a bone bruise on his left knee.
• For Jordan, it was just his second start of the season and his first since the 1-1 draw with Columbus on May 17.
• Stefani Miglioranzi left the game in the 36th minute with a left groin injury and was replaced by Jovan Kirovski. This was the first time that Miglioranzi had left a game since halftime of the 2-0 loss to Seattle on August 15.
• Kirovski made his 20th appearance of the season in the game. It was the fifth time in his six years in MLS that he had appeared in 20 or more games.
• Alan Gordon also made his 20th appearance of the season for LA, replacing A.J. DeLaGarza in the 54th minute. This is the second straight season that Gordon has played 20 or more games.
• Chris Klein did not play in the game, snapping his MLS record consecutive games played streak at 141. This was the first time since June 4, 2005 that Klein did not play in a game for his team.
• With their yellow cards tonight, Gregg Berhalter, Alan Gordon and Jovan Kirovski are now on warning. If either of them gets a yellow card in any of the final three regular season games, they will be forced to serve a one-game suspension.
• The 23 fouls committed by the Galaxy tonight are the club’s most this year.
• Tonight’s loss was the Galaxy’s first of the season against an Eastern Conference opponent, dropping their record against the East to 7-1-5 with one game remaining against them.
• The first half goal by the Crew’s Eddie Gaven was the first goal given up by the Galaxy against an Eastern Conference team since the 83rd minute of the 2-1 win at New England on August 8. The Galaxy had gone 310 consecutive minutes without allowing a goal against the East.
• This was the first time since the season opening 2-2 draw with D.C. United that the Galaxy had allowed more than one goal in a game with an Eastern Conference team.
• The Galaxy were shutout for just the fifth time this season and second by an Eastern Conference team. However, LA is 2-1-1 after a shutout.
• The attendance for tonight’s game was a sell out crowd of 20,966.
• The Galaxy return to action on Friday, October 2 when they host the Chicago Fire at The Home Depot Center. That game kicks off at 8 p.m. and can be seen live on ESPN2.
• For more about tonight’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just finished watching that game. Our guys were lackluster, to say the least. There were too many passes collected by the Crew. This looked like the team that played Dallas. I want the team back that played Toronto! We missed you David!!!

Anonymous said...

I know David was unjured but why didn't Donovan play?

charlesj27 said...

In a previous post, a commentor stated that LAG would most likely get beaten and lose this AWAY game. I countered that comment in a way, and decided to hope definitely, and, wish for otherwise. As the scoreline showed, I lost that counter. And, +1 to the other commentor.
I imagine from the line-up Bruce fielded, he was hoping that a more speedier assemblance on the field would increase the chance of Galaxy scoring first. That did not happen - and, really could not happen the way our players were moving the ball. The players were energetic and driven... but, not smart, patient, and accurate. Columbus for their part put enough momentum + pressure to not allow our guys to get into proper positioning. And, positioning under pressure and run-of-play is something that is mastered and cemented with continued involvement in combative, tough, challenging games. The players of the Crew have played with each other for quite some time now. Credit to Renteria for being a menace to our defenders. I, sadly, cannot say the same about Landon. Once again, he let me & others down, by being safe - by being posied for something to happen in his favor without actually doing the things necessary to force halts, turn-overs, and re-directions. So, we don't get the 3 points... we pick a BUNCH of yellow cards... and, we come back to even more pressure for this Friday. A lot of credit to Crew players, they outright showed why they are unmistakenly #1 in conference standings. Bruce, Dave, and Cobi have so, so much work to do this off-season and pre-season to get our guys much more studied, assured, patient, accurate, and impress on them the necessity of possessing the ball in attack!

Anonymous said...

"I know David was injured but why didn't Donovan play?"

Damn good question.

Sincerely,

THE Anon

Anonymous said...

Do the players need to be beaten 6-3 every game to get their heads out of their ass. C'mon!Stop being so soft and play like you did against TFC.

MEG said...

Dont' worry Charles everything will be OK when Becks gets back and takes charge.
Anonymous, I did spot Donovan walking on to the pitch but didnt see him again until after the game.

Anonymous said...

What happened to Edson too? I hardly heard his name mentioned in the second half. Midfield totally gave in to the better defense.

Anonymous said...

MEG,

1-With Beckham in the line up it would have been another 6-3 loss unless it was being beemed back to the Island then it would have been a 2-1 LA win.

2-I have asked you twice to pledge your allegiance to the Galaxy and you have ignored it. Will you promiss to move up to San Jose if we send him there for his next annual 1/2 season in MLS?

Sincerely,

THE Anon

ds said...

Berhalter needs to start playing and not doing stupid fouls on the other teams because he gets beat! That shit pisses me off! He needs to step up of he is going to be center D or get out! HAHA I am a huge LD fan but all those comments on him made me laugh!! And I totally agree with them all!!

GalaxyTRUfan said...

Our defense is one of the best in the league,lets all remember that.
Now is not the time to toy with the lineups,not being this close to the playoffs,something we know nothing about for the last 3-4 years.Our midfielders need to get it together. Besides Buddles effort up top,we had no other efforts up front,not even LD who seems to be lost also. Intresting what lineup bruce comes up with this week.