Buddle and Donovan Return to Inspire LA to 3-1 Win Over Seattle

LA Galaxy 3, Seattle Sounders FC 1
Sunday, July 4, 2010
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.

Scoring Summary:
LA – Edson Buddle 10 (Landon Donovan 10) 19’
LA – Juninho 1 (Michael Stephens 7) 48’
SEA – Steve Zakuani 5 (Fredy Montero 6) 66’
LA – Own Goal (James Riley) 77’

Misconduct Summary:
SEA – Tyrone Marshall (Yellow Card) 82’
LA – Alex Cazumba (Yellow Card) 89’

Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Donovan Ricketts, Sean Franklin, Omar Gonzalez, Gregg Berhalter, Todd Dunivant, Chris Birchall, Landon Donovan©, Juninho (Alex Cazumba 85’), Michael Stephens, Edson Buddle (Alan Gordon 62’), Tristan Bowen (Chris Klein 75’).

Subs Not Used: Josh Saunders, A.J. DeLaGarza, Leonardo, Jovan Kirovski.

Seattle Sounders FC: Kasey Keller©, James Riley, Jeff Parke, Tyrone Marshall, Leo Gonzalez, Patrick Ianni, Peter Vagenas (Mike Seamon 51’), Freddie Ljungberg (Miguel Montano 83’), Steve Zakuani, Fredy Montero, Pat Noonan (Nate Jaqua 46’).

Subs Not Used: Terry Boss, Zach Scott, Nathan Sturgis, Sanna Nyassi.

Notes:
• With the win, the Galaxy are now 11-1-3 on the season, leaving them with 36 points. They remain alone in first place in the Western Conference, nine points ahead of second place Real Salt Lake who defeated New England 5-0 on Friday night and have 27 points from an 8-3-3 record.
• This was the Galaxy’s first-ever win for LA over Seattle at The Home Depot Center.
• The victory completed the regular season sweep of Seattle for the Galaxy. LA won the two games by a combined score of 7-1.
• Bruce Arena made two changes to the team that drew 0-0 in Toronto on June 26, bringing Edson Buddle and Landon Donovan back into the team. They replaced Alex Cazumba and Jovan Kirovski, each of whom started the game on the bench.
• This was the first time since June 5 that the Galaxy did not use the same starting XI. Arena had named an unchanged side in each of the last three games.
• Arena had 22 of the 24 players on the Galaxy roster available to him for tonight’s game. Only Mike Magee, who is on the Disabled List after undergoing bilateral sports hernia surgery late last month, and Yohance Marshall, who is on loan to the Austin Aztex of the USSF Division 2 Pro League, were not available for selection.
• Buddle and Donovan were each back in the Galaxy lineup for the first time since leaving for the World Cup on May 15. They missed five regular season games, with the Galaxy going 3-1-1 in those five contests. LA also won a friendly against Boca Juniors 1-0 on May 23 and a U.S. Open Cup Third Round game against AC St. Louis 2-0 on June 29 in their absence.
• The Galaxy are now halfway through the MLS season, having played their 15th game of the year tonight. LA’s 33 points at the halfway point of the season are the second most in club history, and their most since 1998.
• Edson Buddle gave the Galaxy a 1-0 lead in the 19th minute, heading home a Landon Donovan corner kick. The goal was the MLS-best 10th of the season for Buddle. This is the third time in Buddle’s career that he has scored 10 or more goals in a single season, also doing so in 2003 and 2004 with Columbus and in 2008 when he had a career-high 15 goals in his first full season with the Galaxy.
• Buddle is the first player in the league to reach double figures in goals and did so in his 10th game of the season.
• Donovan’s assist was his MLS-best 10th of the season. He has now reached double figures in assists five times in his MLS career, doing so in 2001 and 2004 as a member of the San Jose Earthquakes, as well as in 2005 and 2007 with the Galaxy. He set a career-high with 13 assists in 2007.
• Of Buddle’s 10 goals this season, six have been assisted on by Donovan. Additionally, Buddle assisted on Donovan’s only goal of the season, which came in the 4-0 win at Seattle on May 8.
• In two games against the Sounders this season, Donovan now has a goal and four assists.
• Juninho scored the first goal of his MLS career in the 48th minute, beating Kasey Keller from about 35 yards out. Juninho scored the first goal of his Galaxy career on Tuesday night in the second half of the Galaxy’s Open Cup win over AC St. Louis.
• Juninho is the 12th different Galaxy player to score in an MLS game this season.
• His goal was the game-winner, making it the first game-winning goal scored for the Galaxy by a Brazilian since Welton scored the game-winner in a 6-1 win atColorado on August 5, 1998.
• Micahel Stephens assisted on Juninho’s goal for his seventh assist of the year. He now tied with San Jose’s Bobby Convey for the second most assists in the league, three behind Donovan.
• The Galaxy completed the scoring in the 77th minute when James Riley scored an own goal, deflecting an Alan Gordon cross past Kasey Keller and over the goalline to make the score 3-1. That is the first own goal scored for the Galaxy this season.
• That was the 15th own goal scored for the Galaxy in the club’s history.
• The Galaxy scored the game’s first goal for the 11th time this season. They are now a perfect 11-0-0 in those games. Additionally, LA went into halftime with a 1-0 lead, marking the 10th time this season that the club has led at the half. They are 10-0-0 in those games.
• Donovan Ricketts made three saves for his career-best 11th win of the season. Ricketts had 10 wins in his first season with the Galaxy last year.
• Steve Zakuani’s goal for the Sounders was just the fifth goal allowed by LA this season and the third in the second half.
• The attendance for today’s game was 27,000. This was the Galaxy’s firs sellout of the season.
• The Galaxy are back in action with a pair of games next week, first in the U.S. Open Cup and then in MLS action. On Wednesday, LA travels to Seattle to take on the Sounders once again in an Open Cup Quarterfinal at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, Wash., a game that can be heard live in English on lagalaxy.com. The team will then fly directly to Boston for Saturday’s league game against the Revolution at Gillette Stadium. That game kicks off at 4:30 p.m. (PT) and can be seen live on Fox Sports West.
• For more about today’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.