Galaxy Win 10th Game of 2009; Beat TFC 2-0

LA Galaxy 2, Toronto FC 0
Saturday, September 19, 2009
The Home Depot Center — Carson, Calif.

Scoring Summary:
LA – David Beckham 2 (Chris Birchall 1) 9’
LA – Edson Buddle 5 (Landon Donovan 6, David Beckham 3) 83’

Misconduct Summary:
TFC – Julian de Guzman (Yellow Card) 24’
TFC – Amado Guevara (Yellow Card) 64’
LA – David Beckham (Yellow Card) 64’
TFC – Nick Garcia (Yellow Card) 67’

Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Donovan Ricketts, Sean Franklin, Gregg Berhalter, Omar Gonzalez, Todd Dunivant, Stefani Miglioranzi, Chris Birchall, Eddie Lewis (Chris Klein 46’), David Beckham (Jovan Kirovski 89’), Landon Donovan©, Edson Buddle (Alan Gordon 86’).

Subs Not Used: Josh Saunders, Yohance Marshall, Bryan Jordan, Mike Magee.

Toronto FC: Stefan Frei, Marvell Wynee, Nana Attakora, Nick Garcia, Jim Brennan©, Julian de Guzman, Sam Cronin (Pablo Vitti 79’), Amado Guevara, Chad Barrett (O’Brian White 62’), Dwayne DeRosario, Ali Gerba (Lesly Fellinga 71’).

Subs Not Used: Brian Edwards, Emmanuel Gomez, Amadou Sanyang, Gabe Gala.

Notes:
• With the win, the Galaxy are now 10-5-11 on the season, giving them 41 points. LA remains in second place in the Western Conference, two points behind first place Houston, who defeated Real Salt Lake 3-2 earlier in the night and three points ahead of third place Seattle, who drew 0-0 with Chivas USA this afternoon.
• Bruce Arena made three changes to the team that lost 6-3 to FC Dallas last weekend. Chris Birchall, Edson Buddle and Sean Franklin all returned to the starting XI, replacing the injured A.J. DeLaGarza, as well as Jovan Kirovski and Mike Magee. Kirovski and Magee each began the came on the bench, while DeLaGarza missed the game through injury.
• This was the first time that DeLaGarza missed a game since May 17, when he was an unused substitute in the 1-1 home draw with Columbus.
• With DeLaGarza missing the match, the Galaxy are using a different back four for the first time since June 13 vs. Real Salt Lake. In the 12 league games between that day and today, the Galaxy had started Todd Dunivant, Gregg Berhalter, Omar Gonzalez and A.J. DeLaGarza in defense.
• In addition to DeLaGarza, the Galaxy were also without Alecko Eskandarian, Dema Kovalenko and Julian Valentin, who all missed the game through injury.
• For Franklin, it was his first appearance since May 17 against Columbus. He left that game at halftime after tearing his right hamstring tendon and undergoing surgery a few days later. He was placed on the Disabled List on May 29 and was activated on September 15, missing a total of 16 games. He returned to full training earlier this month.
• David Beckham scored his second goal of the season in the 8th minute to give LA a 1-0 lead. It was the Galaxy’s fourth goal this season in the opening 10 minutes of a game. LA is now 3-0-1 when scoring in the opening 10 minutes.
• Chris Birchall collected the first assist of his MLS career on that goal. He is the 14th different Galaxy player to tally an assist in a regular season game this year.
• Edson Buddle scored his fifth goal of the season in the 83rd minute. He has now scored in each of his games since returning from a right foot sprain. He also scored late in last weekend’s 6-3 loss to FC Dallas.
• Landon Donovan collected his sixth assist of the season on Buddle’s goal tonight, placing him in a tie with Mike Magee for the most assists on the team this season.
• Beckham also assisted on the goal, giving him three assists in eight MLS games this year.
• This was just the second time in Beckham’s MLS career that he has tallied both a goal and an assist in the same game.
• This was the 11th time this season that the Galaxy had gone in front 1-0. They are now 10-0-1 in those games.
• With the win, the Galaxy have now won 10 games this season. This is the 10th time in the Galaxy’s 14 seasons that they have won at least 10 games, but their first since 2006.
• Donovan Ricketts made one save for his sixth shutout of the season. This was the Galaxy’s ninth clean sheet in MLS play this year.
• The Galaxy became just the fourth team in MLS history to allow six goals in one game and then keep a clean sheet in the following contest. The feat was last achieved by Real Salt Lake in 2006 when they lost 6-0 to New York on August 26 and then beat LA 1-0 on August 30.
• This was the first time in three career home games against Toronto FC that Landon Donovan had failed to score. He now has three goals in three career home games against the Reds.
• Chris Klein entered the game at halftime, replacing Eddie Lewis, stretching his MLS record consecutive games played streak to 141.
• Lewis left the game with a left ankle sprain.
• The attendance for today’s game was 18,619.
• The Galaxy return to action next Saturday, September 26 when they travel east to Columbus to take on the defending MLS Cup champion Columbus Crew. That game kicks off at 4:30 p.m. and can be seen live on FS West, starting with ‘Galaxy Live’ at 4 p.m.
• For more about tonight’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.