Galaxy Start August on a Sour Note, Fall 3-2 at Home to Chicago

LA Galaxy 2, Chicago Fire 3
Sunday, August 1, 2010
The Home Depot Center – Carson, Calif.

Scoring Summary:
CHI – Marco Pappa 7 (Baggio Husidic 3) 4’
CHI – Collins John 2 (Patrick Nyarko 7) 5’
CHI – Mike Banner 1 (Unassisted) 19’
LA – Landon Donovan 4 (Penalty Kick) 37’
LA – Landon Donovan 5 (Penalty Kick) 81’

Misconduct Summary:
LA – Tristan Bowen (Yellow Card) 17’
CHI – Patrick Nyarko (Yellow Card) 36’
LA – Jovan Kirovski (Yellow Card) 45’
LA – Chris Birchall (Yellow Card) 54’
LA – Dema Kovalenko (Yellow Card) 66’
LA – Todd Dunivant (Yellow Card) 68’
CHI – Sean Johnson (Yellow Card) 93+

Lineups:
LA Galaxy: Donovan Ricketts; Sean Franklin, Omar Gonzalez, Gregg Berhalter (Alex Cazumba 78’), Todd Dunivant; Chris Birchall (Dema Kovalenko 54’), Jovan Kirovski, Landon Donovan©, Michael Stephens (Alan Gordon 71’); Edson Buddle, Tristan Bowen.

Subs Not Used: Josh Saunders, A.J. DeLaGarza, Leonardo, Bryan Jordan.

Chicago Fire: Sean Johnson; Dasan Robinson, C.J. Brown©, Wilman Conde, Krzystof Krol; Logan Pause, Patrick Nyarko (Deris Umanzor 65’), Baggio Husidic (Steven Kinney 75’), Mike Banner, Marco Pappa (Freddie Ljungberg 58’); Collins John.

Subs Not Used: Andrew Dykstra, Kwame Watson-Siriboe, Corben Bone, Brian McBride.

Notes:
• With the loss, the Galaxy are now 12-3-4 on the season and remain alone in first place in the Western Conference. The Galaxy have 40 points and are six points clear of Real Salt Lake at the top of the Western Conference. LA is also six points ahead of Columbus in the race for the best record in MLS.
• Bruce Arena made four changes to the team that drew 2-2 with San Jose on July 22, brining Gregg Berhalter, Chris Birchall, Tristan Bowen and Jovan Kirovski back into the squad. They replaced Alan Gordon, Juninho, Dema Kovalenko and Leonardo.
• Gordon, Kovalenko and Leonardo all started the game on the bench, while Juninho did not dress because of an adductor strain. Gordon and Kovalenko entered the game in the second half, while Leonardo was an unused substitute.
• The loss snapped the Galaxy’s 11 game home unbeaten streak. Since their last home loss on September 12, 2009, the Galaxy had gone 9-0-2 at home in the regular season.
• The three goals allowed by the Galaxy were their most allowed in a regular season home game since the 6-3 defeat to FC Dallas on September 12, 2009.
• The three goals allowed in the first half were the most the club had allowed in a single half since the second half of that same game, when they surrendered four goals.
• Prior to today, the Galaxy had not allowed three goals in the first half of a game since October 18, 2008 in a 3-0 loss at Houston.
• The Galaxy have now lost two straight at home in all competitions. This is the first time that they have lost consecutive home games in all competitions since May 13 and May 20 in the 2006 season.
• This was just the fifth time that the Galaxy had allowed three goals to the Fire and the first time they had done so at The Home Depot Center.
• Landon Donovan scored both Galaxy goals for his first multi-goal game of the season.
• His first goal was the 100th regular season goal of his MLS career, making him the sixth player in MLS history with 100 career regular season goals. Only Jaime Moreno (132), Jeff Cunningham (125), Ante Razov (114), Jason Kreis (108) and Taylor Twellman (101) have more regular season goals than Donovan.
• Donovan has now scored four goals in his last three games, with three of those coming from the penalty spot.
• Both of Donovan’s goals came on penalty kicks. The last time the Galaxy had two penalty kicks in the same game was on July 4, 2007 when Donovan scored both goals in a 2-0 home win for LA over the Fire.
• This was just the fourth time that the Galaxy had been given two penalties in the same game. Donovan also scored two penalties in a 3-2 home win over Colorado on May 8, 2005, while Carlos Ruiz scored one penalty and had one saved in a 2-1 home win over Dallas on August 30, 2003.
• Prior to tonight’s game, the Galaxy last earned a penalty kick at home on May 2, 2009 in a 1-0 win over New York. That was their first win of the 2009 season.
• After allowing just four goals in their first 14 games of the regular season, LA has now given up nine in their last five.
• LA conceded a goal inside the game’s opening five minutes for the second consecutive game. Before the last two games, the club had surrendered just two first half goals all together.
• The Galaxy’s five yellow cards tied a club record.
• The Galaxy last recorded a shutout on June 26 in a 0-0 draw at Toronto FC. They have given up a goal in each of their last five games.
• The Galaxy have now allowed a goal in each of their last four regular season games.
• The attendance for today’s game was 20,238.
• The Galaxy are back in action on Wednesday, August 4 when they travel to Bayamon, Puerto Rico, to take on the Puerto Rico Islanders in the second leg of their CONCACAF Champions League Preliminary Round series at Juan Ramón Loubriel Stadium. That game kicks off at 5 p.m. (PT) and can be seen live on Fox Soccer Channel in English and Galavision in Spanish.
• Three days after that game, the Galaxy are back in action in Southern California when they host Real Madrid in an international friendly at the Rose Bowl. That game kicks off at 7:30 p.m. and can be seen live on Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports en Espanol.
• The Galaxy are back in MLS action on Saturday, August 14 when they travel east to take on the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, N.J. That game kicks off at 3 p.m. (PT) and can be seen live on Fox Soccer Channel and Fox Sports en Espanol.
• For more about today’s game, please visit www.lagalaxy.com.